Mary Hamilton

Charles Hamilton was an English 18th-century female husband. Named Mary Hamilton at birth, and initially brought up a girl, they took the name Charles and started presenting as male at age 14. In 1746, while living as a man, they married Mary Price. After Price reported she was suspicious of Hamilton's manhood to local authorities, Hamilton was prosecuted for vagrancy, and was sentenced in 1746 to a public whipping in four towns and to six months imprisonment with hard labour.

In the same year, Henry Fielding published a fictionalised account of the case under the title The Female Husband. The term 'Female Husband' became common in the US and British press to document behaviour which would later be stigmatised by sexologists.

Hamilton was not the first documented female husband, but this was the first use of the term to refer to – in the language of the time – a woman who had married another woman whilst purporting to be male.

Biography

Mary Hamilton was born in Somerset and grew up in Scotland, the child of William and Mary Hamilton. At the age of 14, Mary began wearing male clothes borrowed from their brother. Charles Hamilton, as Mary then became known, studied with two doctors during their apprenticeship. One of them was Dr Edward Green, who called himself an "operator and occulist" but was known to be a mountebank. Hamilton helped Green produce medical compounds, collect the requisite supplies, and sell cures for various illnesses including cancer, leprosy, fistulas and scurvy. Charles was arrested and tried for fraud. According to a local newspaper report, "There was a great Debate for some Time in Court about the Nature of her Crime, and what to call it, but at last it was agreed that she should be charged with fraud."

Depositions

Charles Hamilton's deposition Charles was born in Somerset, and was initially known as Mary, the daughter of Mary and William Hamilton. Their family later moved to Scotland. When they were fourteen, they used their brother's clothes to pose as a boy, travelled to Northumberland and entered the service of a Dr Edward Green (described in the deposition as a "mountebank") and later of Dr Finley Green. They studied to become a "quack doctor" as an apprentice of the two unlicensed practitioners. In 1746, they moved to Wells and set up a medical practice of their own under the name Charles Hamilton. They met Mary Price, a relative of their landlady, whom they married in July 1746. The marriage lasted for two months before Hamilton's "true sex" was discovered, and Charles was arrested.

Mary Price's deposition A deposition from Mary Price says that after the marriage she and Hamilton travelled selling medicines. During the marriage Hamilton "entered her body several times, which made this examinant believe, at first, that the said Hamilton was a real man, but soon had reason to judge that the said Hamilton was not a man, but a woman." When they were in Glastonbury, Price confronted them. Charles admitted the truth to Price, at which point she reported the matter and Hamilton was arrested. a sensational pamphlet, The Female Husband, that gives a different account of Hamilton's life. He says that they were born in 1721 on the Isle of Man, the daughter of a former army sergeant who had married a woman of property on the island. They had been brought up in the strictest principles of virtue and religion, but were seduced into "vile amours" by their friend Anne Johnson, an enthusiastic Methodist, and "transactions not fit to be mention'd passed between them". When Anne leaves them for a man, Hamilton seeks another female lover. They dress as a man and pretend to be a Methodist preacher. They meet Mrs. Rushford, a wealthy 68-year-old widow who takes them to be a lad of about 18. Tempted by the money they will get as a "husband", Hamilton marries Mrs. Rushford. According to Fielding, they were able to deceive their bride by means "which decency forbids me even to mention". However, the bride eventually discovers Hamilton's sex, and Hamilton is forced to flee.

Hamilton uses various other aliases to marry other women, but is repeatedly forced to flee when the ruse is discovered. In at least three instances they lived for some time unnoticed by their married spouse. Finally, posing as a doctor, they marry Mary Price, a beautiful 18-year-old girl. The marriage is apparently happy until, while Hamilton is visiting Glastonbury, they are recognised by someone from a previous "marriage". Mary cannot believe it, but her mother ensures that Hamilton is arrested and prosecuted. They are sentenced to imprisonment and to four public whippings in the market towns of Somerset. Fielding claims that "on the very evening she had suffered the first whipping, she offered the gaoler money, to procure her a young girl to satisfy her most monstrous and unnatural desires."

Fielding's text was re-published with alterations in 1813, again anonymously, as The surprising adventures of a female husband! Containing the whimsical amours, curious incidents, and diabolical tricks of Miss M. Hamilton, alias Mr. G. Hamilton, alias Minister Bentley, Mr. O'Keefe, alias Mrs. Knight, the Midwife, &c ... This lesser-known version has many alterations including a more sensationalized title and changes to the historical and cultural context. The pamphlet was inexpensive and more than likely purchased by both men and women of different social statuses. Fielding exaggerated and fictionalized parts of the story in order to keep the audience interested and to entice people to read who might not be interested in erotic fiction. In Fielding's version the reader can be confused by the use of gender: "She had not been long in this city, before she became acquainted with one Mary Price, a girl of about eighteen years of age, and of extraordinary beauty. With this girl, hath this wicked woman since her confinement declared, she was really as much in love, as it was possible for a man ever to be with one of her own sex." Fielding's use grammar here confuses the gender issue; both 'man' and 'her' refer back to Hamilton, or the 'wicked woman' speaking to Fielding from her jail cell. However, in the pamphlet published in the 19th century, the author makes a point of correcting this ambiguity, often adding italics to emphasize the pronoun choice.

Authenticity of the accounts Historian Louis Crompton describes Fielding's account as probably "one part fact to ten parts fiction".

The 1813 publication by Henry Fielding was the subject of an appraisal in a 2010 episode of PBS' Antiques Roadshow entitled "Naughty or Nice." The publication includes a colour etching attributed, possibly falsely, to George Cruikshank which depicts Hamilton being publicly whipped for their crimes.