Hannah Snell

Hannah Snell
Born	23 April 1723 Worcester, England
Died	8 February 1792(1792-02-08) (aged 68) London, England
Resting place	Old Burial Ground, Royal Hospital Chelsea
Occupation	Soldier
Years active	1745–1750
Known for	Disguising herself as a man to serve as a soldier

Hannah Snell (23 April 1723 – 8 February 1792) was an English soldier who disguised herself as a man to join the British military. Snell was mentioned in James Woodforde's diary entry of 21 May 1778 selling buttons, garters, and laces.

Early life

Hannah Snell was born in Worcester, England, on 23 April 1723. She was the youngest daughter of her family, with five sisters and three brothers. Her father Samuel Snell was a hosier and dyer. Due to Snell's grandfather’s service in the military and the money that she inherited from him, her father and his second wife, Mary Williams were wealthy enough to live comfortably and provide adequate education for all their children. Despite this, Snell learned to read but never learned to write. Locals dubbed her the "young Amazon Snell" and she often played soldier as a child.

Snell’s parents died when she was 17. She moved to London on 25 December 1740 to live with her older sister, Susanah, in her house in Wapping. She married James Summs, a Dutch seaman, on 18 January 1744. Summs often sought the company of other women and grew to despise Snell. He used her possessions to pay for his luxurious lifestyle and solicit prostitutes. They quickly fell into debt and became impoverished. Summs abandoned Snell during her pregnancy with their daughter, Susanna, who died in infancy.

Snell moved back in with her sister Susannah and her brother-in-law, James Gray. On 23 November 1745, Snell put on her brother-in-law's clothes, assumed his name, and went to Coventry to search for Summs. Later, she learned that her husband had been executed for murder.

While in Coventry, she enlisted in the British Army. She joined John Guise's regiment, the 6th Regiment of Foot.

Military career

Hannah Snell's military career as James Gray started when she was 25 years old. She joined the regiment of General Guise in 1747 where she received training in military exercises and greatly excelled. During this time, she had a falling out with a sergeant in her regiment named Davis who accused Gray of neglecting her duties. This incident was prompted due to Gray's refusal to facilitate a sexual encounter between Serjeant Davis and a local woman. For this accused neglect, Gray was sentenced to “600 lashes" and received 500 while tied to the castle gate in Carlisle. In Robert Walker's biography on her life, it is mentioned that she eluded discovery due to the manner in which her arms were tied to the gate as well as the small size of her breasts. After these events, Snell deserted and went to join the Marines. She boarded the ship Swallow at Portsmouth and sailed as a cabin boy under Captain Rosier to Lisbon. Her unit was to invade Mauritius, but the attack was called off. Her unit then sailed to India.

In August 1748, her unit was sent to an expedition to capture the French colony of Pondicherry in India. Later, she fought in the battle in Devicottail in June 1749. She was injured a total of eleven times, with one shot in her groin and five in her leg. After the battle she was sent to a hospital at Cuddylor which she was seen to by two physicians. To avoid revealing her sex, she either removed the bullet herself or was assisted by a local woman, instead of being tended by the regimental surgeon.

After her three-month recovery she was reunited with her fleet and returned to duty on the undermanned ship. She then spent some time in Bombay where her crewmates noticed that she did not shave her face and nicknamed her "Miss Molly Gray". This prompted her to "begin flirting with the local women" as a way to reduce suspicion about her sex. Shortly thereafter, Gray returned home to England after being discharged for complications with her wounds.

In 1750, her unit returned to Britain and travelled from Portsmouth to London, where she revealed her sex to her shipmates on 2 June. She petitioned the Duke of Cumberland, the head of the army, for her pension. She also sold her story to London publisher Robert Walker, who published her account, The Female Soldier, in two different editions. She also began to appear on stage in their uniform presenting military drills and singing songs. Three painters painted her portrait in her uniform and The Gentleman's Magazine reported her claims. She was honourably discharged and the Royal Hospital, Chelsea officially recognized Snell's military service in November, and granted her a pension in 1750 (increased in 1785), which was rare at the time.

Later life

Hannah Snell, engraving, 1789

Sources claim that after receiving her pension, Snell retired to Wapping and kept a pub named either The Female Warrior or The Widow in Masquerade, but it did not last long. By the mid-1750s, Snell was living in Newbury in Berkshire. 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.

In 1791, her mental condition suddenly worsened. She was admitted to Bethlem Hospital on 20 August and died on 8 February 1792. She was buried at Chelsea Hospital (now the Old Burial Ground, Royal Hospital Chelsea).

Legacy

Snell portrayed by H. J. Ford, 1913

Playwright Shirley Gee has written two fictional dramatizations of Snell's life: a radio play, Against the Wind (1988) and a stage play, Warrior (1989).

Hannah Snell is mentioned in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as a woman who was prepared to "serve, suffer and sacrifice."

There are numerous accounts of Snell’s life. Snell’s memoir The Female Sailor was released in 1750 by London publisher Robert Walker. It has continued to be in circulation even to the present day, available in the following books: The Female Soldier; Or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell (2011), The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hanna Snell, Mary Lacy, Mary Talbot, and Mary Anne Talbot (2008), and The Female Soldier: Two Accounts of Women Who Served & Fought as Men (2011). Snell’s life is also the subject of further examination. For instance, Hannah Snell: The Secret Life of a Female Marine (2014) investigates the context in which her life took place, while Female Husbands (2020) discusses themes related to Snell’s and other figures’ "transing" of gender.  

Abbreviated magazine and newspaper accounts of Snell’s life were also widespread both within and beyond England. One such early article was released in a 1750 issue of London’s The Gentleman’s Magazine. Records of later 1800s publishings show the reach of Snell’s narrative; articles on Snell’s in U.S. magazines and newspapers, for instance, are found in The New York Ledger (1865), Boston’s Ballou’s Dollar Monthly (1855–1865), Minnesota’s The St. Paul Globe (1890), and Utah’s The Salt Lake Herald (1893). Snell’s media presence decreased in the 1900s.  Documented publications about her during this period, however, were still present in Utah’s The Salt Lake Tribune (1910) and Oregon's The Gazette-Times (1914).

The pronouns and gender identity assigned to Snell vary between publications. In Snell’s original 1746 memoir, she referred to herself as "Hannah Snell" and used female pronouns. However, the subsequent 1750 version identified the author as James Gray. Later editions and newspaper articles reverted back to using "Hannah Snell". Much of the academic work on Snell likewise uses her birth name and pronouns, although papers in transgender studies and related fields have diverged from this norm.   

Further reading

• Matthew Stephens - Hannah Snell: The Secret Life of a Female Marine, 1723–1792
• Manion, Jen (2020). Female Husbands: A Trans History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108652834.

External links

• Hannah Snell Homepage
• Excerpts from Hannah Snell: The Secret Life of a Female Marine, 1723-1792 by Matthew Stephens
• Royal Berkshire History: Hannah Snell
• Wheelwright, Julie (2004). "Snell, Hannah [alias James Gray] (1723–1792), sexual impostor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25975. (subscription or UK public library membership required)