University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1809 The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mary Ann Talbot, in the Name of John Taylor (1809) Mary Ann Talbot Paul Royster (transcribed and edited by) University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Talbot, Mary Ann and Royster, Paul (transcribed and edited by), "The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mary Ann Talbot, in the Name of John Taylor (1809)" (1809). Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries. 32. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/32 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Abstract An important document in the history of cross-dressing, transvestism, male THE LIFE AND SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF impersonators, and women soldiers, this autobiographical narrative tells the life story of an orphan girl who was trapped into service in the British army MARY ANN TALBOT and navy (as well as on a French privateer) in the 1790s, and saw action and was wounded at the siege of Valenciennes and again in the naval battle of “the Glorious 1st of June, 1794.” She also describes episodes in which she was a prisoner of war in France, a steward and officer aboard an American [1809] merchant vessel, an abortive highwayman, a pensioner and petitioner in London, a jewelry-maker, an actress, a hospital patient and worker, both a successful and unsuccessful litigant in a series of lawsuits, and a prisoner for debt in Newgate.