Her story - The Life of Phoebe Hessel

Introduction

All history is opinion. There is no one clear truth and there are many histories hidden from, and by, traditional tellings. Some of those whose stories have been hidden or lost include: women, black peoples, lesbian and gay men, working class people, political and religious dissenters, and children. This book, we hope, is one small step to try and redress the balance.

We first heard of Phoebe Hessel when we came across her gravestone in St. Nicholas’ Churchyard in Central Brighton. The brief synopsis of her life told on her gravestone fired an interest and enthusiasm which led to this book. The Gender Issues and Children Group, of which we were a part, was thinking of producing materials relating to issues of gender, and we feel the Phoebe Hessel story deserves to be made known to a wider audience.

We hope the format of this book will enable it to be used in a variety of ways. The first part of the book has been written with younger children in mind, and the following sections are aimed at older children and adults.

Phoebe Hessel was a woman who spent part of her life dressed as a man. There are two different reasons given for why she did this.

She was born in Stepney, East London in March 1713. At that time the world was very different from how it is today. Women and men were expected to lead very different lives

One story about her says that her mother died when Phoebe was a young child. Her father was a soldier. He wanted to look after Phoebe, but he had to go away with the army.

At that time women and girls were not allowed in the army so Phoebe’s father disguised her as a boy, so that she could go with him.

He taught her to play the fife and drum and, as she grew up, Phoebe became a soldier. She fought many battles dressed as a man.

The other story about Phoebe says that she fell in love with a soldier named Samuel Golding, disguised herself as a man, and joined the army to be with him. Most of the other soldiers did not know that Phoebe was really a woman.

Both stories say that Phoebe was a soldier in the Caribbean and Europe. After many years she was badly injured in her arm at the battle of Fontenoy in Belgium in 1745. Later that year she left the army.

She went to live in Plymouth where she married Samuel Gldin and had nine children.

After Samuel died she went to live in Brighton where she married Thomas Hessel, who made a living by fishing. When Thomas died, Phoebe bought a donkey and sold fish and vegetables in the villages around Brighton to make enough money to live on.

Phoebe became well known in Brighton because of her unusual life and her great age. When she got very old she sold toys, oranges and gingerbread near Brighton Pavilion to make money.

Because she was so famous, Prince George, the Prince Regent, gave her a pension of 1/2 a Guinea a week (52 1/2 p) when she was 95 years old in 1808.

She died in 1821 aged 108 and was buried in St. Nicholas’s Churchyard in Brighton, where you can still see her grave.

The inscription on Pheobe’s gravestone reads:

In memory of
PHOEBE HESSEL
who was born at Stepney in the year 1713
She served for many years
as a private soldier in the 5th Reg of foot
in different parts of Europe
and in the year 1745 fought under the command
of the DUKE of CUMBERLAND
at the Battle of Fontenoy
where she received a Bayonet wound in her arm.
Her long life which commenced in the time of
QUEEN ANNE
extended to the reign of GEORGE IV
by whose munificence she received comfort
and support in her latter Years
She died at Brighton where she had long resided
December 12th 1821 Aged 108 years.

The gravestone was paid for by the local pawnbroker, Hyam Lewis, shortly after her burial, and was later restored by the Northumberland Fusiliers, who considered Phoebe a member of their regiment. A portrait of her also hung in their mess.

TIMELINE: Phoebe Hessel’s life and times

1713
Phoebe is born in Stepney, East London

1714
George I becomes King when Queen Anne dies

1720
First daily newspaper in England

1728
According to one story, Phoebe joins up to be near her lover, Samuel Golding

1745
Bonnie Prince Charlie escapes English army disguised as a woman (Betty Burke) with the help of Flora MacDonald

1745
Phoebe injured (and British Army defeated) at the Battle of Fontenoy

1760
Accession of George III

1765
Phoebe moves to Brighton

1776
U.S. Declaration of Independence from Britain

1789
French Revolution

1792
Publication of “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” by Mary Wollestonecraft

1792
Phoebe granted 3 Guineas to pay for medicines

1793 (Jan)
James Rook and Edward Howell hanged for robbery after Phoebe given further assistance by the Parish

