Frances Hornby Trevor was just 17 years old when Captain Charles William Barkley sailed into the port of Ostend in 1786. Within a few weeks Charles and Frances were married and together they set sail on an epic round the world voyage.

This story has already been told. It captured the imagination of a Canadian author and resulted in a book, The Remarkable World of Frances Barkley: 1769-1845 (Heritage, 2003) by Beth Hill and Cathy Converse. 

https://www.touchwoodeditions.com/book/the-remarkable-world-of-frances-barkley/

Stop Press May 2023: Cathy Converse has a new book just published, Frances Barkley Eighteenth-century Seafarer:

https://www.cathyconverse.com/books.html

Charles and Frances were courageous and heroic; Frances was the first woman to sail, openly as a woman, around the world. Over a period of six and a half years their two perilous sea voyages took them to Hawaii, Canada, China, India and Russia. Their story was also one of failure; their ship was confiscated, their infant daughter died at sea, they were kept prisoners on the island of Mauritius for a year and they returned to England without having made their fortune. The link below provides a short account of their travels.

http://www.abcbookworld.com/view_author.php?id=3313