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Alice Riley & Wright Square
Wright Square is one of the four original squares laid out in 1733 by James Oglethorpe.
Originally called Percival Square, it was renamed in honor of the last Royal Governor,
James Wright, who was the best thing to happen to this fledgling colony.
In Oglethorpe's time, the courthouse stood opposite the southwest corner, the old
English gaol (a one story stone and iron stockage) was located in the northwest
corner adjacent to the courthouse. And, in the middle of the square was the
scaffold for the gallows. For the first fifteen years of this colony, this
was the 'hanging square'.
They say that one noticable feature of Wright Square is the absence of Spanish moss
on the limbs of some of the massive live oaks. The large oaks in the southern
half of the square are covered with moss, while the trees in the northern half have
none. Spanish moss loves oak trees and the moss tries to spread but it
never gets a foothold there. Some say that's because of Alice. They
say she's up in the trees and she won't allow the Spanish moss to grow there as
a sign of her presence.
Alice Riley was the first woman to be hanged in Georgia, and she was hanged in Wright
Square in 1735. A nineteen-year-old, blue-eyed, red haired Irish girl, she
hung in the middle of Wright Square for three days, for murder. Alice's husband
was hanged there eight months earlier.
Both Alice and her husband were indentured servants
and conspired to murder their master, Mr. Wise. Mr. Wise was a high member
of the aristocracy with many indentured servants. He was only forty years
old when they killed him. He was a very cruel and malicious man, as well as
proud and arrogant, which all came out in the trial. He had long white
hair down to his belt. The aristocracy at that time mimicked the French Court
by wearing powdered wigs in public. So all Mr. Wise had to do was pile his
white hair on top of his head and he was in high fashion.
Alice was a member of Mr. Wise's household staff, and one of their rituals
was that Alice would wash his hair. Once or twice a week he would hang his
head over the side of his bed and she would wash his hair in a bucket. After
some cruel
and malicious behavior on his part, Alice and her husband held his head
in the bucket and drowned him.
The couple escaped to Isle of Hope which was an old frontier outpost at that time.
They were caught after two days, brought back and put on trial. Even though
mitigating circumstances about Mr. Wise's cruel behaviour came out in the trial,
it was a case of premeditated murder. Alice and her husband were guilty and
were both sentenced to death.
Following the verdict, the whole courthouse went out into the square and watched
as the authorities hanged Alice's common law husband, Richard White. He was
left to twist in the wind for three days.
However, the court had to wait eight
months to hang Alice because she was with child. She had the baby, but
they put her in the stockade to do so. Alice's baby was put up for adoption,
then the court had to hang Alice, but they didn't want to. The colony was
less than three years old and had never hanged a woman, only three men, one of which
was her husband.
They came up with a plan to double the height of the scaffold and made the gallows
twice as tall to hang her high. Walking through Wright Square, rubberneckers
had to look for Alice up in the trees.
They say Alice is up there still, looking for her baby. The baby only made
it forty-five days and died of pneumonia. |
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