Female Footboy!

http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15929

An account of the Extraordinary Life and Adventures of Catherine Wilson, an interesting young woman, about twenty years of age, daughter of respectable parents, near Perth, who assumed man's apparel at the age of fourteen, and hired herself to a drover, when she came to Edinburgh, and got into a respectable gentleman's family as a foot boy...

This broadside was printed by R. Reynolds, 489 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.

According to this account, Catherine Wilson assumed the name of John Thomson during her time disguised as a man, in response to losing her parents at the age of six or seven. This story underscores the plight of women during the nineteenth century in a society where women's civil, legal and political rights were almost non-existent.  Catherine Wilson was forced to live as a man to earn her living and, as a lone woman, ensure her safety.

Broadsides were single sheets of paper, printed on one side so they could be read unfolded. They carried public information including proclamations, ballads and news of the day. They were cheap and sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. The National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

FEMALE FOOT BOY! An account of the Extraordinary Life and Adventures of Catherine Wilson, an interesting young woman, about twenty years of age, daughter of respectable parents, near Perth, who assumed man's apparel at the age of fourteen, and hired herself to a drover, when she came to Edinburgh, and got into a respectable gentleman's family as foot boy, but being discharged was compelled to work as a bricklayer's labourer; how she assumed the name of John Thomson, and married her landlady's daughter, Mary Gray, and on Saturday last resumed her petticoats. A young woman, of the name of Catherine Wilson, a native of Perth, had, if appears by her own account, assumed the dress of a boy between six and seven years ago...