Hannah Twynnoy

Hannah Twynnoy (c. 1669/70 – October 1703) is believed to have been the first person to have been killed by a tiger in Britain. Twynnoy was an early 18th-century barmaid working in The White Lion public house in the centre of the English market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

Twynnoy's gravestone at Malmesbury Abbey

Her death is recorded in the Malmesbury parish register, which records a burial on 24 October 1703 of "Hannah Twynney kild by a Tygre at ye White Lyon".[1] Her gravestone survives in a corner of the churchyard of Malmesbury Abbey, with a memorial poem alluding to her death. A memorial plaque with more details was recorded by an antiquarian in the nearby village church at Hullavington, but is now lost.

Unsolved aspects of the death

Wealth or pity?

Poetic epitaphs on gravestones were popular at the turn of the 18th century, but generally only for the wealthy and celebrated.[2] A gravestone and a plot in the churchyard of Malmesbury Abbey for any woman, who could not have been a priest or a priest's wife, would have been costly, even without engaging the services of a poet. The identity of the patron who paid for her tombstone and plot remains a mystery, although they may have been donated by the church and vestry.

Family

Her connection with the village of Hullavington, which kept family records at this time, seems anomalous. Her sole connection comes from a later local historian giving the wording and location of a plaque.

Other than her burial, the parish registers and Bishops transcripts for Malmesbury contain no entry, between 1635 and 1700, for anyone named Twynnoy.

Enduring legacy

In 1993 a new residential road in Malmesbury was named 'Twynnoy Close'.[4]

In 2003, on the 300th anniversary of the death, a ceremony was carried out at the grave when every schoolgirl in the town, younger than 11 and named Hannah, placed a flower on the grave.[5]

Twynnoy was featured in the 'Stupid Deaths' segment of the CBBC programme Horrible Histories (Series 4, Episode 6).

Notes and references

Notes

    References
    1. Malmesbury parish burial register for 1703. Digital copy available via Ancestry
    2. "Malmesbury's tiger woman has place in history". thisiswiltshire.co.uk. 24 September 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
    3. Hannah Twynnoy Athelstan Museum. Retrieved 2013-10-04
    4. Twynnoy Close, Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9XP, United Kingdom
    5. "Memorial for tiger death woman". bbc.co.uk/. 23 October 2003. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.