St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-01
THE REAL BILLY TAYLOR.
The Wife who Followed Her Hus-
band TO Sea.

band to Sea.
The popular old ballad of ''Billy Taylor
celebrates. as everybody knows, the cour
age and aventurous spirit of young lady
who hau' suffered great injury to her feel
ings by the neglect of the rogue to whom
she had been foolish enough to give her
heart, says the London Telegraph. The
date of the origin of this song is uncertain,
but, unless It's paternity is established, it
might not be unsafe to assume that it was
the brief metrical version of the life of one
Hannah Smell, who flourished in the last
century. Only, instead of pursuing her
Billy Taylor for the purpose of killing him,
Hannah chased him with the intention, if
she ,uld find him, of binding him very
securely to her apron-Strings. Indeed, Han
nah had much higher principles than Billy
Taylor's sweetheart, am although she oc-
cupied but an humble Stati a in this life and
died in the OdOr of Jamaica rum, she may
yet be said to be an eminent and shining
example of plucky woman, as soldier,
sailor and publican. She came from Wor-
cester to live in Ship street, Mapping, W tn
her sister. and, after little, she married,
at the Fleet, one James Lumms sailor,
whom all British mariners who knew ban
nah's story were pleased to understand was
Dutchman. Dutch Jim squandered her
little property, and then, as tn : used to
say, discharged all further obligations to
her as husband with the foretopsal. In
other words he ran away and left her. She
waited two months. after which she put ON
a suit of clothes belonging to brother-in-
law, assumed his name which was James
Gray, and set off to find her husband. How
she enlisted, how young ladies fell in love
with her, how she marched like any man
with a musket on her shoulder, how she
deserted, and how she re-enliSted as
marine. need not be related here. She was
sent on board ship of the feet under Adj
miral Boscawen, and, at the siege of Pondi-
cherry. behaved, it is stated. in so distin-
guished manner that she gained the admira-
ton of all her officers. She worked in the
trenches, did soldiers duty in hundred
directions, fired during one engagement no
fewer than thirty-seven rounds, receiving
eleven shots in her legs, and was carried
off very dangerously wounded. After
long time she recovered, was sent on board
a kind of vessel styled a ''pink," and worked
as sailor, going aloft, manning the pumps,
and so forth. After little the crew began
to laugh at her for showing no SINS of a
beard, and christened her Miss Molly
Gray" This to Hannah was an insuppor
table taunt. She waited until the vessel
reached Lisbon, where she planned cruises
for the lively hearties ashore, and by taking
the lead in all the horseplay, skylarking,
and caper-cutting in which the Jacks of
those days INDUCED, and which as an art is
not wholly considered by them as lost even
in these times, she won the name of hearty
Jenny and so regained her former cheer
fulness of mind
She had not. however. been in Lisbon
long before she learned that her husband,
for numbering gentleman living in Gen
eva, had been stitched up in bag with a
quantity of stones and thrown headlOng into
the sea. So here was not only an end of
Dutch Jim but of the motives which had in
duced Hannah to become sailor-man and
darken her hands with tar. She quilted the
sea, returned to Mapping, obtained an an
nuity of 920 from the government. and
opened public house, on one side of which
was painted the figure of ia. and on the
oteer that of a soldier, while underneath
was written THE Widow in Masquerade,
or, the Female Warrior" These signs,
backed by her reputation and the noise she
had made at theater in the character of a
sailor, brought all the marines in the neigh
borhOod to her house. land she lived, I"
says the author of her life. many years in
adding to their conviviality and Cheer
There may be exaggerations in this story,
but, substantially, it is true; moreover, it is
delightfully."- English and exceedingly char
acteristic.