GOD'S REVENGE AGAINST MURDER; OR, THE DROWN'D WIFE, A TRAGEDY, AS LATELY PERFORMED, WITH UNBOUNDED APPLAUSE, (OF THE DEVIL AND HIS COURT) BY NED FINDLEY, ESQUIRE, ONE OF THE GRAND COMPANY OF TRAGEDIANS IN THE SERVICE OF THE BLACK PRINCE, WHO WAS SO HIGHLY GRATIFIED WITH NED'S PERFORMANCE, THAT HE INSTANTLY PROVIDED HIM ROOMS IN ONE OF HIS OWN PALACES; CREATED HIM A KNIGHT OF THE MOST IGNOBLE ORDER OF THE HALTER, CLAPPED BRACELETS ON HIS WRISTS, AND AN ORNAMENT ROUND HIS NECK; AND IN A FEW DAYS PROMOTED HIM TO THE RIDGE-POLE OF THE GALLOWS, AT EDGEFIELD COURT-HOUSE, SOUTH-CAROLINA. BY M. L. WEEMS, OF LODGE NO. 50, DUMFRIES. ELEVENTH EDITION, ENLARGED- PRICE, 25 CENTS

Philadelphia: Printed for the Author, 1823. 40pp. A dramatic frontis illustration captioned, "the cruel catastrophe of MARY FINLEY." Disbound, uniformly toned, lightly spotted. Good+. The caption title at page [5] is: "The sorrowful life and cruel death of Mary Findley, (daughter of Major Hugh Middleton, Edgefield District, South Carolina.) Who, after giving a handsome fortune to a most depraved husband, was barbarously drown'd by him in eight weeks after marriage!!!"

Weems "reports the murder of Mary Findley, the daughter of Major Hugh Middleton of Edgefield who was 'barbarously drowned by her husband eight weeks after her marriage'" [McDade].
AAS's online entries state, "Although no newspaper account of the murder or execution has been located, an advertisement for the fifth edition of Weems' history of Mary 'Polly' Middleton in the March 14, 1809 issue of the Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria, Va., states that Weems was 'on the spot where Mr. Findley was executed, at Edgfield [sic] Court-House, South Carolina, April 27, 1804.' Genealogical records for Hugh Middleton, while inconclusive in some respects, do include a daughter Mary who died in 1804."
McDade 305. AI 14865.