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Life
1667-1739 [alias “Mother Ross” and “Kitty” Cavenaugh]; prob. b. Dublin; dg. of brewer-maltster called Cavenaugh; inherited an inn in 1688 on the death of an aunt with whom she lived after a failed marriage; m. Richard Welsh, with whom three children; enlisted in British Army as Christopher Welsh, apparently to rescue her husband, who had been press-ganged; She fought and was wounded at the Battle of Landen, 1693; returned to Dublin, 1701; re-enlisted 1702; received hip-wound at wounded in the hip at Schellenberg and fought at Blenheim, 1704; met up with her husband and cut off the nose of his companion, a Dutch woman; suffered a serious head-wound at Ramilles, and discovered to be a women, 1706; suffered loss of her husband at Malplaquet, 1709; presented to Queen Anne, 1912; pensioned at a shilling a day for life; kept an inn in Dublin and enjoyed Govt. priveliges; m. a soldier called Davies, who squandered her money; retired to Pensioner's College at Chelsea, London; d. Chelsea, 7 July 1739; buried with military honours. DIB RIA.
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References
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988): inherited Dublin inn at 21, m. Richard Welsh, one of the waiters; set out in search of him when he wrote that he had been pressed into the army in Flanders; enlisted as Christopher Welsh; fought at Nijmegen, Blenheim, and other battles; found her husband after 13 years separation, accompanying him till his death at Malplaquet; m. Hugh Jones, a grenadier who then was mortally wounded at St. Venant (1710); received pension of a shilling a day from Queen Anne, to whom presented; returned to Dublin and m. soldier called Davies; died in Chelsea, 7 July 1739; an autobiographical work [prob. by her], The Life and Adventures of Mrs Christian Davies (1740); a contemporary record of 7 July 1739 notices her death, attaches her to the Royal Inniskillings, and recounts her being wounded in the Williamite wars in Ireland, causing her discovery, after which she marries and accompanies her husband to Flanders. (Note: a variant life from the RIA Dictionary of Irish Biography by Patrick Geoghegan appeared in The Irish Times, Weekend Review, 31 July 2010.)
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Notes
An adaptation of her memoir was staged at the Gate Theatre, Dublin [c.1990].
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