Mary Lacy
Born1740
Wickham, Kent
Died1801
NationalityBritish
Known forFirst woman to complete a shipwright's apprenticeship
Notable workThe Female Shipwright

Mary Lacy (c. 1740 – 1801) was a British sailor, shipwright and memoirist. She was arguably the first woman to have been given an exam and a pension from the British Admiralty as a shipwright.

Early life

Lacy was born in Wickham, Kent in 1740.[1] She became a domestic servant, aged twelve.[1] In 1759, aged nineteen, Lacy ran away from home dressed as a boy.[2] Using the name William Chandler, Lacy worked as a servant for a ship's carpenter of the British navy.[2] William was her father's name and Chandler was her mother's maiden name.[3] She then studied as an apprentice to be a shipwright in 1763, going on to successfully complete the apprenticeship.[2] In 1770, she took her exam as a shipwright, arguably the first woman to have done so.[4] In 1771, however, she was forced to stop working because of her rheumatism, and applied for a pension from the Admiralty under her legal name, Mary Lacy, which was granted. She published her memoirs The Female Shipwright in 1773.[3] This was reprinted by the National Maritime Museum in 2008.

Later life

On 25 October 1772, at St Mary Abbots, Kensington,[5] Mary Lacy married Josias Slade, a shipwright, of Deptford, Kent.[6] That same year, Mary gave birth to her first child,[7] Margaret Lacey Slade, who was baptized at St Nicholas, Deptford, Kent, on 29 August.[8] Their other children were Josias Slade (1775–1777), Mary Slade (1777–1777), Josias Slade (1778–1781), Elizabeth Slade (1780–1780), and John Slade (born 1784).[9]

In 1775 Mary petitioned for her husband to be granted a servant because of his 16 years' service as a shipwright.[10] She had also applied unsuccessfully before Lord Sandwich for her husband to succeed Thomas Boyles, who lined the stuff for the Sawyers at the dockyard.[10]

Mary died in 1801 and was buried at St Paul's, Deptford, Kent, on 3 May 1801.[11][8] Her husband, Josias Slade, died in 1814 and was also buried at St Paul, Deptford, Kent, on 13 February 1814.[12] In his will and codicil, he only mentions his son, John Slade, and daughter, Margaret, now wife of Joseph Ward[13] (Margaret Lacey Ward died the following year and was buried at St Paul, Deptford, Kent, on 23 April 1815).[12]

A chapter in Suzanne Stark's book Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail features Lacy's life in eighteenth century England.[3]

Published works

  • The Female Shipwright. National Maritime Museum. 2008. ISBN 9781906367015.

References

  1. 1 2 Wheelwright, Julie (2020). Sisters in Arms: Female warriors from antiquity to the new millennium. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472838018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mary Lacy (b. 1740)". Bodleian Treasures: Sappho to Suffrage. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Hathaway, Nate (August 2020). "A Famous Woman Shipwright Invoked in New Boatbuilding Scholarship at The Apprenticeshop – Maine Women Magazine". Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  4. ↑ Bell, Jo; Hershman, Tania; Holland, Ailsa (2021). On this day she: putting women back into history, one day at a time. London: Metro. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-78946-271-5. OCLC 1250378425.
  5. ↑ Index record by West Middlesex Family History Society on FindMyPast.co.uk
  6. ↑ digitized image from London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597–1921 on Ancestry.co.uk
  7. ↑ digitized image of General Evening Post (London, England), July 31, 1773 – August 3, 1773 from Seventeenth - Eighteenth Century Burney collection newspapers from Gale Cengage Learning
  8. 1 2 digitized image from London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812 on Ancestry.co.uk
  9. ↑ digitized images of baptisms and burials from London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812 on Ancestry.co.uk
  10. 1 2 index record ADM 106/1231/171 from The National Archives (UK)
  11. ↑ Genealogists' Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 11, September 1988, page 403
  12. 1 2 index record from England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538–1991 on Ancestry.co.uk
  13. ↑ digitized image from England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384–1858 on Ancestry.co.uk
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