Phoebe Hessel: Brighton’s 108-Year-Old Soldier
Today’s article is about Phoebe Hessel who lived a remarkable life, in part as a man. According to her grave, she was born in 1713, so right at the end of the reign of Queen Anne and lived long enough to see George IV become king in 1821. If her age…
Today’s article is about Phoebe Hessel who lived a remarkable life, in part as a man. According to her grave, she was born in 1713, so right at the end of the reign of Queen Anne and lived long enough to see George IV become king in 1821. If her age was correctly noted in the parish burial register, then she died at the incredible age of 108, in Brighton, Sussex. Phoebe was one of the most prominent Brighton characters in the 18th and early 19th centuries, as this inscription on her tombstone in the parish church yard attests to and was known to almost everyone in the town and surrounding villages.
