Ann Carson, accompanied by two ruffians named “Lige” Brown and Henry Way, set out from Philadelphia on horseback[horseback] to Selinsgrove. At Lancaster, Way robbed a drover, but was badly beaten over the head and easily captured. The others, however, made their escape and proceeded on their nefarious errand.
Governor Snyder hastened to Harrisburg, where he swore out a warrant against the woman, and she was apprehended and held in $5000 bail, which was furnished by her friends. She returned to Philadelphia.
Way escaped from jail after nearly killing his jailer and was never captured. Lieutenant Smith was executed.
Mrs. Carson’s subsequent career was merely a succession of crimes, in which she affected the disguise of a demure Quakeress. It was in this disguise she was detected passing a counterfeit note on the Girard Bank. She was sentenced to seven years in the Walnut Street prison.
A writer says she was appointed matron in the women’s ward, where her cruel treatment drove the female convicts to revolt and that Mrs. Carson was killed during one of these uprisings.
John Binns in his “Recollections” says that while in prison she was a kind and most attentive nurse.
The latter is true. Ann Carson died in prison April 27, 1824, of typhus fever, which she contracted while nursing other victims of the plague.
John Dickinson Writes First “Farmer”
Letter, November 10, 1767
