First female lighthouse keeper

Although historically lighthouse-keeping was very much a family affair, where wives and daughters would have shared duties with their male relations, the earliest known female principal lighthouse keeper was Hannah Thomas (USA). She took on the lead role of tending the Plymouth Lighthouse on Gurnet Point in Massachusetts, USA, in 1776 following the death of her husband, John, in the Revolutionary War and served as its keeper until 1786.

In 1786, Thomas hired Nathaniel Burgess to serve as keeper. In 1790, ownership of the Gurnet Point lighthouse passed to the US Government, at which point Hannah's son (also named John) took on the role as keeper.

In the British Isles, it's believed the first female principal lighthouse keeper was Elizabeth Wilding who assumed responsibility for Bidston Lighthouse in Birkenhead, Merseyside, UK, following the death of her husband, Richard, in 1797. Three years later, the role passed on to Wilding's son-in-law, William Urmson. Urmson's second daughter, Ann, followed in her grandmother's footsteps, serving as principal keeper at Bidston between 1835 and 1869.

The significant role that women played in lighthouse keeping is widely overlooked. One exception is Grace Darling whose heroic exploits made her a household name in Victorian Britain after she assisted her father with the rescue of stranded sailors in the early hours of 6 September 1838 after their vessel, the SS Forfarshire, was wrecked on rocks near Longstone Lighthouse in the Farne Islands off Northumberland, UK.