Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Snell, Hannah
SNELL, HANNAH (1723–1792), ‘female soldier,’ according to the ‘narrative’ published in 1750 (attested in an affidavit, sworn by the heroine before the lord mayor, and prefixed to each copy of the book), was born in Fryer Street, Worcester, on St. George's day (23 April) 1723. Her father, William Snell, a hosier, was the son of a ‘Lieutenant Snell,’ alleged to have been at the taking of Namur and to have been killed at Malplaquet. In 1740 she lost father and mother, but found a home in London with a married sister, Susannah, the wife of James Gray, a carpenter, at Wapping. Three years later she was married by a Fleet parson to a Dutch seaman, named James Summs, who, after ill-treating her for seven months, disappeared. Having given birth to a child, Hannah borrowed a suit of her brother-in-law's clothes, and went in search of the missing husband (23 Nov. 1745). She reached Coventry, where, retaining her disguise, she enlisted in Captain Miller's company of Guise's regiment of foot, and marched with it to Carlisle. By incurring the hostility of her serjeant (the story continues), she was unjustly sentenced to receive six hundred, and actually did receive five hundred, lashes, after which she deserted and made her way to Portsmouth. There, in the capacity of a marine, she joined the sloop Swallow (Capt. Rosier), attached to Boscawen's fleet bound for the East Indies.
Regarded as a boy, she was attached as assistant steward and cook to the officers' mess. After a futile attempt on Mauritius, the fleet made for Fort St. David's on the coast of Coromandel, and the marines disembarked to strengthen the army besieging Araapong. Hannah was engaged in several skirmishes, and witnessed the blowing up of the enemy's magazine, which brought the siege to an end. Marching on Pondicherry, the troops were obliged to ford a river running breast high, in the face of the French batteries. She took her share in trench-making and at picket duty, but during an assault, after having fired thirty-seven rounds, she was severely wounded in the groin. Not caring to ask for the aid of the regimental surgeon, she secured the services and secrecy of a black woman, with whose help she extracted the bullet and cured the wound. Upon recovery, she was sent on board the Tartar pink, and served as a common sailor until turned over in the same capacity to the Eltham man-of-war. The smoothness of her chin earned her the sobriquet of Molly, but as her briskness increased her popularity, her shipmates rechristened her ‘hearty Jemmy,’ James Gray being the name in which she had entered the navy. At Lisbon she learned that her husband had been executed at Genoa. The alleged motive for her martial exploits was now removed, and when the Eltham was paid off at Gravesend in 1750, Hannah resumed her petticoats. She lost no time in getting her achievements put on record, the narrative being published by R. Walker in June 1750, under the title of ‘The Female Soldier: or the Surprising Adventures of Hannah Snell’ (London, 187 pp. sm. 4to; reprinted in ‘Women Adventurers,’ 1893). A ‘facetious’ poem appended to the work was reprinted in several newspapers. Abridgments appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (with a rough portrait) and the ‘Scots Magazine’ for July 1750. Her story was talked about, and the manager of the Royalty Theatre in Wellclose Square induced her to appear upon the stage in uniform, while in the autumn she appeared at Sadler's Wells and went through a number of military exercises in regimentals. Meanwhile, in response to a petition on 23 June 1750, the Duke of Cumberland put Hannah's name on the king's list for a pension of 30l. per annum; and she seems to have actually received an annuity as a Chelsea out-pensioner on account of the wounds received at Pondicherry (Lysons, Environs, ii. 164). Changing her vocation once more, she now took a public-house at Wapping, to which she endeavoured to attract customers by the sign of the ‘Female Warrior.’ In 1759 she married a carpenter named Samuel Eyles, and on his death she married thirdly, in 1772, Richard Habgood of Welford. The ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ records (in error) that she was found dead on a heath in Warwickshire on 10 Dec. 1779. In 1789 she became insane and was removed to Bethlehem Hospital, where she died on 8 Feb. 1792, at the age of sixty-nine. By her own desire she was interred in the burial-ground of Chelsea hospital (Faulkner, Chelsea, ii. 282).
The military portion of Hannah's career finds a striking parallel in that of Christian Davies [q. v.], while her nautical experiences were probably eclipsed by those of ‘William Brown’ (a negress, so rated on the books of the Queen Charlotte), who was proved to have served eleven years when that ship was paid off in 1815, and was conspicuous for her agility as a captain of the maintop no less than for her partiality for prize-money and grog. The outlines of Hannah Snell's story are therefore by no means incredible; but, on the other hand, it is clear that many of the details supplied in the ‘Female Soldier’ are the embellishments of a hand well skilled in the resources of imaginary biography. The bombastic opening, the description of the latent heroism of the father (the hosier) and the mythical exploits of the uncles, the impossible incidents of the floggings (which the editor of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ vainly sought to extenuate in an explanatory footnote), and the circumstantial account of the last moments of Hannah's criminal husband, all attest the workmanship of an experienced literary hand, to whose identity no clue exists.
Hannah's portrait was thrice painted in 1750, by J. Wardell, by R. Phelps, and another; the engraving by Faber, after Phelps, is the best; others are by J. Johnson and by J. Young (1789) (cf. Bromley, Cat. pp. 456–7; Evans, Cat. p. 323).
[Gent. Mag. 1750, pp. 283, 291 sq.; Scots' Mag. 1750, pp. 330 sq.; Caulfield's Memoirs of Celebrated Persons, iv. 178; Wilson's Wonderful Characters, pp. 1, 21; Kirby's Wonderful Museum, ii. 450; Granger's Wonderful Museum; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iii. 113, 280, v. 457 (a list of British Amazons), 8th ser. ii. 88, 171, 455; All the Year Round, 6 April 1872; Lysons's Environs, ii. 164; Cromwell's Clerkenwell, p. 254; Wroth's London Pleasure Gardens, p. 36; Addit. MS. 5723 (Biographia Adversaria).]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.254
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 205 | ii | 32 | Snell, Hannah: for 1892 read 1893 |