Background
She was born at Worcester on the 23rd of April 1723, being the daughter of a hosier.
( Out of Print for over 200 Years, the original text of th...)
Out of Print for over 200 Years, the original text of three of the most remarkable naval biographies ever written. We know that women served as sailors in the Royal Navy as early as 1650. Unfortunately, what little we know of these women is based largely on second- and third-hand accounts and deductions. In general, few seamen (and even fewer sea-women) knew how to write. As a result, there exists no first-hand, autobiographical, accountswith three exceptions. Three womenthree lady tarsleft memoirs of their experiences serving as men in the Royal Navy. Hanna Snell (1723-1792) originally joined the army but deserted over a brutally unfair punishment to which she was subject. She then joined the marines and was wounded several times at the Battle of Pondicherry. Later she capitalized on the success of her autobiography by launching a stage career in which she would appear in her uniform doing military drills and singing patriotic songs. Mary Lacy (1740-1773+) ran away from home when she was 19, and became a carpenters servant on several Royal Navy ships. After four years at sea she applied to be an apprentice shipwright. Seven years later, after dodging several brushes with discovery, she became the only known, fully credentialed, female shipwright of that era. Mary Ann Talbot (1778-1808) started her career in the army disguised as a boy servant to an officer. After he was killed at the siege of Valenciennes, she deserted and was pressed into the Royal Navy. There she served as a cabin boy, and fought at at the Battle of the Glorious First of Junewhere she almost lost her leg from wounds. Fireship Press is proud to make availablefor the first time in one volumethe text of the original editions of all three of these astonishing autobiographies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XCLV14/?tag=2022091-20
She was born at Worcester on the 23rd of April 1723, being the daughter of a hosier.
In order to seek her husband, who had ill-treated and abandoned her, in 1745 she donned man's attire and enlisted as a soldier in Guise's regiment of foot, but soon deserted, and shipped on board the sloop "Swallow " under her brother-in- law's name of James Gray. The "Swallow " sailed in Boscawen's fleet to the East Indies, and took part in the siege of Araapong. Hannah served in the assault on Pondicherry and was wounded, but she succeeded in extracting the bullet without calling in a surgeon. When recovered she served before the mast on the "Tartar " and the " Eltham, "but when paid off she resumed woman's costume. Her adventures were published as The Female Soldier, or the Surprising Adventures of Hannah Snell (1750), and she afterwards gave exhibitions in military uniform in London. She died insane in Bethlehem Hospital on the 8th of February 1792.
( Out of Print for over 200 Years, the original text of th...)
She married James Summes on 18 January 1744. In 1746, she gave birth to a daughter, Susannah, who died a year later.
In 1759, she married Richard Eyles there, with whom she had two children.
In 1772, she married Richard Habgood of Welford, also in Berkshire, and the two moved to the Midlands. In 1785, she was living with her son George Spence Eyles, a clerk, on Church Street, Stoke Newington.