1797
Phoebe given further assistance by the Parish

1806
Phoebe granted a pair of shoes and stockings “and one change”

1807
Abolition of slave trade in Britain

1808
Phoebe leaves workhouse and gets pension from Prince Regent

1811/12
Luddite uprisings

1815
Prince Regent commissions the Royal Pavilion

1820
Prince Regent becomes King George IV

1821 (12 Dec)
Phoebe dies, aged 108

Some questions

1. Why did Phoebe disguise herself as a man?

2. How many different reasons can you think of which might have made Phoebe join the army?

3. Find out what sort of jobs women in the 18th Century usually did.

4. Do you think it would have been easy or difficult for Phoebe to look like a man?

5. Find out what the British army were doing in the Caribbean in the 18th Century. Who were they fighting and why?

6. Can you tell from the picture which of Phoebe’s children are girls or boys?

7. Why was Phoebe well-known in Brighton when she was alive?

8. Why do you think it is that she is not well-known in Brighton now?

9. How many years ago was Phoebe born?

10. How many years ago did she die?

11. Why do you think it is that most history books are more about men than women?

12. Do you think most history books have been written by women or men?

13. Why do you think it is that in some cultures women and men dress so differently?

14. Can you find a country or period in history where women and men dressed in similar clothes?

15. In what ways is life different for women now than it was in Phoebe’s time?

16. Is life different for elderly people now than it was in Phoebe’s time?

17. How have the areas of Stepney and Brighton changed since Phoebe died?

18. Can you find anyone from your area who has had an unusual life?

Some further details of Phoebe Hessel’s life

While researching this book we discovered for ourselves that history is a matter of perspective and interpretation, and all the information we could find about Phoebe was recorded by men. There are several accounts of her life, some of which are conflicting.

Her birth was registered at St. Dunstan’s Church, Stepney, in 1713, although one account claims that she was actually born at sea. Neither of her parents’ names are recorded, and it is quite likely that Phoebe was illegitimate. Little is known about her childhood, but an account of her life written in 1825 (just four years after Phoebe had died), says that her father took her with him to Flanders as a drummer boy when her mother died. All the other reports we have come across say that she joined up to be with her lover, Samuel Golding, but these were mostly written at a later date, and perhaps this was considered a more acceptable reason for a woman to join the armed forces. There are some details of where Phoebe was stationed, including Flanders, Gibraltar, Montserrat and Fontenoy, but again these vary from one account to another.

In the only known interview with her, when she was aged 106, she is asked how she managed to keep the secret of her true identity: ‘she appeared to take a pride in having kept her secret, declaring that she told it to no man, woman or child during the time she was in the army:

“for you know sir, a drunken man and a child always tell the truth, but I told my story to the ground. I dug a hole that would hold a gallon and whispered it there.” ‘

(W. Hone, “Yearbook”, 1832)

It is unclear whether she left the army because of a serious bayonet wound to her arm or because Samuel Golding was injured and she left to nurse him. There is consensus that she went to live in Plymouth, married Samuel Golding and had nine children, only one of whom survived to reach adulthood. Samuel Golding died some time around 1765 when Phoebe was 52, and she then moved to Brighton and married Thomas Hessel (or Hassel). When he died, Phoebe had to make a living by selling firstly fish and vegetables in surrounding villages, and as she became more frail she sold fruit and gingerbread in Brighton, at the junction of the Old Steine and Marine Parade. At this time there were probably very few opportunities for a woman of this age, without a husband or children to support her, to make any kind of a living (her remaining son hiving gone away to sea). In 1792, Phoebe was in the Red Lion Inn in Shoreham when she overheard a conversation implicating the speakers in a robbery which had taken place on 30th October: she reported the incident to the village constable, who arrested the two men involved, James Rook, and Edward Howell, who were later hanged for highway robbery.

After Phoebe went blind, she was admitted to the workhouse (which was on the site of the present-day Town Hall), and probably only got out when she was granted a pension by Prince George, who called her “a jolly old fellow”.

There is little doubt that Phoebe was a well-known character in Brighton during her latter days, because of both her age and her life story, and she was known as “the Stepney Amazon”. Two streets in Stepney, East London, close to her place of birth were named after her: Hessel Street and Amazon Street, which implies that she was known about even further afield than Brighton.

Recently, however, several people have cast doubt on Phoebe’s story by saying that details of where she fought and when do not match army records of the time, and they have made her out to be a manipulative, hard-drinking old crone with a fertile imagination. We will never know the exact facts about Phoebe’s life, but there is much evidence to support the view that she did fight as a soldier, disguised as a man.

In Amazons and Military Maids by Julie Wheelwright, there are at least 100 examples of women who dressed as men for many different reasons, such as adventure, escape from violence, independence, romance, widowhood, lesbianism, and being a single parent with children to support. Clearly where women had very little power or choice in their lives it was relatively easy, and there was much to be gained in “becoming a man”. In writing this book for children we hope to encourage them to explore and question issues of gender roles, and have some insight into the changing values and expectations of society.

Two streets in Stepney, East London were named in Phoebe’s honour: Hessell Street and Amazon Street. The nearby Golding Street is named after her first husband, Samuel Golding.

Hidden Agendas?

GRACE O’MALLEY (1530-1603) was an Irish Chieftain and Commander of a fleet of war and trading ships which dominated the waters off Western Ireland. She lived on Clare Island, County Mayo, and is well known for her bravery and resilience against ruthless enemies. Although she did not disguise herself as a man, she excelled in what was seen at the time as a “man’s role.”

