Legends of South Shields: Dolly Peel

In the 19th century, it seems that every town has its own elderly fishwife smuggler who attained legendary status. While there’s Peggy Potts in Sunderland (1798-1875), there was in South Shields, Dolly Peel (1782–1857). Existing at the roughly same time, their legacies signified the struggles which women had to pursue to survive in an era characterised by rapid urbanisation and poverty.

Dolly Peel, who’s name at birth was Dorothy Appleby, was born on the riverside of the River Tyne on Shadwell Street. Similar to Sunderland and the East End, the early town of South Shields emerged directly on the riverbanks around the port itself, and only later expanded outwards. Indeed, like Wearside, the 18th century seen Shields undergo a transformation, changing from a small fishing village into a booming town with salt making, glass making and shipbuilding industries.

In 1803, Dolly met a man named Cuthbert Peel and got married. Cuthbert was a fisherman, and as a fishwife she supported her husband’s career by selling this fish, identical to Peggy in Sunderland. This of course was not a lucrative way to live, so soon Dolly was soon forced to turn to “other” means to survive, that is the bustling smuggling industry, which like in Sunderland, emerged around the port of the River Tyne. One of the most prominent locations and dens for smugglers at this time was the newly emerged Marsden Grotto.

Dolly soon began obtaining and illicitly selling a whole range of smuggled goods, including brandy, cigars, tobacco and lace. As a woman, she was not be underestimated, known for her strong stature and being fearless. Later, however, her husband advanced his career and joined the Merchant Navy. However, the turn of the 19th century seen a new crisis emerged which required sailors to be recruited into the Royal Navy, that is the Napoleonic Wars. Cuthbert was consequentially conscripted to serve on the HMS Amelia. Worse still, their son was also recruited.

Fearing for her husband, and not wanting to be apart from him, Dolly decided to “smuggle herself” upon the HMS Amelia. However, on being discovered by the crew, she was assigned to work as a nurse for injured sailors, a job she embraced and she was given a legitimate right to stay and pardoned for “naval interference.” Peel’s unexpected and extraordinary service in the Navy gave her legendary status.

In her later years, Dolly continued to live with her husband on the banks of the River Tyne on Lookham Stairs, where she died aged 76 in 1857. Her legacy in the town has continue to live on, with a statue being created to honor her in 1987, as well as a pub in her own name, The Dolly Peel.