Royal Marine

Female Warrior

Hannah Snell ~ Served 1745

The previous page was: "Dutch Marines"

Hannah Snell was born in Worcester in 1723. She became an orphan in 1740 and went to live with a married sister in Ship Street, Wapping. Here, in 1744 she met and married a Dutchman, James Summs.

He squandered all her property and deserted her when she was seven months pregnant. Not long afterwards she gave birth to a girl who only lived for seven months.

On 23rd November 1745, hearing rumours of her husbands whereabouts, she assumed the name of James Gray and in man's clothing travelled to Coventry. On 27th November she was approached by a Corporal Samuel Bishop who, mistaking her for a man, encouraged her enlistment in General Guise's Regiment as a soldier.

Soon after her enlistment, she was marched to Carlisle with other recruits where she soon fell foul of a Sergeant Davis, who caused her to receive 600 lashes. After receiving 500 lashes, the last 100 were remitted.

Dutch Marines

Fraser's Regiment of Marines

Shortly afterwards Hannah deserted and made her way to Portsmouth where after an unfortunate encounter in her lodgings, which led her to fear that her sex would be discovered, she again enlisted, this time in Colonel Fraser's Regiment of Marines.

Three weeks later she had embarked with the Regiment on board the sloop 'Swallow' in Admiral Boscawen's fleet bound for the East.

Disembarking with the Regiment she took part in the attack on Pondicherry. In one of the attacks she received eleven wounds in both legs and a dangerous flesh wound which would have revealed her sex had she applied for assistance. The surgeons attended to the eleven leg wounds but the other she treated and dressed herself with lint and salve.

During this period the fleet had sailed and she carried out the duty of a sailor on board the 'Tartar'. When the fleet returned she was drafted to the 'Eltham' where she was falsely accused of theft for which she received 12 lashes and five days in irons.

Hannah informs the world

The 'Eltham sailed for home and on arrival at Spithead, Hannah took lodgings at 'The Jolly Marine' and lived amongst her comrades as a Marine.

Again Hannah finding herself in difficulty with a lady who suggested to the supposed Marine that 'he' should marry her, she travelled to London where on 9th June 1750 she took her discharge and declared her true sex.

For a time she appeared in the theatre, capitalising on her notoriety, whilst admirers got up a petition on her behalf for a pension. After a while she took on the role of mine host at a public house in Wapping.

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Hannah was no genteel lady!

On the signboard was inscribed 'The Widow in Masquerade or the Female Warrior'. She spoke with a rough accent "Come on me hearty, drink up! Yer ship sails within the hour and...ah what adventures you'll have. I wish I were going with yer."

If you think that's strange, then you don't know who I am! Hannah Snell! Famed throughout the land as the "Female Warrior" (cackles with laughter). Yeh, mate, tis true. I was many years with the Marines.

In the thick of it I was. Fighting Frenchmen, surviving typhoons and getting drunk with the scum of the earth. And yer know - they never knew I was a woman! All them years it was me secret! But I had some close shaves though!

There was this time I was in India fighting the French - it was a stinking, rat-hole of a place called Pondicherry. We'd been there for weeks trying to winkle them Frenchmen out of the fort. And it rained all the time; we had a miserable time of it. Then it finally happened.

I was knee-deep in water, in a trench like, firing me musket, when I got shot six times in me right leg and five in me left. Bled like a pig I did!

So this surgeon starts digging out the shot but I stopped him! I had me secret to keep, didn't I? So later, I dug out the last musket ball with me own 'ands. That musket ball by your 'ead is the very one that nearly did for me. Suppose you want to see the scars eh? They all do!

Hannah Snell married again and died on 8th February 1792.

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Royal Marine Female Warrior HM Landing Craft

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