Female husband

A female husband is a natal female, living as a man, who marries a woman. The term was used from the seventeenth century, and was popularised in 1746 by Henry Fielding's fictionalised account of the trial of Mary Hamilton, titled The Female Husband.

Prosecutions involving natal females living as men and marrying women were reported in the seventeenth century and eighteenth centuries. In many of these historic instances, the 'female husband' was presented as having deceived the bride and was accused of defrauding her. Female husbands could have been lesbian women or transgender men, but these terms were not used at that time.