Tilton v. Beecher
E615808
Tilton v. Beecher was a highly publicized 19th-century American adultery trial in which journalist Theodore Tilton accused prominent preacher Henry Ward Beecher of having an affair with Tilton’s wife, Elizabeth.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Beecher–Tilton civil trial | 1 |
| Theodore Tilton–Henry Ward Beecher lawsuit | 1 |
| Tilton v. Beecher canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6748875 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Tilton v. Beecher Context triple: [Theodore Tilton, legalCase, Tilton v. Beecher]
-
A.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
B.
Downes v. Bidwell
Downes v. Bidwell is a 1901 U.S. Supreme Court case that helped establish the "Insular Cases" doctrine, holding that full constitutional rights do not automatically extend to all territories under American control.
-
C.
Regan v. Wald
Regan v. Wald is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal restrictions on travel to Cuba, affirming broad executive authority over foreign affairs and economic sanctions.
-
D.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Bolling v. Sharpe is a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racial segregation in Washington, D.C. public schools unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
-
E.
Luther v. Borden
Luther v. Borden is an 1849 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "political question" doctrine by holding that the determination of a state's legitimate government under the Constitution’s Guarantee Clause is a matter for Congress, not the courts.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Tilton v. Beecher Target entity description: Tilton v. Beecher was a highly publicized 19th-century American adultery trial in which journalist Theodore Tilton accused prominent preacher Henry Ward Beecher of having an affair with Tilton’s wife, Elizabeth.
-
A.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
B.
Downes v. Bidwell
Downes v. Bidwell is a 1901 U.S. Supreme Court case that helped establish the "Insular Cases" doctrine, holding that full constitutional rights do not automatically extend to all territories under American control.
-
C.
Regan v. Wald
Regan v. Wald is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal restrictions on travel to Cuba, affirming broad executive authority over foreign affairs and economic sanctions.
-
D.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Bolling v. Sharpe is a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racial segregation in Washington, D.C. public schools unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
-
E.
Luther v. Borden
Luther v. Borden is an 1849 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "political question" doctrine by holding that the determination of a state's legitimate government under the Constitution’s Guarantee Clause is a matter for Congress, not the courts.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (36)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
19th-century American legal case
ⓘ
adultery trial ⓘ lawsuit ⓘ scandal ⓘ |
| allegation |
adultery
ⓘ
affair between Henry Ward Beecher and Elizabeth Tilton ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | New York court ⓘ |
| endTime | 1875 ⓘ |
| era | Gilded Age ⓘ |
| hasDefendant | Henry Ward Beecher NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasDefendantRole | Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent preacher NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasJudge | Neilson (Judge)} NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction |
New York
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasPlaintiff | Theodore Tilton NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasPlaintiffRole | Theodore Tilton was the husband of Elizabeth Tilton ⓘ |
| involvesChurch | Plymouth Church, Brooklyn NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| involvesMarriage | marriage of Theodore Tilton and Elizabeth Tilton ⓘ |
| involvesOccupation |
journalist
ⓘ
preacher ⓘ |
| involvesPerson | Elizabeth Tilton NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| involvesReligion | Protestantism ⓘ |
| legalClaim | criminal conversation (adultery) ⓘ |
| location | Brooklyn, New York NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive newspaper coverage ⓘ |
| notableFor | intersection of religion, sex, and celebrity in 19th-century America ⓘ |
| outcome | hung jury ⓘ |
| publicity | highly publicized ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Henry Ward Beecher adultery scandal
ⓘ
Victorian morality debates NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| significance |
damaged reputations of those involved
ⓘ
major Victorian-era sex scandal ⓘ |
| startTime | 1874 ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| verdict | no unanimous verdict reached ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Tilton v. Beecher Description of subject: Tilton v. Beecher was a highly publicized 19th-century American adultery trial in which journalist Theodore Tilton accused prominent preacher Henry Ward Beecher of having an affair with Tilton’s wife, Elizabeth.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Beecher–Tilton civil trial
this entity surface form:
Theodore Tilton–Henry Ward Beecher lawsuit