Hannah Snell

Hannah Snell was born in Worcester, England[2] on 23 April 1723. She was the youngest daughter of her family, with five sisters and three brothers. Snell’s 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, Samuel and his second wife, Mary Williams[3] were wealthy enough to live comfortably and provide adequate education for all their children.[4] Despite this, however, Snell never learned to write, but she could read very well.[4] Locals dubbed her as the ‘young Amazon Snell’ and she often played soldier as a child.[5]

Snell’s parents died when she was 17.[6] They moved to London on December 25, 1740, to live with her older sister, Susanah in her house in Wapping.[7] She married James Summes, a Dutch seaman,[8] on 18 January 1744 at Fleet church. However, it turns out that Summs was not the man he had seemed to be. He often sought the company of other women and grew to despise Snell. He used their things to pay for his luxurious lifestyle and the women in his company.[9] With her husband’s debauchery lifestyle, they quickly fell into debt and from there descended into poverty.[9] Towards the end of Snell's pregnancy with their daughter, her husband abandoned them, leaving Snell in debt.[10] Their daughter, Susanna, died five months later.[11]

Snell moved back in with her sister, Susanah and her brother-in-law, James Grey, whose name they take on for themselves. It is not clear as to why Snell decides to try and find James Summs, some have guessed out of love or hatred,[12] while others suggest she was leaving to find money and adventure.[13] Whatever the reason the conclusion is the same, on November 23, 1745, Snell assumes the identity of her brother-in-law, James Gray and began to search for Summes.[14]

Snell later learned that her husband had been executed for murder. According to her account, following the death of her daughter, on 23 November 1745,[15] Snell travelled to Coventry, where a few days later she enlisted in the military.[12] She joined John Guise's regiment, the 6th Regiment of Foot, in the army of the Duke of Cumberland against Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The military career of James Grey/ Hannah Snell started when she was 25 years old, she took on the name James Grey from their brother-in-law and set off to join the marines.[16] She joined the regiment of General Guise in 1757 where she received training in military exercises and greatly excelled. During this time, they had a falling out with a Sargent in their regiment named Davis who accused Grey of neglecting their duties. This incident was prompted due to Grey refusing to facilitate a sexual encounter between Sargent Davis and a local woman.[17] For this accused neglect Grey was sentenced to “600 lashes" and received 500 while tied to the castle gate in Carlisle. In the biography on James Grey by Robert Walker it is mentioned that she eluded discovery due to how their arms were tied to the gate and how small her breasts were at the time.[18] After these events Snell deserted and moved to Portsmouth to joined the Marines. She boarded the ship Swallow at Portsmouth and sailed as a cabin boy under Captain Rosier to Lisbon. Her unit was about 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 also 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.[19] After the battle she was sent to a hospital at Cuddylor which she was seen to by two physicians. She was also shot in their groin and, to avoid revealing their sex, they instructed a local woman to take out the bullet instead of being tended by the regimental surgeon.[20][21]

After their three-month recovery she eventually was reunited with her fleet where she returned to duty on the now undermanned ship. Due to the lack of sailors on the ship Grey worked more duties such as watch and operating a bilge pump as The Swallow had received damage and was leaking on the larboard bow. Grey then spent some time in Bombay where her crewmates noticed that she didn’t shave her face which earned her the nickname “Miss Molly Grey”. This prompted her to “begin flirting with the local women” as a way to reduce suspicion.[22] Shortly thereafter Grey returned home to England aboard the Tartar after being discharged for complications with her wounds.[23]

In 1750, her unit returned to Britain and traveled 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 their story to London publisher Robert Walker, who published her account, The Female Soldier, in two different editions.[15] She also began to appear on stage in their uniform presenting military drills and singing songs.[24] 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), a rare thing in those days.

Hannah Snell, engraving, 1789.

Snell was shot and wounded in the marines; she was shot 12 times in the legs and once in the groin.[25] Snell decided to live with the pain, hiding the wound she had on her groin and dealing with it herself.[26] This led to her digging the bullet out while allowing the surgeon to operate on all her other wounds.[26] Snell feared that her sex would be discovered and would have negative repercussions.  

After Snell was shot, she returned to Britain. She continued to fear that her sex would be found out and she would not get their soldiers pay. The only people that knew of their sex were her brother-in-law, sister and the women she lived with.[27] In London, on the 9th of June, Snell and the other marines went to Westminster to collect their pay and be discharged; she also sold some belongings to make money as she believed that once people knew of her sex, she would not get paid.[28] Following this interaction, she told her comrades about her sex. Instead of being met with disappointment from the marines, they praised Snell and applauded them for their courage as a soldier.[29]

After Snell’s close friends found out about their sex, they told Snell they should petition for pension to the Duke of Cumberland for her service and wounds that she had received. Although, Snell received an allowance from the Chelsea College she started to appear on stage.[30] Snell's performances consisted of her singing military songs and performing military exercises while dressed in uniform.[31] Eventually her fame decreased, and she quit performing.  

Sources claim that after receiving their pension, Snell retired to Wapping and began to keep a pub named The Female Warrior[32] (or The Widow in Masquerade, accounts disagree) but it did not last long.[33] 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, they were living with their son George Spence Eyles, a clerk, on Church Street, Stoke Newington.[34]

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).[8]

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).[35]

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.[36] 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).[37][38][39] Snell’s life is also the subject of furttheir 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 similar figures’ transing of gender.[40][41]  

Abbreviated magazine and newspaper accounts of Snell’s life were also widespread both within and beyond England.[36] One such early article was released in a 1750 issue of London’s The Gentleman’s Magazine.[42] Records of later 1800s publishings show the reach of Snell’s narrative; articles on Snell’s in U.S.A. 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).[43][44][45][46] 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).[47][48]

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 use female pronouns.[36] However, the following 1750 version identifies the author as James Gray, a man, even printing their name across the cover.[36] Later editions and newspaper articles reverted back to using ‘Hannah Snell.’[36] Much of the academic work on Snell likewise uses her birth name and pronouns, although papers in Transgender Studies and related fields are beginning to diverge from this norm.[36]   

One common theme is narratives about the difficulties Snell faced in passing as a man, focusing on obscuring physical differences.[36] These include Snell’s lack of a beard.  Articles describe them affirming their masculinity through other actions, such as by openly flirting with women and assuming an outgoing demeanor at gatherings.[36] Another frequently addressed topic is Snell’s chest.  The 1750 autobiography and later publishings chronicle them enduring a public whipping, bared to the waist.[36] However, the exact circumstances differ between articles.  One narrative explains that Snell hid her chest by facing the city gates.[36] Another notes that she tied a handkerchief around her neck to cover her front.[36] A third account merges these situations by claiming she did both.[36] A related situation, Snell’s memoir recounts a boatswain claiming that he had noticed that her chest was similar to a woman’s, but later discounted his observation as Snell had a very masculine presence and no-one else had raised concerns.[36]

• 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.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Snell, Hannah".

• 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)