Thomas Hall, born Thomasine Hall (c. 1603; date of death unknown), was an English intersex person and servant in colonial Virginia whose wearing of female attire and, on subsequent investigation, a liaison with a maid provoked public controversy in 1629. Hall was subjected to a physical inspection, and the case reached the Quarter Court at Jamestown, which ruled that Hall was both a man and a woman and must dress in male and female clothing simultaneously.
Hall's given name is typically written as "Thomas(ine)" or "Thomas/ine" in scholarly literature on the case.
Early life
According to Hall's own account, Hall was born and christened Thomasine Hall at All Saints' Church, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. Hall was raised as a female and became skilled at traditional women's crafts, such as needlework. At the age of twelve, Hall was sent to London to live with an aunt, and lived there for ten years and observed the popularity among the aristocracy of crossover male and female fashion. These trends may have influenced Hall to break away from social norms.
As a young adult in the early 1620s, Hall decided to adopt a man's hairstyle and "changed into the fashion of a man" in order to follow a brother into the all-male military service. Hall then served in the military in England and France. Hall returned to Plymouth, and earned a living for a time by making bone lace and other needlework, reverting to the lifestyle of Thomasine.
Resettlement
Around 1627, Hall donned men's clothing again, left England, and settled in Jamestown as an indentured servant. Pursuing a different work opportunity, Hall relocated to the small settlement at Warrosquyoacke, Virginia, a village of likely fewer than 200 people (during the 1620s), founded on the site of an old Indian village along the James River, and home of two tobacco plantations. Tobacco planters in need of workers preferred hiring men.
In early 1628, Hall appears to have been arrested on a charge of receiving stolen goods, though there is a slight doubt about whether this is the same Thomas Hall. Hall was living with a John and Jane Tyos. It was claimed that Hall and the Tyoses had encouraged a neighbor to commit theft and sell the stolen goods to them. The property was found in the Tyoses' house.
Local controversy
Hall was not strict about presenting consistently as male in this new environment. Hall occasionally wore female clothing, which confused neighbors, masters, and captains of plantations. When queried about wearing women's clothes, Hall replied: "I goe in womans apparel to get a bitt for my Catt", apparently meaning that it allowed Hall to have sexual relations with men. Sometimes, even when presenting as Thomasine, Hall was rumored to be having sexual relations with women. For example, stories spread that Hall had sexual relations with the maid nicknamed "Great Besse", who worked for the former governor of Virginia, Richard Bennett. This was an issue of criminal responsibility; as a male, Hall could be prosecuted for sexual misconduct with a servant. Hall accused a woman called Alice Long of spreading the rumor, but Long said that the story originated with Hall's previous employers the Tyoses.
Residents of Warrosquyoacke claimed that Hall's changes of dress and sexual relations with members of both sexes were causing disorder. Lacking a local court or church to determine gender, the authority of the distinction fell to the laypersons, more specifically the married women of the village, who claimed experience with interpreting the female body. Three women–Alice Long, Dorothy Rodes, and Barbara Hall–decided to examine Hall's anatomy. More than once, they entered Hall's home while Hall slept and observed Hall's genitalia. They decided that Hall lacked a "readable set of female genitalia" and persuaded Hall's plantation master, John Atkins, to confirm their determination. Atkins had previously claimed that Hall was female but, after inspecting Hall during sleep, agreed that Hall was male, having seen "a small piece of flesh protruding from [Hall's] body". Hall apparently claimed also to have female anatomy, described as "a peece of an hole", but Atkins and the women said that they could find no evidence of this.