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=== Molly houses and homosexual subculture in London ===
=== Molly houses and homosexual subculture in London ===
Molly houses could be considered the most organised phenomenon of the 18th century [[homosexual subculture]] in London,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=Homosexuality - Mother Clap's Molly House & Deputy Marshall Hitchin|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/gu16.htm|website=The georgian Underworld by Rictor Norton|accessdate=15 November 2015}}</ref> as they were enclosed spaces gathering individuals with a common purpose, socializing and seeking pleasure with same-sex partners. In addition, as this common purpose was treated as a capital offence, "molly districts" could only appear and eventually grow in areas in which their activities could be acknowledged and at the same time tolerated: the areas providing such connivance were often the ones with a high rate of criminal acts (such as theft and prostitution). <ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/moorfiel.htm|website=The Gay Subculture in Georgian England|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref>: Six or seven areas could be identified in central London in the eighteenth century from an editorial in [[The London Journal]]: the [[Royal Exchange]], [[Moorfields]], [[Lincoln's Inn]], the south side of [[St James's Park]] and the piazzas (arcades) of [[Covent Garden]]. Other hints to identify molly areas are given by the places in which [[pillory|pillories]] related to sodomitical offences took place, as pillories were often organised near the crime locations <ref>{{cite web|last1=NOrton|first1=Rictor|title=The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/moorfiel.htm|website=The Gay Subculture in Georgian England|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref>.
Most of the information concerning molly houses and the community around them is available through an indirect form, that is, mostly through the accounts given during the Old Bailey Proceedings relating to sexual offences, such as sodomy, assault with sodomitical intent and keeping a brothel, or sometimes the ones related to theft cases<ref>{{cite web|title=The trial of Thomas Gordon|url=http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17320705-30&div=t17320705-30&terms=princess|seraphina#highlight|website=The Proceedings of the Old Bailey|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Thetrial of Stephen Margrove and John Wood|url=http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17190514-42&div=t17190514-42&terms=sodomy#highlight|website=The Proceedings of the Old Bailey }}</ref>. Other important sources are [[satires]] and [[pamphlets]], such as ''An Answer To A Late Insolent Libel'' by [[Jonathan Wild]], [[Edward Ward]]'s ''Satyrical Reflections on Clubs'', Chapter XXV ''Of the Mollies Club''<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=The Mollies Clubs, 1709-10|url=http://www.rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/nedward.htm|website=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref>, [[John Dunton]]'s ''The He-Strumpets. A Satyr on the Sodomite-Club''<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=The He-Strumpets, 1707-10|url=http://www.rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/dunton.htm|website=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref> and other works.<br />

⚫
Mollies and patrons formed a distinct subculture also by adopting specific codes in relating to each other. They would take on a female persona, have a female name, and affect [[effeminate|feminine]] mannerisms and speech. [[Marriage]] ceremonies between a Mollie and his male lover were enacted to symbolise their partnership and commitment.<ref name=Norton1992>{{Cite book |title=Mother Clap's molly house : the gay subculture in England, 1700–1830 |last=Norton |first=Rictor |year=1992 |publisher=GMP |isbn=978-0-85449-188-9 |oclc=27100305 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=m8-GAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>
Molly houses could be considered the most organised phenomenon of the 18th century [[homosexual subculture]] in London,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=Homosexuality - Mother Clap's Molly House & Deputy Marshall Hitchin|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/gu16.htm|website=The georgian Underworld by Rictor Norton|accessdate=15 November 2015}}</ref> as they were enclosed spaces gathering individuals with a common purpose, that is to say, socializing and seeking pleasure with same-sex partners. As this common purpose was treated as a capital offence, the organisation of homosexual men and their activities had to be a crucial point, in order to keep the community as safe as possible from prosecution. Consequently, "molly districts" seemed to appear, and eventually grow, in areas in which their business could be acknowledged and at the same time tolerated. The areas providing such connivance were often the ones with a high rate of criminal acts (such as theft and prostitution). <ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/moorfiel.htm|website=The Gay Subculture in Georgian England|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref>: six or seven areas could be identified in central London in the eighteenth century, from an editorial in [[The London Journal]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/moorfiel.htm|website=The Gay Subculture in Georgian England|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref>: the [[Royal Exchange]], [[Moorfields]], [[Lincoln's Inn]], the south side of [[St James's Park]] and the arcades of [[Covent Garden]]. Other hints to identify molly areas are given by the places in which [[pillory|pillories]] related to sodomitical offences took place, as pillories were often organised near the crime locations attributed to the accused<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Rictor|title=The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/moorfiel.htm|website=The Gay Subculture in Georgian England|accessdate=16 November 2015}}</ref>.<br />

