The Female Soldier E-Book

Hannah Snell

• Herausgeber: Renard Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 73

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Hannah Snell's story begins with tragedy. In 1744 she married James Summs, a Dutch seaman. Soon after their marriage she fell pregnant, and Summs abandoned her and the child, who died just a year later. At this juncture, Snell donned a suit, assumed her brother-in-law's identity and set off in search of her errant husband. Boarding the sloop of war the Swallow in Portsmouth, Snell set sail to capture Pondicherry. Along the way she fought in many battles, sustaining multiple injuries, some of which made it difficult to keep her sex concealed. In 1750, she returned to London and told her story, setting down in The Female Soldier one of the most captivating military legends of all time, which went on to inspire generations of men and women alike.

Leseprobe

The Female Soldier

hannah snell

renard press

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Renard Press Ltd

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The Female Soldier first published in 1750

This edition first published by Renard Press Ltd in 2021

Edited text and Notes © Renard Press Ltd, 2022

Cover design by Will Dady

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to the public

Notwithstandingthe surprising adventures of this our British heroine, of whom the following pages fully and impartially treat, yet the oddity of her conduct for preserving her virtue was such that it demands not only respect, but admiration; and as there is nothing to be found in the following sheets but what is matter of fact, it merits the countenance and approbation of every inhabitant of this great isle, especially the fair sex, for whom this treatise is chiefly intended; and the truth of which being confirmed by our heroine’s affidavit, made before the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the said affidavit is hereunto annexed, in order to prevent the public from being imposed upon by fictitious accounts.

hannah snell, born in the city of Worcester, in the Year of our Lord 1723, and who took upon her the name of James Gray, maketh oath, and saith that she this deponent served his present Majesty King George as a soldier and sailor, from the 27th of November, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-Five, to the 9th of this instant June, and entered herself as a marine in Capt. Graham’s company in Col. Fraser’s regiment, and went on board the Swallow, his Majesty’s sloop of war, to the East Indies, belonging to Admiral Boscawen’s squadron, where this deponent was present at the Siege of Pondicherry,* and all the other sieges during that expedition, in which she received twelve wounds, some of which were dangerous, and was put into the hospital for cure of the same, and returned into England in the Eltham man of war, Capt. Lloyd Commander, without the least discovery of her sex.

And this deponent further maketh oath and saith that she has delivered to Robert Walker, printer, in the Little Old Bailey, London, a full and true account of the many surprising incidents and wonderful hardships she underwent during the time she was in his Majesty’s service as aforesaid, to be by him printed and published.

And this deponent lastly saith that she has not given the least hint of her surprising adventures to any other person, nor will she, this deponent, give any the least account thereof, to any person whatsoever, to be printed or published, save and except the above-mentioned Robert Walker.

Sworn before me this 27th day of June, 1750, at Goldsmith’s Hall, London,

j. blachford, mayor

Witness:

susannah gray, sister of the said Hannah Snell

t. edwards

hannah snellher mark

THE FEMALE SOLDIER

or

The Surprising Life and Adventures of

HANNAH SNELL

Born in the city of Worcester, who took upon herself the name of James Gray; and, being deserted by her husband, put on men’s apparel and travelled to Coventry in quest of him, where she enlisted in Col. Guise’s regiment of foot and marched with that regiment to Carlisle in the time of the rebellion in Scotland; showing what happened to her in that city, and her desertion from that regiment.

ALSO

A full and true account of her enlisting afterwards into Fraser’s regiment of marines, then at Portsmouth; and her being drafted out of that regiment and sent on board the Swallow sloop of war, one of Admiral Boscawen’s squadron, then bound for the East Indies. With the many vicissitudes of fortune she met with during that expedition, particularly at the Siege of Pondicherry, where she received twelve wounds. Likewise, the surprising accident by which she came to hear of the death of her faithless husband, who she went in quest of.

TOGETHER WITH

An account of what happened to her in the voyage to England, in the Eltham man of war. The whole containing the most surprising incidents that have happened in any preceding age; wherein is laid open all her adventures, in men’s clothes, for near five years, without her sex being ever discovered.

the female soldier

In this dastardly ageof the world, when effeminacy and debauchery have taken place of the love of glory, and that noble ardour after warlike exploits, which flowed in the bosoms of our ancestors, genuine heroism, or rather an extraordinary degree of courage, are prodigies among men. What age, for instance, produces a Charles of Sweden, a Marlborough or a Prince Eugene?* These are rara avis in terris,* and when they appear, they seem to be particularly designed by Heaven for protecting the rights of injured nations against foreign oppression, securing the privileges of innocence from the dire assault of prey and rapine and, in a word, vindicating the common prerogatives of human nature from the fatal effects of brutal rage, the love of conquest and an insatiable lust after power. The amazing benefit arising to mankind from such illustrious and exalted characters is, perhaps, the principal reason why they attract the eyes and command the attention of all who hear of them, even in quarters of the world far remote from their influence and sphere of action: why they are the subjects of the poet’s song, the founders of the historian’s narration and the objects of the painter’s pencil, all which have a tendency to transmit their names with immortal glory to latest ages and eternise their memories when their bodies are mouldered into dust and mingled with their parent earth. Perhaps their rarity may also contribute, in a great measure, to that esteem and veneration which the world thinks fit to pay them, but sure if heroism, fortitude and a soul equal to all the glorious acts of war and conquest are things so rare and so much admired among men, how much rarer, and consequently how much more are they to be admired among women? In short, we may on this occasion, without any hyperbole, use the words of Solomon, and say, ‘One man among a thousand have I found, but among women not so’.*However, tho’ courage and warlike expeditions are not the provinces by the world allotted to women since the days of the Amazons,* yet the female sex is far from being destitute of heroinism. Cleopatra headed a noble army against Mark Antony,* the greatest warrior of his time. Semiramis was not inferior to her in courage. The Arcadian*shepherdesses are as memorable for their contempt of danger as their darling and beloved swains. But among all our heroines, none comes more immediately under our cognisance, nor, perhaps, more merits our attention than the remarkable Hannah Snell, whose history is highly interesting, both on account of the variety of amazing incidents and the untainted veracity with which it is attended. Some people, guided rather by the suggestions of caprice than the dictates of reason and a sound understanding, have foolishly imagin’d that persons of low and undistinguished births hardly ever rais’d themselves to the summit of glory and renown; but they will find themselves widely mistaken when they reflect on a Kouli Khan, a Cromwell,* and many others I could mention. But if this observation had the smallest foundation either in nature or the course of human experience, from the most remote to the present age, yet its force does by no means extend to Hannah Snell, the heroine of the subsequent narrative: for though her immediate progenitors were but low in the world, when compared with dukes, earls and generals, yet she had the seeds of heroism, courage and patriotism transferr’d to her from her ancestors, as will appear from the following account of her genealogy.

Hannah Snell was born in Fryer Street in the parish of St Helen’s in the City of Worcester on the 23rd day of