Holtzton, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Holtzton was known by several names throughout her life. She appears in historical records as Elizabeth Holtzton, Holtzclaw, and eventually also as Crow. Elizabeth Holtzton or Holtzclaw was probably born in Virginia around 1765. It is unclear if Elizabeth Holtzton was given the Holtzclaw name at birth or acquired it through marriage. The Holtzclaws had founded a settlement in Fauquier County with ten other German families around 1720, and by the mid- to late eighteenth century, they were a well-established and somewhat prosperous family in Virginia.

In 1792, when Elizabeth Holtzton was in her twenties, she became pregnant by Stephen Williams. They were not married. It was a criminal offence to fornicate and deliver a child out of wedlock in Virginia, but because local authorities rarely enforced those laws, Elizabeth Holtzton did not face criminal charges at that point in her life. Over the eighteenth century, criminal prosecutions for sexual offenses such as fornication, adultery, and having children out of wedlock became increasingly less common.

Nevertheless, in August 1799, Elizabeth Holtzton was implicated in adultery with Hyland Crow, a farmer who had been an overseer for George Washington from 1792 to 1794. The justices of the court were “given to understand…that Hyland Crowe and Elizabeth Holsten are not of good name, forme, nor of honest conversation, but evil doers living in Adultery, so that strifes, discords and other evils are likely to arise thereby contrary to the peace and dignity of the commonwealth.” The court records do not mention whether Elizabeth and Hyland were married to other people, or whether they had children. Without explanation, official documents appear to shift Elizabeth Holtzton’s name to Elizabeth Holtzclaw by the time court summons were written. On 13 November 1799, Elizabeth Holtzton was debited in the Mason family manuscript account book for a legal fee involving a suit. The suit was most likely her adultery case. While the summoning of witnesses continued into 1800, neither Holtzton/Holtzclaw nor Crow appear to have been prosecuted.

In 1810, Hyland Crow was recorded in the census in Loudoun County as the head of a household totaling five free white males, fourteen free white females, and seventeen enslaved people. It is possible Elizabeth Holtzton was counted among his household.

Twenty years after their first summons for adultery, Hyland Crow and Elizabeth “Holtzclaw” found themselves summoned to court once again. An attorney gave “the court to understand that a certain Elizabeth Holtsclaw alias Elizabeth Crowe…did on the First day of July in the year eighteen hundred and nineteen, commit adultery by having carnal intercourse with a certain Hiland Crowe…being then and there a married man.” Likely Crow and Holtzclaw’s long standing relationship led to her being dubbed Elizabeth Crow. It is possible that they even had children together.

The surviving documents from 1799 do not mention Elizabeth Holtzclaw’s marital status, but in 1820, court records referred to her as a widow. No more information was provided about her situation. No children were mentioned. What the witnesses said is unknown. The jury, however, proclaimed Elizabeth Holtzclaw and Hiland Crowe “not guilty.”

Hyland Crow disappears from the records in Virginia around 1829. In 1830, an Elizabeth Crow appears as the head of a household in the federal census in nearby Jefferson County. After 1830, Elizabeth Holtzton Holtzclaw Crow disappears from the historical record as well.

By Elizabeth S Paynter