Elizabeth Canning

Elizabeth Canning (September 17, 1734 - 1773) was an Englishwoman who claimed that she had been abducted and her kidnappers tried to force her to become a prostitute. She ended up being convicted for perjury.

She was born in the City of London and began working as a maid at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Her employer at the time of her disappearance and perjury was Edward Lyon, a carpenter. While some, such as Tobias Smollett, would describe her as an "obscure damsel of low degree," she was reported to have a good character (meaning chastity) and a strong work ethic.

She disappeared on January 1, 1753, and she reappeared on January 29, 1753 at her mother's house near St Mary Aldermanbury in London.

Obviously she was such a notorious character that she had a dance named after her and published by Peter Thompson in one of his dance collections

Her full story is on Wikipedia]