⚫
The adoption of specific codes in relating to each other was another feature allowing cohesion among the group, . They would take on a female persona, have a female name, and affect [[effeminate|feminine]] mannerisms and speech. [[Marriage]] ceremonies between a Mollie and his male lover were enacted to symbolise their partnership and commitment.<ref name=Norton1992>{{Cite book |title=Mother Clap's molly house : the gay subculture in England, 1700–1830 |last=Norton |first=Rictor |year=1992 |publisher=GMP |isbn=978-0-85449-188-9 |oclc=27100305 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=m8-GAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>
The impersonation could at times include a ritual called "mock birth" (or "lying-in"), where a Molly would be dressed in a nightgown, laid on a chair, and assisted by fellow Mollies as "midwives" during a highly ritualized enactment of a woman's labour until finally a wooden doll representing the baby was born. This ritual almost certainly originated as a [[couvade]], designed to collectively relieve the extreme stress this particular social group was forced to live under.
The impersonation could at times include a ritual called "mock birth" (or "lying-in"), where a Molly would be dressed in a nightgown, laid on a chair, and assisted by fellow Mollies as "midwives" during a highly ritualized enactment of a woman's labour until finally a wooden doll representing the baby was born. This ritual almost certainly originated as a [[couvade]], designed to collectively relieve the extreme stress this particular social group was forced to live under.


Revision as of 16:26, 16 November 2015

Molly houses were often considered as brothels in legal proceedings.[1] This picture shows a male brothel, illustration by Léon Choubrac (known also as Hope), included in Léo Taxil's book La prostitution contemporaine, 1884, pg. 384, Plate VII.

A molly house was a term used in 18th-century and in 19th century England to define a meeting point for homosexual men. These meeting places were generally taverns, public houses, coffeehouses [2] or even private rooms [3] where men could either socialize or meet possible sexual partners. Even if these clubs tended to display a heavy sexual connotation, some critics are cautious to classify them as mere brothels: Rictor Norton, for example, argues that the regular customers could have been in fact mutual friends and, moreover, evidence concerning male prostitution seems to be insufficient until the 1780s.[3][4] At that time homosexual sexual activities were included in the offence categories of buggery and sodomy and were heavily prosecuted (in the United Kingdom they remained a capital offence until 1861[5]). In this context, particularly during the 1720s, molly houses came to be the scenario for raids and arrests,[2] and their customers the ideal target for blackmailers.[6] Nowadays, molly houses can be considered a sort of precursor of some types of contemporary meeting places for the gay community.[2]

History

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in 18th century English the word "molly" (also spelt as molley, mollie, mally) had two different connotations: the first, near to the word moll, indicating a lower-class girl or woman and occasionally a prostitute, and a second one, referring to an effeminate usually homosexual, male.[7][8] However, the question is quite complex when considering its definition in some dictionaries of the time, particularly in 1762 in a Swedish/English dictionary by Jacob Serenius, and in a French/English dictionary in 1767 by Thomas Nugent. The word was present but simply defined a sodomite, without effeminate connotations.[9] Mollies, and other third gender identities, were one precursor to the broader 'homosexual' identity of the 20th and 21st centuries.[10]

Molly houses and homosexual subculture in London

Most of the information concerning molly houses and the community around them is available through an indirect form, that is, mostly through the accounts given during the Old Bailey Proceedings relating to sexual offences, such as sodomy, assault with sodomitical intent and keeping a brothel, or sometimes the ones related to theft cases[11][12]. Other important sources are satires and pamphlets, such as An Answer To A Late Insolent Libel by Jonathan Wild, Edward Ward's Satyrical Reflections on Clubs, Chapter XXV Of the Mollies Club[13], John Dunton's The He-Strumpets. A Satyr on the Sodomite-Club[14] and other works.

Molly houses could be considered the most organised phenomenon of the 18th century homosexual subculture in London,[15] as they were enclosed spaces gathering individuals with a common purpose, that is to say, socializing and seeking pleasure with same-sex partners. As this common purpose was treated as a capital offence, the organisation of homosexual men and their activities had to be a crucial point, in order to keep the community as safe as possible from prosecution. Consequently, "molly districts" seemed to appear, and eventually grow, in areas in which their business could be acknowledged and at the same time tolerated. The areas providing such connivance were often the ones with a high rate of criminal acts (such as theft and prostitution). [16]: six or seven areas could be identified in central London in the eighteenth century, from an editorial in The London Journal[17]: the Royal Exchange, Moorfields, Lincoln's Inn, the south side of St James's Park and the arcades of Covent Garden. Other hints to identify molly areas are given by the places in which pillories related to sodomitical offences took place, as pillories were often organised near the crime locations attributed to the accused[18].

The adoption of specific codes in relating to each other was another feature allowing cohesion among the group, . They would take on a female persona, have a female name, and affect feminine mannerisms and speech. Marriage ceremonies between a Mollie and his male lover were enacted to symbolise their partnership and commitment.[19] The impersonation could at times include a ritual called "mock birth" (or "lying-in"), where a Molly would be dressed in a nightgown, laid on a chair, and assisted by fellow Mollies as "midwives" during a highly ritualized enactment of a woman's labour until finally a wooden doll representing the baby was born. This ritual almost certainly originated as a couvade, designed to collectively relieve the extreme stress this particular social group was forced to live under.

