Hannah Twynnoy

Gravestone

Her gravestone records her name and death at the age of 33 on 23 October 1703, with a relatively long, evocative poem which reads:

In bloom of Life

She's snatchd from hence,

She had not room

To make defence;

For Tyger fierce

Took Life away.

And here she lies

In a bed of Clay,

Until the Resurrection Day.}}

Plaque recorded in a local history

Historian John Bowen has found a local history with a more detailed account of the death as, it states, placed on a plaque on the wall of the parish church in [Hullavington, a village 5 mi from Malmesbury. The plaque (see box for wording) that appeared to have been installed soon after her death, in the first years of the 18th century, was recorded in the Victorian period by a local historian and may since have been sold, melted down or stolen.

Oral history

The common thread of such stories by word of mouth from generation to generation, matches exactly the plaque, almost always with less formal wording, stating that Hannah Twynnoy was a barmaid working at a pub called the White Lion in Malmesbury (8 Gloucester Street, later converted to a private house) in 1703 when a menagerie arrived to set up in the pub's large rear yard. Among the animals there was included a tiger, which Hannah was warned against upsetting. She liked bothering the animal until one day it got tired of it and mauled her. Hannah did not survive.

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. 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 bishop's 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'.

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.

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

References

1. Malmesbury parish burial register for 1703. [https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61187/45582_1831109331_0901-00065?pid=722965 Digital copy available via Ancestry]
2. (24 September 2007). "Malmesbury's tiger woman has place in history". thisiswiltshire.co.uk.
3. [http://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/people_hannah_twynnoy.html Hannah Twynnoy] [[List of museums in Wiltshire. Athelstan Museum]]. Retrieved 2013-10-04
4. [https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Twynnoy+Close,+Malmesbury,+Wiltshire+SN16+9XP,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.593449,-2.095358&spn=0.001943,0.005284&geocode=FVNAEwMdUwfg_w&hnear=Twynnoy+Close,+Malmesbury+SN16+9XP,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=18 Twynnoy Close, Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9XP, United Kingdom]
5. (23 October 2003). "Memorial for tiger death woman". bbc.co.uk/.