Elizabeth Wilkinson

Elizabeth Wilkinson (fl. 1722–1733; alternatively referred to as Elizabeth Stokes) was an English bare-knuckle boxer and practitioner of historical European weapon arts active in the 1720s and early 1730s. She was one of the earliest known female boxers. During her decade-long career, she was often described as a "Championess" and had a reputation for having fought 45 bouts without defeat, although no official career data survives from the time. Later in her career, she engaged in bouts in which she and her husband, who was also a boxer, fought against other mixed-gender couples. She was also skilled with daggers, short swords, and quarterstaffs. She was one of the most famous prizefighters of her time, and writers including Pierce Egan and Thomas Moore celebrated her career into the early 19th century.

Personal life Little information survives about Wilkinson's life outside the boxing ring. In an announcement promoting one of her matches, she claimed to be "of the famous city of London". Like most English boxers of the early 18th century, she appears to have come from a working class English background. L.A. Jennings speculated that she may have been related to the boxer Robert Wilkinson, who was hanged for murder on 24 September 1722, shortly after Elizabeth's first advertised boxing match, while Christopher Thrasher speculated that "Wilkinson" might not have been her real surname and that she may have chosen it as a stage name to evoke the particularly infamous fellow boxer. A 1725 promotional announcement for a fight describes her as his "much admired consort". Sometime between 1722 and 1726, she became known as Elizabeth Stokes.

After her last documented fights in 1733, no further information about her life can be found in the historical record.

Boxing career In June 1722, Wilkinson challenged Hannah Hyfield of Newgate Market to what may have been one of the earliest advertised female prizefights in London. Her challenge in a London newspaper declared "I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some words with Hannah Hyfield and requiring Satisfaction, do invite her to meet me on the Stage, and Box with me for three guineas". They went on to specify that each woman would grasp a half crown in each hand, a rule that prevented the gouging and scratching common in eighteenth-century boxing. That year, she also fought a fishwife named Martha Jones, whom she reportedly beat after twenty-two minutes.

In the 18th century, boxing matches were always bare knuckle, and bouts sometimes continued without pause until one competitor collapsed. Wilkinson was also skilled with daggers, short swords, and quarterstaffs, and the majority of her matches may have been fought with weapons. By 1726, Wilkinson also frequently fought at James Stokes' boxing amphitheatre. and "Britania's most puissant Heroine". In the first of these, her former opponent Mary Welch and her trainer Robert Baker challenged "Mr. Stokes and his bold Amazonian Virago" in July 1727. Thomas and Sarah Barret gave a similar challenge in December 1728. In his response, James Stokes noted that Elizabeth was "thought not to fight in Publick anymore" but "my spouse not doubting but to do the fame and hopes to give a general Satisfaction to all Spectators". Though she exclusively boxed against other women, one advertisement from 1733 suggests that she may have fought a fencing match against Edward Sutton, who was also a frequent combatant in London's prize rings. According to Jennings, Wilkinson's career appears to have been successful even though she defied 18th century gender roles.

Thrasher has found that references to Wilkinson became increasingly rare and negative later in the 19th century. He argues that the Victorian era saw a strict redefinition of gender roles, so some writers of that time portrayed Wilkinson as an historical curiosity, while others derided her and her contemporaries as evidencing the barbarism and moral failings of the 18th century.