Isabella Stewart

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Husband

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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Wife Isabella Stewart ¹

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            AKA: Mary Stewart,1 Isabella Stuart 2
           Born: Abt 1786-1787
     Christened: 
           Died: 4 Sep 1796 1
 Cause of Death: Murder
         Buried: 

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         Father: [Unk] Stewart (      -      ) 1
         Mother: Mary Leman (      -      ) 3

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       Marriage: 

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Children

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General Notes: Wife - Isabella Stewart

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The Washington Telegraphe and Western Advertiser of Sept. 6, 1796, gives the following account of a tragedy which occurred at the house or James Ridgeway:
"MURDER OF MARY STEWART.
"On the evening of Sunday, Sept. 4, 1796, Mary Stewart, a little girl of nine or ten years old, was found murdered in the house of her stepfather, James Ridgeway, on Cross Creek, in this county. It seems the deceasad was left in charge of the house while the rest of the family were at meeting, and in their absence some person committed the above horrid murder by dashing the child's brains with an axe, and afterwards robbed the house of a sum of money, amounting to near one hundred dollars, together with several other articles. A man calling himself sometimes James Stewart, and at other times Brown, who was seen loitering about the neighborhood a few days before, is strongly suspected. Several persons are in pursuit of him, and it is hoped he will be shortly apprehended, and, if guilty, meet that punishment which the perpetrator of so horrid a crime richly deserves."
The verdict of the coroner's jury was "that she came to her death by the hand of some one to the jury unknown."
"Suspicion did indeed rest on a young man named S_____ , the son of a pious father, but himself not above the suspicion. But there was no proof, not even circumstantial evidence sufficient to justify his arrest. But the eye of suspicion was closely upon him, and he soon disappeared from the community. Years after, John Brownlee, Sr., the cousin who was with the Ridgeways the Sabbath evening of the murder, while following his vocation as a 'New Orleans trader,' met with this man in a bar-room on the bank of the Ohio River. They were only so far acquainted as to enable them to recognize each other. In the course of a brief interview the matter of the murder of Isabel S. came up. The two were alone in the room, when S. proposed to B. the question, 'Did your ever hear my name connected with the guilt of that murder?' Feeling that it was an occasion for plain dealing, after a pause B. responded, 'Yes, I have so heard;' and, looking him straight in the eye, he added, 'I believe that you were the murderer of my cousin, Isabel S.' The man S., without a word in response, arose, and passing from the room, was seen no more. The name of Mr. Ridgeway, the step-father of Isabel, was also connected, in the judgment of some, with the guilt of the murder. The reasons for the suspicion were, first, the matter of his return for his tobacco after all had started to the church [Mr. Ridgeway had started for church, and proceeded some distance, when he recollected he had left his tobacco behind, and returned to the house for it, when there was no one in the house but the child, who was afterwards found murdered.]; second, the fact that the life of Isabel was all that stood in the way of his joint ownership with his wife of the farm on which they lived. But while these circumstances furnished a seeming basis for these suspicions entertained by some, the whole make-up of the man was such as, in the judgment of those who knew him best, and in the judgment of the extensive circle of the relationship of the murdered Isabel, entirely precluded the thought of his guilt. He died at an advanced age in West Middletown about the year 1834. The afflicted mother survived her bereavement a number of years, bearing all the while near to her heart the great sorrow of her life. It was almost literally true in her experience that 'she never smiled again.'" ¹

1 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 852.

2 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 687.

3 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 1240.