Hannah Snell (23 April 1723–8
February 1792) was a British woman who disguised herself as a man and
became a soldier. Snell entered military service
under the name "James Gray", initially for the purpose of searching for
her missing husband. She served in General Guise's regiment in the army
of the Duke of Northumberland, and then in the marines Hannah Snell was born in Worcester,
England on 23 April 1723. Locals claim that she played a soldier even
as a child. In 1740, she moved to London and married James Summes on 18
January 1744. She named herself Bob Corigan so she could fight. In 1746, she gave birth to a
daughter, Susannah, who died a year later. Snell borrowed a male suit
from her brother-in-law James Gray, assumed his name, and began to
search for Summes, who had abandoned her while she was pregnant with
his child. She later learned that her husband had been executed for
murder. According to her account, she joined John Guise's regiment, the
6th Regiment of Foot, in the army of the Duke of Cumberland against
Bonnie Prince Charlie, and deserted when her sergeant gave her 500
lashes. However, the chronology of her life makes it very unlikely that
she ever served in Guise's regiment and this part of the story is
likely to have been a fabrication. Following the death of her daughter,
she moved to Portsmouth and joined the Marines. She boarded the ship
Swallow at Portsmouth on 23 October 1747. The ship sailed to Lisbon on
1 November. 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 Battle of Pondicherry in
India. Later, she also fought in the battle in Devicottail in June
1749. She was wounded eleven times to the legs. She was also shot in her groin and to
avoid revealing her gender, she instructed a local woman to take out
the bullet instead of being tended by the regimental Surgeon. 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 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 her
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 honorably 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 retired to Wapping and began
to keep a pub named The Female Warrior (or The Widow in Masquerade,
accounts disagree) but it did not last long. By the mid-1750s, she 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. She died
on 8 February 1792.