Hannah Twynnoy is reputedly the first person on record to have been killed by a tiger

Tiger

The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...

 in Britain

Early Modern Britain

Early modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain, roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the...

.

Hannah Twynnoy was an early 18th-century barmaid working in a pub in the centre of the English market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 of Malmesbury in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

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All that remains of the story of her death is her gravestone, in a corner of the churchyard of Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. In 941 AD, King Athelstan was buried in the Abbey. By the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was...

.
Her tombstone records her name and death at the age of 33 as occurring on October 23, 1703, with a gravestone poem which reads:

"In bloom of life /
She's snatched from hence /
She had no room /
To make defence /
For tyger fierce /
Took life away /
And here she lies in a bed of clay /
Until the Resurrection Day."

Although this poem is all that exists as a source for her death, recent research by historian John Bowen has discovered that a more detailed account of the death was placed on a plaque on the wall of the parish church in Hullavington

Hullavington

Hullavington is an English village in Wiltshire, just to the north of the M4 motorway, 5 miles south-south-west of Malmesbury and 7 miles north of Chippenham.-History:Hullavington is first attested as Hunlavintone in the Domesday Book of 1086...

, a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 five miles from Malmesbury.
The plaque, which was almost certainly installed soon after her death in the first years of the 18th century, has since been lost, but was recorded in Victorian times by a local historian.

It said that Hannah Twynnoy was a barmaid working at a pub called the White Lion in Malmesbury (number 8 Gloucester Road – now a private house) in 1703 when a travelling circus arrived to set up in the pub's large rear yard. The circus contained a menagerie

Menagerie

A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...

 of animals including a tiger, which Hannah was warned against upsetting. She liked bothering the animal until one day it got tired of it and mauled her. Hannah did not survive.

Unsolved aspects of the tale

While Twynnoy was killed by a tiger on October 23, 1703 , many aspects of the tale remain a mystery. Poetic epitaphs on gravestones were popular at the turn of the 18th century, but generally only for the wealthy and celebrated. A gravestone and a plot in the churchyard of Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. In 941 AD, King Athelstan was buried in the Abbey. By the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was...

 would not have been cheap, even without engaging the services of a poet. One mystery is who paid for her tombstone and interment.

The phrase in bloom of life also indicates she may have been pregnant at the time of her death, as 33 would not have been considered the flush of youth in 1703.

Her connection with the village of Hullavington is also unproved. Although no records have been found which link her to the village, it is probable that is where she originally came from.

The Parish Registers and Bishops Transcripts for Malmesbury contain no entry, between 1635 and 1700, for anyone named Twynnoy. The Hullavington Church documents may reveal Hannah and/or her family.

Modern folklore

In 2003, on the 300th anniversary of the death, a simple ceremony was carried out at the grave. Every schoolgirl under 11 named Hannah in the town placed a flower on the grave.
A road on a new development in Malmesbury was named 'Twynnoy Close' in 1993.