Female Pugilists

Copy of an advertisement in a Diurnal Print in June, 1722.

CHALLENGE:- I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some words with Hannah Hyfield, and requiring satisfaction, do invite her to meet me on the stage, and box me for three guineas ; each woman holding half-a-crown in each hand, and the first woman that drops the money to lose the battle.

ANSWER:- I, Hannah Hyfield, of Newgate-market, hearing of the resoluteness of Elizabeth Wilkinson, will not fail, God willing, to give her more blows than words -- desiring home blows, and from her no favour: she may expect a good thumping.

Many of the greatest prize-fighters of England were trained by their mothers, as was Hammer Lane, whose story is told in Famous Fights past and present, Vol. V, no. 53 (c.1902), edited by Harold Furniss >