Mary Jane Fearneaux (1839-1914)

Mary Jane Furneaux was born in Liverpool on the 17th September 1839, the daughter of Frederick Elliott Furneaux and Sarah Butler, of good family, but poor fortune. Following a ‘quarrel’ with his father, a leather dealer, Frederick enlisted in the Royal Artillery as a Gunner and Driver on 20th November, 1839, spending two years stationed in Corfu, Greece. On his early discharge on medical grounds in 1844, Frederick was employed as a Policeman, first in Wolverhampton, then in Liverpool. Frederick died from tuberculosis on 30th April, 1846 aged 32. Mary Jane was six. Any capital was quickly spent, and they must now survive on grandmother Harriet's annuity of £60 a year.

Mary Jane became a Governess in Garston near Liverpool. She was allegedly dismissed on ‘suspicion of theft.’ She then gave birth to a daughter c. 1863 (alive in 1882, but not traced), and must live on her wits, perhaps disguising her gender. Her grandmother dies in 1868, the annuity ceases, and she must now support her mother. She moves to Heath Town near Wolverhampton, where she opens an infants school, but this soon fails. She borrows money, fails to repay it, and is sent to prison for 12 months in January 1872. On her release, she moves to a lodging house in Birmingham.

Here, as Frederica de Fearneaux, she impersonates Lord Arthur Clinton, an aristocrat disgraced in the Boulton and Park cross-dressing scandal. This ex-MP, a childhood friend of Royalty, had died of fever in suspicious circumstances. Letters from Queen Victoria command 'he' lives as a woman until her displeasure has passed, and she dresses as a man to raise money from local tradesmen. When they grow impatient, she forges guarantees from the Lord Chief Justice. She becomes 'engaged' to her landlady's daughter, and moves to Liverpool in 1878, but Jennie must return when the money runs out.

Her Birmingham creditors become more insistent, but are satisfied by escorting her 'visit' to Queen Victoria at Balmoral, then an interview with the 'Lord Chief Justice'. Mary Jane is threatened by one of her creditors, forging a letter that gets him sent to prison. She becomes engaged to Lizzie, and they travel the country together. Eventually the pyramid collapses, and she is sentenced to seven years in prison in 1882.

On her release, she is taken in by an artist in Leeds, then obtains a respectable position as a housekeeper. In 1894, some old debts catch up with her, and she is sent to prison for ten years, released in 1901. She works as a lady's companion, then selling corsets, before dying aged 74 in 1914. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting.

A memorial brick was placed at Liverpool Cathedral in 2022.