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ANKSTOBRITISHNEWSPAPER^ ARCHIVEMedia fascination
An 1893 Dublin Evening
Telegraph report tells
the story of Harry
Stokes, born Harriet,
who lived as a married
man for 20 yearsStock response
Henry Fielding’s fictionalised
1813 account of ‘The Surprising
Adventures of a Female
Husband’, a reissue of the
1746 original which introduced
the term used for a person
assigned female at birth, who
transed gender, lived as a man
and married a womanWives of female
husbands were often
viewed as ‘normal’ or
‘straight’ victims of
circumstance
in which Charles was known to have lived: Taunton, Glaston-
bury, Wells and Shepton Mallet. The punishment was quite
severe, especially because the court struggled to even determine
which law Charles had actually violated. But the ruling sent
a strong message: transing gender and marrying a woman would
be met with swift and severe punishment.Denying difference
News of such punishments, however, did not deter others from
transing gender. James Howe ran the White Horse Tavern in
the Poplar district of London’s East End with their wife, Mary,
for more than 20 years from around 1740. Both James and
Mary had grown up poor, and were put out to work by their
families as teenagers. They worked on their feet at physically
demanding labour every day at the bar – and, probably, most days
of their lives. Only by grit, sacrifice, collaboration, consistency
and some luck did they manage to build a successful business.
They worked, paid taxes, went to church, donated to the needy,
and saved some money for the unpredictable future. Life wasgood – far better than either expected, given the hardship and
turmoil that marked their early years. James and Mary found
love, companionship and security in each other, working side
by side for their more than 30 years of marriage.
Mary had known James as a child, when the latter had lived
in society as a girl. Together, in 1732 they decided that James
would trans gender and live as a man so that they could marry
and live together as a married couple. Mary knew exactly what
she was getting into. Who knows – maybe it was even her idea?
So much is said about those who visibly reject gender norms
and live as men; so little is said and known about the women
who love them, live with them, and in many ways enable their
gender to be socially legible.
Mary’s name is not mentioned in the popular magazine and
newspaper articles that circulated about the couple for more
than a century, from 1766 into the 1880s. While the female
husbands were deemed so remarkable as to merit a new category
to describe them, their wives were offered no such importance.
Rather, they were often viewed as ‘normal’ or ‘straight’ women
who were victims of circumstance or got swept away and
deceived by one particular man. But there is no denying their