Literary Figure. She was the inspiration for the heroine, Eliza Wharton, in Hannah Webster Foster's widely popular novel, "The Coquette," first published in 1797 and reprinted forty times throughout the 19th century. Like the heroine of the novel, Whitman, daughter of Elnathan and Abigail Stanley Whitman, was a member of a highly regarded Hartford, Conn., family who were influential in political and religious affairs. She was courted by two suitors, both ministers, but carried on a clandestine affair that resulted in pregnancy and her abandonment. While her lover remains a mystery, speculation at the time included Pierrepont Edwards, son of religious leader Jonathan Edwards, and Aaron Burr. Scandalized, she vanished, but in July 1788 sought lodging at the Bell Tavern in Danvers (now Peabody), Massachusetts. She is said to have identified herself as Eliza Wharton and told the innkeepers she was waiting for her husband to join her. However, while there she gave birth to a stillborn infant and died. "The Coquette" barely disguises Whitman's story, which became a sensation. The novel, however, has become recognized as an early feminist lament for the constrictions on women in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Whitman's tragic story became so popular that admirers regularly made pilgrimages to her gravesite during the 19th and early 20th centuries and broke off pieces of her tombstone for souvenirs. The worn and damaged sandstone memorial remains but a modern tribute has been added to her gravesite.

Literary Figure. She was the inspiration for the heroine, Eliza Wharton, in Hannah Webster Foster's widely popular novel, "The Coquette," first published in 1797 and reprinted forty times throughout the 19th century. Like the heroine of the novel, Whitman, daughter of Elnathan and Abigail Stanley Whitman, was a member of a highly regarded Hartford, Conn., family who were influential in political and religious affairs. She was courted by two suitors, both ministers, but carried on a clandestine affair that resulted in pregnancy and her abandonment. While her lover remains a mystery, speculation at the time included Pierrepont Edwards, son of religious leader Jonathan Edwards, and Aaron Burr. Scandalized, she vanished, but in July 1788 sought lodging at the Bell Tavern in Danvers (now Peabody), Massachusetts. She is said to have identified herself as Eliza Wharton and told the innkeepers she was waiting for her husband to join her. However, while there she gave birth to a stillborn infant and died. "The Coquette" barely disguises Whitman's story, which became a sensation. The novel, however, has become recognized as an early feminist lament for the constrictions on women in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Whitman's tragic story became so popular that admirers regularly made pilgrimages to her gravesite during the 19th and early 20th centuries and broke off pieces of her tombstone for souvenirs. The worn and damaged sandstone memorial remains but a modern tribute has been added to her gravesite.

Bio by: Bob on Gallows Hill