Mary Anne Talbot

She subsequently signed on as a clerk aboard an American merchantman as a passage to the United States but she returned again to England to avoid the attentions of the skipper's niece who wanted to marry her, ignorant of Talbot's gender.

Talbot continued to use sailor's clothes, worked in menial jobs and even tried her luck on stage at Drury Lane but eventually was arrested and taken to debtor's prison at Newgate.

When she was released she became a household servant for publisher Robert S. Kirby at his home in St Paul's Churchyard, London and worked for him for three years until her health deteriorated.

[7][8] Kirby included her tale in his book Wonderful Museum,[9] and (following her death) in The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mary Anne Talbot (1809).

[10] Talbot's tale aroused some sympathy and even a case of imposture when a woman in a Light Horseman's uniform tried to use a name John Taylor to solicit money in London.

However, the truthfulness of Talbot's story has been thrown into doubt, due to the discrepancies of the tale of her supposed time at sea, recorded in her biography and published in 1804.