The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1859-11-26
Harry" Stokes, the Man Woman.

" century, was Harry Stokes, the brio
. setter, who committed suicide in the sluit
e OF the river Irwell, at Node Wheel, En-
,. land, lately. For about thirty years tn
II extraordinary person lived in Manchestt
ana Stafford as journeyman and mastt
+ bricksetter; had been twice married I
other women; had kept beer houses an
9 served customers at the tap as the ''joll
landlord; had worked at her trade a.
3 bricksetter, and erected many importan
1 buildings in both towns, and had obtaine
1 the reputation of being the most skilfu
, fire crate setter and chimney doctor" il
, the neighborhood. She always dressed q
man, in the clothing peculiar to he
trade; invariably superintended the mel
In her employment; and could lift
weight spread the mortar, and set bricl
: with the best Of them. Her habits wer
. those OF q man. She attended daily OF
dinary in the town along with other brick
settlers, drank, smoked and joked with tn,
hardest, and joined in the evening carous
ais. Yet, with all this constant and Close
intimacy with the opposite sex, the stron,
minded woman contrived to keep her Owl
great secret; and there is every reason t.
believe that she has gone down into tn.
grave at the advanced age of 60, or therea
bouts, having throughout the whole Of hel
remarkable life maintained An unbroken
check upon those passions which crowd
the streets of every large town with the
unfortunates of her sex. Her great EN-
deavor was on all occasions to keep up the
manly character she had assumed From
child she had been accustomed to the
| severe work of one of the most laborious
occupations in which man is engaged, and
the skill she has attained in the trade re-
4 nf
which made her worthy of a better fate
| than that of the wretched suicide.
She was the daughter of a bricklayer in
a village in the neighborhood of Doncas-
ter Before she could well balance her
own little body she was made useful in
the house; and ere many years had passed
over her head she was brought into ac-
quaintance with some of the toughest and
toughest work in those hard wrought
days. Little Harriet Stokes line had not
been laid in pleasant places She was so
ground down by the iron hand at home
that, when she was about eight years old
she put on tattered suit of boys cloth
ing, and walked forth into the wide, wide
world Arrived at the village of Whitby,
she looked about for work. She had not
run away from her fathers house because
she did not like work and preferred to eat
the bread Of idleness. The hard treat
ment of parents ignorant of their respon-
sibiiity had driven her from the protection
of home, and from all the associations
which should encbain the young mind 10
home That she was not afraid of hard
work was apparent when she offered her
services to a bricksetter in Whi,bv-
Though somewhat understood she appear
ed a broadset, active, useful lad and speed
lily set to work Her first efforts to please
were attended with success. and she was
soon taken as ali apprentice
From this point we must drop the femi-
nine appellative and speak of Harry
Stokes rs boy who has worked his way
TO the dignity of journcyman bricksetter.
For something like twenty years rom this
point We lose the connecting links which
Join this Yorkshire experience To his Man
chester life. About twenty -ti,c years ago
Inc was brought prominently undcr the no
into the domains Of Of 'r matrfmony. farfy s
Stokes wanting a companion in life, exc
cuted a matrimonial con;rtfmps. True to
his role as a man-for he had reached the
age when the average of bricksettcrs are
fathers as we'll as journeymen-he cast
about and fixed his choice upon a plump
little widow who kept beer shop in Gu
pids alley, Oft Dcansgate, Manchester
lie had been accustomed to take his pot of
beer and smoke his short pipe under Bet
seys roof, and had at least taken a decided
fancy to Betsey herself He was a good
looking young man was Harry Stokes, for,
although still uudersized and innocent of
whiskers. a face as smooth as n womans,
he was stoutly built, had capacious depth
of chest and a pair of hips which gave an
unusual profit to his tailor Betsey then
II Co. h..
had the reputation of being good. steady
workman, and was doing pretty well as
bricksetter 1t was resolved that the
twain should become one flesh; and so to
the church they hied Harry discharged
the duties of a bridegroom at church to
perfection; but when the widow got him
home there was terrible row. The night
was spent in downright quarrel and fight;
and the lamentable result was summons
taken out by Betsey against her husband
for an assault, for which he was condemn
ed to the New Bailey for one or two
months During the hearing of the case,
Betsey, with vehemence, declared that her
husband was not a man, and that she
therefore would not live with him.
The case created great amusement and
gossip at the time, and formed the subject
of popular ballads, which were sung and
hawked about the streets of Manchester
" Harry" Stokes, on issuing from the New
Bailey, was considerably prosecuted by
those little gamins who knew so we'll how
to torment street celebrities, while he was
also the object of much curious speculation
among his brethren of the trowel. He,
however, maintained discreet silence as
to his sex, threw out hints that the woman
he had married was mad, and as the most
effective proof that she was a malevOlent
libeller he soon afterwards married another
widow, rejoicing in the name of Francis
Collins, who was some ID or 20 years his
senior, and who had grown up son ana
daughter living with her. His connection
with this woman, with whom ne hved uh-
til he committed suicide, is the most mys-
terious phase of this most mysterious his
tory. She declares with solemn earnest
ness that she did not know, until informed
the other day, that the person with whom
she had been living for the last twenty five
wears, sleeping together night after night in
| the same bed, was a woman, and her own
children looked upon Stokes as their STEP
father
| She asserts that she took Stokes into
| her house in the first instance out of pity,
to shield him from the persecution to
which he was subjected 1t may be that
although out of sense Of shame the old
woman thus attempts to conceal her know
ledge of Stokes sex, she did in reality
know from the first that the person was
woman, and that she was in all probability
induced by Stokes to consent to the UNION
! in order that the appearance of married
life might dlspel the rnmors afioat, and
enable him to live Sin peace and quiet
ness" Whether or not that was the inten
ton, the acquaintance brought about thai
result; for although there were surmises
that Harry" Stokes was woman, and he
was constantly the object OF curious CLAN
ces, he escaped the open moiestatlon e
which he had been previously subjected.