Female Stranger

The Grave of the Female Stranger is a famous historical oddity as well as a local landmark and visitor's attraction in St Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.

The grave itself is the resting place of an unnamed individual who died in 1816 and was elevated to national intrigue by the mysterious headstone and romanticized tale. Accounts of the stranger increase in oddity over time and help to incite further speculation as to the identity of the person buried in the grave. The reported location of the woman's death, Room 8 at Gadsby's Tavern, is also a tourist destination, and supposedly her ghostly visage can be seen standing at the window.

The story has sparked lasting conjecture that has spanned for two centuries. In addition to various articles and reports, there have also been novels including Narrative of John Trust (1883) by William Francis Carne, author of George Washington's Boyhood.

To the memory of a Female Stranger
Whose mortal suffering terminated
on the 14th day of October, 1816
Aged 23 years, and 8 months

This stone is erected by her discon-
solate husband in whose arms she
sighed out her latest breath, and who
under God did his utmost to soothe the
cold dull hour of death.

How loved, how honor'd once avails thee not,
To whom related or by whom begot,
A heap of dust remains of thee
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.

The last stanza was intended to be taken from Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady by Alexander Pope, but has a few errors.

In May 1833, a poem regarding a visit to the grave of the Female Stranger was composed for the Alexandria Gazette, and published almost a year later, in March 1834. This was at first submitted under the initials S.D. and was later found to be the work of poet Susan Rigby Dallam Morgan of Baltimore, Maryland when her husband Rev. Lyttleton Morgan published his wife's poems posthumously.

The earliest appeal to the national audience was in 1836, when columnist “Lucy Seymour” of Maryland recorded the account in The Philadelphia Saturday Courier. It is important to note that Lucy Seymour was the pen name of Susan Rigby Dallam Morgan.

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Wikipedia