TAR HEEL HISTORY
Lady Susanna Carolina Matilda passed herself off as the sister of Queen
Charlotte, shown above in a painting, before officials discovered her true
identity: a former royal maid and a thief
By Billy Arthur
The Queen Imposter
Lady Susanna Carolina Matilda fooled
New Bern, Wilmington and Virginia before
she was discovered to he a fraud.
New Bern and Wilmington once
had ihc dubious honor of
welcoming and entertaining in
elaborate fashion a one¬
time maid in the royal
household of England —
who succeeded in passing
herself off as a sister of the
queen.
Described kindly as a
“female adventurer," Lady
Susanna Carolina Matilda
arrived in New Bern in
1772. She came there after
visiting Virginia, where she
had charmed the gover¬
nor and first family into
rare hospitality, wining and
dining.
In North Carolina.
Governor Josiah Martin and
his wife welcomed her to
Tryon Palace. They and
even the common folk
offered her all the homage
and prestige they could
bestow on a member of the
royal family. Then she
moved on to Wilmington,
where she also was “receiv¬
ed with great marks of
distinction," and where that
town’s residents, too. were
played for suckers.
Francis Xavier Martin’s
History, published in 1829,
tells about this impostor,
Sarah Wilson, alias Lady
Matilda.
In
1д)П(1оп
and in service to one of the
maidsof-honor to the queen, Wilson had
access to one of the royal apartments.
She stole jewels, clothes and plumage,
and was subsequently tried, convicted
and condemned to death.
For unknown reasons, however, the
sentence was changed to deportation,
and she was landed in Maryland in the
fall of 1770. Purchased as a convict, she
later escaped and lied “a prudent dis¬
tance" into Virginia. There, she broke
out the jewels and fine apparel "that
served to favoi the deception" and began
masquerading as Lady Matilda.
Her appearance and manners were
meticulously proper and, carrying a
picture of tin- queen, she seemed as regal
as anyone in the faraway colony of
Virginia could imagine. Historian Martin
records that “she traveled through the
province of Virginia from one gentle¬
man's house to another under these
pretensions."
In both colonies, lady Matilda “made
astonishing impressions in many places,
affecting the manners of
royalty so inimitably that
many had the honor of
kissing her hand.
"To some she promised
governments, to others
regiments or promotions of
different kinds in the treas¬
ury. army and navy. In short,
she acted her part so adroitly
as to levy heavy contri¬
butions upon some persons
of the highest rank."
Next. Charleston looked
like good pickings, and
once again she Ix-caine the
toast of a province. There,
however, she made her first
— and last — false step.
What it was and what
happened after she was
taken into custody, history
docs not reveal.
Though Lady Matilda’s
story slops there, it's safe
to assume there were some
red faces in the provinces
that had taken her at face
value. Nevertheless. Sarah
Wilson, alias a sister of the
queen, made life inter¬
esting for a hospitable and
gullible people who were
enlivened for a time by
her royal appearance and
daring.
Billy Arthur is a veteran contributor to The
State.
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The Statc'FeNru.ny 1991
15
