Nancy Perriam (April 1769 – January 24, 1865) was an English woman who served in Royal Navy warships during the Napoleonic Wars.
In retirement Perriam worked as a street seller of fish; she was one of three women denied the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 because of their sex.
With the French Revolutionary Wars ongoing, in 1795 Crescent returned to England for repairs after serving off the coast of France.
From there Letton, as a woman of good character and wife of one of the crew members, was allowed to come on board Crescent and sail with her husband.
[7] Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam Martin was appointed to consider applications for the medal; his committee was initially going to accept Townshend's request because of strong testimonies from her ex-captain.
Martin wrote that "there were too many people in the fleet equally useful and it will leave the army exposed to innumerable applications of the same nature".