Anne Jane Thornton

[1] The Lady magazine for 1835 adds a further detail: "...when six years old she accompanied her father to Ireland, where he afterwards possessed profitable stores and subsequently failed".

[2] At the age of thirteen, Thornton met Captain Alexander Burke, an Englishman whose father lived in New York, and before she was fifteen the two had become strongly attached to each other.

By now, she had a swarthy complexion, which helped to make her look less like a young woman, and still posing as a boy she got a position at nine dollars a month as ship's cook and steward on board The Adelaide.

It was on this vessel that Thornton was discovered as a woman: One day as she was washing in her berth, with her jacket loose in the front, one of the crew caught an accidental view of her bosom.

Before this arrival, other crew members had suspicions about Thornton's identity, and McIntyre later told The Times that she had been abused by the other sailors and that she had worked hard aboard the ship.

The customs man then lodged Thornton at the Cooper's Arms Tavern in Lower Thames Street and reported the case to his superiors.

[6] After the Lord Mayor of London had read the reports, he sent a police inspector to investigate and subsequently held an inquiry at the Mansion House, himself interviewing all parties concerned, including Thornton and McIntyre.

However, when the Lord Mayor made inquiries in Donegal he found that Thornton's father had himself emigrated to America, although her sister still lived there and was glad to hear news of Anne Jane.

[1] King William IV granted Thornton a pension of £10 a year, while a Mr Andrew Murray gave her the use of a farm near Lough Eske, rent-free.

[12] Good people give attention and listen to my song; I will unfold a circumstance that does to love belong; Concerning of a pretty maid who ventur'd we are told Across the briny ocean as a female sailor bold.

Her name was Ann Jane Thornton, as you presently shall hear, And also that she was born in fam'd Gloucestershire; Her father now lives in Ireland, respected we are told, And grieving for his daughter—this female sailor bold.

From St Andrew's in America this fair maid did set sail, In a vessel called the Sarah and brav'd many a stormy gale She did her duty like a man did reef and steer we're told By the captain she was respected well—the female sailor bold.

'Twas in the month of February eighteen hundred thirty five, She in the port of London in the Sarah did arrive; Her sex was then discovered which the secret did unfold, And the captain gaz'd in wonder on the female sailor bold.