History & local legend
Elizabeth Wilson was hanged at Chester’s Gallows Hill on January 3, 1786. Her brother William’s desperate attempt to save her became the basis of a local ghost story recorded by historian Henry Graham Ashmead.
In Ashmead’s telling, William was returning with a reprieve while the sheriff waited beside the wild cherry tree used for the execution. Men stationed along the road held white flags, ready to relay news of his arrival. When the flags finally began to move, William was already too late. Ashmead placed his arrival twenty-three minutes after the hanging.
Later residents described a white horse and rider racing along Fourth Street on stormy nights. Hoofbeats carried them toward the prison door, where both the sound and the apparition disappeared. The rider was understood to be William, still repeating the journey that failed to save his sister. The haunting belonged to Fourth Street; Gallows Hill was the scene of the execution.
