Book contents
- Female Husbands
- Female Husbands
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Extraordinary Lives
- Part One UK Husbands, 1740–1840
- 1 The First Female Husband
- 2 The Pillar of the Community
- 3 The Sailors and Soldiers
- 4 The Wives
- Part Two US Husbands, 1830–1910
- Conclusion: Sex Trumps Gender
- Epilogue: The First Female-to-Male Transsexual
- Notes
- Index
1 - The First Female Husband
from Part One - UK Husbands, 1740–1840
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2020
- Female Husbands
- Female Husbands
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Extraordinary Lives
- Part One UK Husbands, 1740–1840
- 1 The First Female Husband
- 2 The Pillar of the Community
- 3 The Sailors and Soldiers
- 4 The Wives
- Part Two US Husbands, 1830–1910
- Conclusion: Sex Trumps Gender
- Epilogue: The First Female-to-Male Transsexual
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Charles Hamilton married Mary Price on July 16, 1746 in Wells, England. The ceremony was administered by Mr. Kingston, the curate of St. Cuthbert. Hamilton was born nearby in Somerset but lived most of their childhood in Scotland with their parents William and Mary Hamilton. At the age of fourteen and without a stated reason that has survived, Hamilton put on clothes belonging to their brother and presented themself as male. Hamilton secured apprenticeships with two different doctors over the years, gaining knowledge and confidence in both their gender expression and their trade, then set off on their own, traveling to southwest England and offering pills, ointments, and advice to anyone who would have them along the way. Hamilton rented a room in the house of Mary Creed, where Creed’s niece, Mary Price, also resided. The two became involved and were wed, traveling the country as husband and wife while Hamilton worked selling treatments for common ailments. Just shy of two months of marriage, Mary Price resolved that she was done with Charles. She reported her husband to the authorities and claimed that she had just figured out that Hamilton was not actually a man, triggering an investigation into the person who would become famously known as the “female husband.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Female HusbandsA Trans History, pp. 17 - 43Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020