In September 1842, at the Exeter police court, "Sally Rag" charged a man named Weeks with assault:
"in proof of which Sally exhibited a mutilated cap, which she declared had, among other garments, been savagely torn from her person by the defendant.
"It turned out, however, that this damage was but slight compared with the injury which Weeks had sustained at the hands of the enraged Amazon, who had literally battered the defendant's person as effectually as if he had been subjected to the practiced manipulations of a prize fighter, whilst Sally came off victorious with the loss only of her cap.
"The Bench, agreeing from the evidence that the defendant had been "more sinned against than sinning," dismissed the complaint."
"This denouement was wholly unexpected by Sally, who was about to indulge in a sally of spleen and disappoinment, when she was hastily removed."
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'Sally Row' was the nickname given to a Mrs. Gibson whom The Western Times described as an Amazon, a virago and a terror. She put fear into her neighbourhood , namely the Black Boy Road (Blackboy Road.) It was also well known in the neighbourhood that she exercised her pugilistic skill at home on the shoulders of her meek and long suffering 'better half.'
I still find what seems to me to be a disproportionate number of 'assertive women' with fists like cabbages in that part of Exeter beyond Eastgate. It must be something in the water!
Source: The Western Times, September 3rd, 1842.
