MORE 18th Century WOMEN . . . .

A Dauntless Spirit:
Jenny Andrews was the wife of William Andrews, a farmer from Edinburgh. In 1796 the couple settled on a 200 acres grant at Upper Woods Harbor, Nova Scotia.

She was a woman of quality who married against her parents will. Jenny had a large frame and a dauntless spirit. William’s skill with the flute relieved the loneliness of their home for they had no children and few neighbors.

About 1824 William died, and Jenny, having tested her endurance by walking to Shelburne for a doctor, now carried his body in her arms to Halifax for burial in consecrated ground.

Wriggler:
Mlle Clairon was the stage name of Claire Joseph Lerys who was thoroughly disreputable and made a career of it. In Paris her ardors were famous. According to a police report dated 18 September 1748 “This woman is known to have a strong and passionate temperament and to be lascivious in the extreme. She shouts so loudly when she makes love that the neighbors have to close the windows”.

She was so successful that she aroused envy, and as many more eminent people of the day, Clairon was attacked inn obscene pamphlets and songs, printed abroad and smuggled in. From The Hague, where there was no censorship came a brochure entitled “History of Mlle. Cronel [anagram of the misspelled Clairon] called Fretillon [wriggler] written by herself”. It was an immediate hit.

Epitaph of a Female Soldier:
St. Nicholas’ Churchyard, Brighton, England
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 Regt 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 at the time of Queen Anne extended to the reign of George IV by whose munificence she received comfort and support in her later years.
She died at Brighton where she had long resided 12 December 1821 Aged 108 years.