Molly Houses and law enforcement

Buggery was a capital offence at the time in England under the Buggery Act 1533: records of buggery trials of the period provide much of the evidence about molly houses.[20] While molly-houses continued to exist throughout the 18th and early 19th century, some of them even operating semi-publicly, patrons were often prosecuted. Homosexuals condemned to stand in the pillory appear in court records as often as once a week for years in the mid-18th century. Convictions for sodomy in London resulted in frequent hangings at Tyburn.[21]

On 9 May 1726, three men (Gabriel Lawrence, William Griffin, and Thomas Wright) were hanged at Tyburn for buggery following a raid of Margaret Clap's molly house. The controversial figure of Charles Hitchen (alternative spelling Hitchin), former Under City Marshal, member of the Society for the Reformation of Manners and notable thief-taker, was also convicted of assault with sodomitical intent, on 12 April 1727.[22][23]

Mother Clap's molly house

Field Lane, Holborn, the location of Mother Clap's molly house on the left side of the picture, Rocque Map of London, 1746.

The most famous molly house was Mother Clap's, which was open for two years from 1724 to 1726 in Holborn, a suburban parish of Middlesex a short distance from the City of London.[24][25]

References and representations of molly houses and gay subculture during the 18th and the 19th century London can be found in several contemporary productions.

TV series

  • 2008: Episode 2 of the Channel 4 series City of Vice grants molly houses and mollies a predominant role.
  • 2010: Episode 2 of the second series of Garrow's Law, a BBC production set in and around London's Old Bailey courthouse, depicts legal issues surrounding gay life in the 18th century, including molly houses in its settings.
  • 2013: Episode 2 of the NBC horror drama Dracula features a molly house.
  • 2013: A molly house appears in Episode 3 of the first series of the BBC's Ripper Street, set in London's Whitechapel area in 1889.

Theatre

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Crimes Tried at the Old Bailey". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Bailey, Amanda; Trumbach, Randolph (Fall 2002). "Welcome to the Molly-House: An Interview with Randolph Trumbach". Cabinet (8 Pharmacopia). Retrieved 2015-10-28.
  3. ^ a b Rictor Norton (2004). "Clap, Margaret (fl. 1710–1726)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  4. ^ Rictor Norton. "The Gay Subculture in Early Eighteenth-Century London". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Homosexuality in Great Britain Section Two: Legislation". banap.net. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  6. ^ Rictor Norton (2001). Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon (ed.). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History Vol.1:From antiquity to World War II (2nd ed. ed.). London: Routledge. p. 212. ISBN 0415159822. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  7. ^ Grose, Francis (1796). "A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue" (Document). Printed for Hooper and Wigstead. MOLLY, a miss Molly, an effeminate fellow, a sodomite. {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |edition= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help)
  8. ^ The Gay subculture in eighteenth century England Rictor Norton Quote: However, I think we have to exercise some caution and avoid jumping to the conclusion that just because we do not hear of the molly subculture or effeminate queens before 1700, therefore they did not exist until 1700.
  9. ^ Norton, Rictor. "Homosexual Terms in 18th-century Dictionaries". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  10. ^ Sex and the Gender Revolution, Volume 1, Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London Randolph Trumbach; Quote: A revolution in gender relations occurred in London around 1700, resulting in a sexual system that endured in many aspects until the sexual revolution of the 1960s. For the first time in European history, there emerged three genders: men, women, and a third gender of adult effeminate sodomites, or homosexuals. This third gender had radical consequences for the sexual lives of most men and women since it promoted an opposing ideal of exclusive heterosexuality. In Sex and the Gender Revolution, Randolph Trumbach reconstructs the worlds of eighteenth-century prostitution, illegitimacy, sexual violence, and adultery. In those worlds the majority of men became heterosexuals by avoiding sodomy and sodomite behavior.
  11. ^ "The trial of Thomas Gordon". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. Retrieved 16 November 2015. {{cite web}}: Text "seraphina#highlight" ignored (help)
  12. ^ "Thetrial of Stephen Margrove and John Wood". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.
  13. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The Mollies Clubs, 1709-10". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  14. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The He-Strumpets, 1707-10". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  15. ^ Norton, Rictor. "Homosexuality - Mother Clap's Molly House & Deputy Marshall Hitchin". The georgian Underworld by Rictor Norton. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  16. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields". The Gay Subculture in Georgian England. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  17. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields". The Gay Subculture in Georgian England. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  18. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The Sodomites' Walk in Moorfields". The Gay Subculture in Georgian England. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  19. ^ Norton, Rictor (1992). Mother Clap's molly house : the gay subculture in England, 1700–1830. GMP. ISBN 978-0-85449-188-9. OCLC 27100305.
  20. ^ http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17260420-67&div=t17260420-67&terms=buggery#highlight
  21. ^ http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/homophob.htm
  22. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The Trial of Charles Hitchin". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  23. ^ "The trial of Charles Hitchin; sodomy, attemped sodomy". The Old Bailey Proceedings Online. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  24. ^ Norton, Rictor. "The Raid on Mother Clap's Molly House". The Gay Subculture in Georgian England. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  25. ^ http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/maiden.htm
Bibliography
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