No title.

Summary

Described as "a very strange law-suit" and a "whimsical law affair," and narrated as a humorous anecdote: "The cause of action is a man and no man."  A rich gentleman, having impregnated his maid, found a husband for her, and she had "three or four" children by the gentleman who as promised provided for them. The husband "pleading reasons of honour and delicacy, had, on the very first night, declared to his wife, that he would never share with her in the bed of prostitution."  Later, the husband fell ill, and at the time of his death, "the supposed husband was discovered to be a female one." The decision of the tribunal at Chatelet may leave "the widow'd bride . . . and children totally destitute."

Full Title

22 Apr 1786. No title. Times p. 3 c. B.

Publication

Full Record

Date

22 April 1786

Provisional Category

Counterfeit Bridegroom; Female Husband

Cross-dressing activity

Marriage; Gender transition

Locations

ParisView on map

Primary source topic

Dressed as a man

Item format

News report; Extraordinary event

Motive

Marriage; Livelihood

Discovery of cross-dressing

Death

Attire

Male garb

Social rank

Lower class

Sex Perceived by Others

Male; Female

Sex Perceived by Recorder

Female

Venue

Chatelet (Parisian prison/court)