ISABELLE GUNN (1781-1861) was born Isabelle Fubister in the Orkney Islands. She signed up with the Hudson Bay Fur Trading Company, disguised as a man, John Fubister, and sailed 1,800 miles along the Albany River in Canada. Her life as a man came to an abrupt end when she gave birth to a child and later returned to Orkney, calling herself Isabelle Gunn.

“WILLIAM BROWN” was a black British woman who left her husband to become a sailor and later earned the position of Captain. After eleven years at sea her true identity was discovered in 1815 when the crew of her ship were paid off, and her estranged husband appeared to claim part of her earnings.

“DR JAMES BARRY” (1795-1865) was a woman who dressed as a man to graduate form the University of Edinburgh’s medical school. She worked in South Africa, Jamaica, St. Helena, Barbados, Antigua, Malta, Corfu, Crimea and Montreal. Her true identity was only discovered after her death.

THE LUDDITES (1811/1812) were people who smashed machines and destroyed property as a response to mill owners bringing in new technology: machines which did the work of many people, thus resulting in large-scale poverty and hunger among those who had previously worked the mills. There are a number of stories of Luddite men wearing women’s clothing to avoid their detection by Government troops who were stationed throughout Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire when Luddism was at its height.

VALERIE ARKELL-SMITH (1895-1960), also known as “Colonel Victor Barker”, lived for many years dressed as a man. As “the Colonel” she was an actor, managed a boxing club, a dog kennel, a dairy farm, an orchard, and worked as a desk clerk in a large London hotel. In 1923 she married Elfrida Haward at St. Peter’s church in Brighton. In 1929 she was arrested in connection with a bankruptcy charge, and while on remand in Brixton prison her true sex was revealed. She was charged with perjury regarding her marriage and sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Holloway prison for women. She continued to live as a man until her death in 1960.

Bibliography

Byrne, Mrs. J.C. “Social Hours With Celebrities” (Vol.2, p.215-219)

Hone, W. “Yearbook”, 1832 (p.210-211 includes biographical details and portrait by Edward Chatfield — used as first illustration in this book.)

Varney, Mary and McKenzie F. “Brighton Amazon Exposed” in “Sussex Life” March 1988 (p.47-8)

‘The Circulator of Useful Knowledge” March 5th 1825 (p.147 includes portrait and notice with inscription on tomb stone and epitaph.)

“Notes and Queries”, various articles:

“Phoebe Hessel, The Stepney Amazon”, various contributors, N&Q 10th series Vol. 1 (p.406); Vol. 2 (p.16 & p.74)

“Phoebe Hessel and Fontenoy”, F.H. Skrine, N&Q 10th series, Vol. 6 (p.82 & p. 132)

“Ultracentenarianism”, W. Thorns, N&Q 4th series, Vol.12 (p.221-222) and 5th series Vol. 1 (p.221-223)

Also, Biographical notice (source unknown) and various cuttings, and Collinson, Charles A., Typescript, 1971

All of the above are held by Brighton Reference Library and represent the vast majority of the information we have on Phoebe Hessel. Brighton Museum (housed in the same building as the library) has a picture of Phoebe in their famous local people cabinet. Alongside the picture is a walking stick which the museum staff do not know the source of— it may well be Phoebe’s as there is evidence that her walking stick was given to the museum, and it looks similar to the one she is holding in the picture.

Chambers, Anne, Granuaile: The life and times of Grace O’Malley 1530-1603, Wolfhound Press, 1983

Wheelwright, Julie, Amazons and Military Maids, Pandora, 1989

The Amazing Phoebe Hessel, a short black and white film by Michael Olden, Basement Flat, 28 Buckingham Street, Brighton

Books for Children

These are just a few books which we have found useful in approaching gender issues — more available from Letterbox Library.

Amazing Grace, Mary Hoffman, Francis Lincoln Ltd, 1991

Asha’s Mums, Rosamund Elwin and Michelle Paulse, Womens Press, Canada, 1990

Boys Don’t Knit, Janet Schoop, Womens Press, Canada, 1986

The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate, Margaret Mahy, Puffin, 1987

What is a Girl? What is a Boy?, Stephanie Waxman, Widescope, 1976

William’s Doll, Charlotte Zolotow, Harper Trophy, 1985

Books for Older Children and Adults

Once again, just a few useful and interesting books. More are available.

A Woman’s Place — The Changing Picture of Woman in Britain, Diana Souhami, Penguin, 1986

Out of the Dolls House — The Story of Women in the 20th Century, BBC Books, 1988

Feminism for Beginners Susan Alice Watkins, Marisa Rueda & Marta Rodriguez, Icon Books, 1992

Black Women for Beginners Saundra Sharp, Writers and Readers, 1993