Hannah Snell is a good instance of how the life of a woman who was not
by nature averse from adventure was moulded by chance in the direction
which suited her individuality. Of course, liking for a militant life,
whether in conventional or exceptional form, presupposes a natural
boldness of spirit, resolution, and physical hardihood--all of which
this woman possessed in an eminent degree.
She was born at Worcester in 1723, one of the family of a hosier who
had three sons and six daughters. In 1740, when her father and mother
were dead, she went to live at Wapping with a sister who had married a
ship carpenter named Gray. There she married a Dutch sailor, who before
her baby was born, had squandered such little property as her father
had left her, and then deserted her. She went back to her sister, in
whose house the baby died. In 1743, she made up her mind to search for
her husband. To this end she put on man’s clothes and a man’s name
(that of her brother-in-law) and enlisted in General Guise’s regiment.
At Carlisle, whither the regiment was sent she learned something of
a soldier’s duties. In doing so she was selected by her sergeant, a
man called Davis, to help him in carrying out a criminal love affair.
In order to be able to warn the girl she pretended acquiescence. In
revenge the sergeant reported her for an alleged neglect of some
duty for which according to the barbarous system of the time she was
sentenced to 600 lashes; of these she had actually received 500 when
on the intervention of some of the officers the remaining hundred
were foregone. After this, fearing further aggression on the part of
the revengeful petty officer she deserted. She walked all the way to
Portsmouth--a journey which occupied a whole month--where she again
enlisted as a marine in Fraser’s regiment, which was shortly ordered
on foreign service to the East Indies. There was a storm on the way
out, during which she worked manfully at the pumps. When the ship had
passed Gibraltar there was another bad storm in which she was wrecked.
Hannah Snell found her way to Madeira and thence to the Cape of Good
Hope. Her ship joined in the taking of Arcacopong on the Coromandel
Coast; in which action Hannah fought so bravely that she was praised
by her officers. Later on she assisted in the siege of Pondicherry
which lasted nearly three months before it had to be abandoned. In the
final attempt she served on picket duty and had to ford, under fire,
a river breast high. During the struggle she received six bullets
in the right leg, five in the left leg, and one in the abdomen. Her
fear was not of death but discovery of her sex through the last-named
wound. By the friendly aid of a black woman, however, she avoided this
danger. She managed to extract the bullet herself, with her finger and
thumb, and the wound made a good cure. This wound caused her a delay
of some weeks during which her ship had to leave for Bombay and was
delayed five weeks by a leak. Poor Hannah was again unfortunate in her
officers; one of them to whom she had refused to sing had her put in
irons and given a dozen lashes. In 1749 she went to Lisbon, where she
learned by chance that her husband had met at Genoa the death penalty
by drowning, for a murder which he had committed. Discovery of her sex
and her identity would have been doubly dangerous now; but happily she
was able to conceal her alarm and so escaped detection. She got back to
London through Spithead and once more found shelter in the house of her
sister who at once recognised her in spite of her disguise. Her fine
singing voice, which had already caused her to be flogged, now stood
her in good stead. She applied for and obtained an engagement at the
Royalty theatre, Wellclose square; and appeared with success as _Bill
Bobstay_ a sailor and _Firelock_ a soldier. She remained on the stage
for some months, always wearing male dress. The government of the day
gave her, on account of the hardships she had endured, a pension of £20
per annum. Later on she took a public-house at Wapping. The sign of her
hostelry became noted. On one side of it was painted in effigy _The
British Tar_ and on the other _The Valiant Marine_, and underneath _The
Widow in masquerade_, or the _Female Warrior_.
As Hannah appeared during her adventurous career as both soldier and
sailor she affords, in herself, an illustrious example of female
courage as well as female duplicity in both of the services.