John Carleton, Mrs. King's brother. A previous marriage to one John Stedman, still living, was discovered, and Mary was committed on a charge of bigamy to the Gatehouse, where she was visited by Pepys (Diary, 29 May 1663) and a great concourse of curious people. She was tried at the Old Bailey on 4 June 1663, and defended herself with such courage that she was 'acquitted by publique proclamation' (The Great Tryall, &c. title, and pp. 1-5). Carleton now attacked her in his 'Ultimum Vale … being a true Description of the Passages of that Grand Impostor, late a pretended Germane Lady.' 'My Lady Batten envieghed mightily against the German Princesse,' says Pepys (Diary, 7 June 1663), though he himself was 'as high in the defence of her wit and spirit, and glad that she is cleared at the sessions.' She answered the 'Ultimum Vale' in 'An Historicall Narrative of the German Princess … written for the satisfaction of the World at the request of divers Persons of Honour.' Other publications on the subject were 'The Great Tryall and Arraignment of the late distressed Lady, otherwise called the late Germain Princess' (1663), &c., 'The Arraignment, Tryal, and Examination of Mary Moders, alias, &c., &c.,' and 'The Tryall of Mary Moders for having two husbands.' After this Mary Carleton turned actress, and a play was composed expressly for her, with her own title 'The German Princess;' it was performed at the Duke's House, Dorset Gardens, where Pepys saw her the next year, 15 April 1664, and declared that 'never was anything so well done in earnest worse performed in jest' (ib. for that date). She became a common thief next, and was transported to Jamaica in February 1671; but she returned to London and her evil courses; in December 1672 she was sentenced to death for various thefts, and hanged at Tyburn on 22 Jan. 1672-3 (Granges, Biog. Hist. iv. 224-5). Her age was said to be thirty-eight.
Two broadsheets were published in 1673, 'An Elegie on the Famous and Renowned Lady for Eloquence and Wit, Madam Mary Carlton, otherwise styled The German Princess,' &c.; and 'Some Luck, Some Wit, being a Sonnet upon the merry Life and untimely Death of Mistriss Mary Carlton, commonly called The German Princess. To a new Tune, called The German Princess adieu.' There also appeared in 1673 'Memories of the Life of the Famous Madam Charlton … with her Nativity astrologically handled, to which is prefixed her portrait;' and J. G.'s 'Memoires of Mary Carleton … Being a Narrative of her Life and Death, interwoven with many strange and pleasant Passages, from the time of her Birth to her Execution … with her Behaviour in Prison, her last Speech, Burial, and Epitaph.' A reprint of the 'Historical Narrative,' called the second edition, appeared about 1720. Its title is 'The Life and Character of Mrs. Mary Moders, alias, &c. … with the Havock and Spoil she committed upon the Publick in the Reign of Charles the Second;' and it is said in Harley's 'Notes on Biographies' to have been republished because Alderman Barber was reported to be her son (Notes and Queries, 5th series, i. 291).
[Pepys's Diary, ed. Chandos, pp. 157, 159, 205; Granger's Biog. Hist. 2nd ed. iv. 224-5; Life and Character, &c., pp. 2, 70-6; J. G.'s Memoires, To the Reader, and pp. 1-118; The Fnmous Madam Charlton, pp. 2-9; The Great Tryall, pp. 4-7; Mary Carleton's Historicall Narrative, pp. 1-20; John Carleton's Ultimum Vale, Hearne's Collections, ii. 410-11; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. i. 228, 291.]
CARLETON, RICHARD (1560?–1638?), musical composer, was possibly a member of the family of the same name who lived at Lynn in Norfolk. He was born in the latter part of the sixteenth century, and educated at Clare College, Cambridge, where he proceeded A.B. in 1577. He subsequently took the degree of Mus. Bac., and was ordained. Soon afterwards he obtained an appointment at Norwich Cathedral. In 1601 e published a collection of twenty-one madrigals, on the title-page of which he styles himself 'Priest.' These compositions, which in the Latin preface he calls 'prima libamina facultatis meas,' are dedicated to Sir Thomas Farmer. Prefixed is a 'Preface to the Skillfull Musician,' dated Norwich, 28 March 1601. In the same year he contributed a madrigal to the collection entitled 'The Triumphs of Oriana.' On 11 Oct. 1612 Carleton was presented by Thomas Thursby to the rectory of Bawsey and Glosthorp, near Lynn. The date of his death is unknown, but it probably took place in 1638, for though a locum tenens (Robert Powis) seems to have been appointed to the living in 1627, there was no other rector until 22 Aug. 1638, when Richard Peynes was presented. Carleton's name is also spelt Carlton or Charlton. The only extant compositions of his, besides those mentioned above, are some instrumental pavans in the British Museum (Add. MS. 568).
[Registers of the University of Cambridge, communicated by Mr. J. W. Clark; Diocesan Registers of Norwich, Register of Bawsey parish, communicated by the Rev. W. F. Creeny and Dr. Mann; information from the Rev. the Master of Clare, Dr. Bensly, and Mr. Walter Rye.]
