The Mystery of Charlotte Temple
The grave. “Charlotte Temple” quickly became a celebrity, subject of plays and a touring exhibition of wax figures. No one knows for sure when or how the Charlotte Temple grave appeared in Trinity Churchyard. An 1829 letter to the editor of the New York Daily Advertiserasks for information about the location of the stone, which the writer was unable to find. By 1855, however, stories about throngs of weeping visitors were a fixture in New York newspapers. The present Trinity Church was built in the intervening years, and there is evidence to suggest that “Charlotte Temple” was carved into the grave during the Questions remain. The Charlotte Temple stone has a rectangular indentation that has been cemented over. It could have originally held a plaque. Was there a plaque, and did it list, as the legend asserts, Charlotte Stanley’s name, place of birth, and the name of her betrayer? Or was it the grave of someone unrelated to Rowson’s novel? Was "Charlotte Temple" carved into the stone in good faith, or was it a joke? The vault stone bearing the name Charlotte Temple was lifted to determine if there was, in fact, a vault underneath--and if the vault had any markings that would yield clues to the true identity of the person buried there. Unfortunately, no vault was found--so the mystery remains.
Trinity Wall Street http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/blogs/the-archivists-mailbag/the-mystery-of-charlotte-temple
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