MOTHER CLAP AND THE MOLLY MARKETS
Halfway through the 18th Century in London, a homosexual subculture began to surface, coinciding with the end of Puritanism and the 17-year protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.
After the restrictions of the previous years, the population began to revel in the freedom of music, dancing and theatre – at the same time discovering a sexual freedom, previously frowned upon by the Presbyterians.
Playhouses, taverns and coffee houses opened. They were often places of bawdy and lewd behaviour; cheap gin being the incitement to the debauchery. Decadence knew no boundary. Even at the court of the newly installed king, Charles II, courtesans moved among people of quality. The king’s eye was caught by Moll Davis and Nell Gwynne, who both became his mistresses. “Moll” was the term for a female prostitute.
It was not unusual for homosexuals who “picked up trade” (a term first used in the 18th Century) to call themselves “mollys” (mollis also being a Latin word meaning soft).
Men cruising for sex with other men in the 18th Century was called “caterwauling” (behaving like a cat on heat). Gay men used a secret language to communicate their particular needs: “to make a bargain” or “score a trick” was to “bite a blow” and to have sex was “to indorse”. Both phrases stemmed from boxing-related slang, meaning to be “cudgelled from behind” and clearly alluded to anal sex.
There were numerous cruising grounds called Molly Markets. These were chiefly public lavatories, colloquially known as “bog houses” and mostly found along main thoroughfares, in fields and parks, or on public squares.
In the City Of London, South and North Moorfields were popular with men who sought out sex with other men. The closeness of the Guard’s Barracks on the south side of St James’ Park in Westminster made it a regular meeting place. The Royal Opera Arcade, adjacent to Pall Mall and the covered walkways of Covent Garden were quiet at night and the haunt of female prostitutes as well as homosexuals. Also, until its demolition in 1832, Old London Bridge’s wide stretch across the Thames proved an opportune location for an assignation in the dark recesses of the shop fronts along its span. To convey a message of interest, a look, wink, or smile worked wonders.
Under the Buggery Act of 1533, sodomy was a crime punishable by death, but this hardly deterred the activities of the mollys of London.
Almost certainly, some were heterosexual; young men from the countryside who were lured to the metropolis by the promise of work but soon found that employment was not that easy to find. Exploiting their good looks, they worked the laneways and alleys searching for a likely trick. By satisfying the needs of another, the lads were simply earning money and their activities were not related to their sexuality.
More serious money did, however, change hands in the form of blackmail. Some lads would happen across a nearby “peeler” (policeman) and threaten to divulge what had just occurred.
Agent provocateurs were common. Keen to be let off a sodomy charge, they would act as lures towards the unsuspecting cruising homosexual. One such “inciting agent” was Thomas Newton, who informed the police of the popular Molly Market (or Sodomite Walk) at Moorefields Park. Here is his account of an evening’s work:
“I was no stranger to the methods they used in picking one another up. So I takes a turn that way, and leans over the wall. In a little time, a gentleman passes by, and looks hard at me, and at a small distance from me, stands up against the wall, as if he was going to make water. Then by degrees, he sidles nearer and nearer to where I stood ‘till at last he comes close to me. ‘Tis a very fine night, says he,’ ‘Aye, says I, and so it is’. Then he takes me by the hand and after squeezing and playing with it a little (to which I showed no dislike), he conveys it to his breeches and puts (his penis) into it. I took fast hold and call’d out to Willis and Stevenson, (police constables) who coming up to my assistance, we carried him to the watch house.” *
In the 19th Century, the guards from Knightsbridge Barracks became infamous for enticing the hopeful homo into an encounter in Hyde Park, only to ask for money at the commencement. Should the unfortunate homo not comply, exposure to the authorities or even violence was threatened or enacted.
Molly Houses, as the taverns and coffee houses frequented by gay men were known, were places where they could not only speak their secret language but also call each other by pet names (some recorded examples being Elinor Roden, China Mary, Flying Horse Moll, Garter Mary and Tub Nan) and cavort wearing women’s clothes.
Inside, there was usually a main room where carousing and drinking occurred and additional rooms that were used for activities that were more private. These chambers were called marrying rooms or chapels – “marry” being their term for copulation between men.
A member of the Society For The Reformation Of Manners, which rallied against profanity, immorality and other lewd activities (and the existence of brothels and prostitution) became a clandestine visitor to a Molly House. The following reports a visit he made on Sunday, 14 November 1725:
“I found between 40 and 50 men making love to one another, as they call’d it. Sometimes they would sit on one another’s laps, kissing in a lewd manner, and using their hands indecently. Then they would get up, dance and make curtsies, and mimic the voices of women. ‘O, Fie, Sir! – Pray, Sir. – Dear Sir. Lord, how can you serve me so? – I swear I’ll cry out. – You’re a wicked Devil. – And you’re a bold Face. – Eh ye little dear Toad! Come buss!’ – Then they’d hug and play and toy and go out by couples into another room on the same floor to be marry’d as they call’d it.” *
One such Molly House at the time was well known to any London sodomite as well as men of a certain persuasion dwelling further afield. From 1717 to 1726, Margaret Clap (known as Mother Clap) ran an infamous coffee house. Mother Clap’s Molly House in Field Lane “boasted beds in every room” and accommodated “30 or 40 of such kind of chaps, every night, but more on Sundays”. Her thirsty patrons were not simply served with coffee. Mother Clap would across the road to her husband’s tavern, The Bunch Of Grapes, and supply them with alcoholic beverages, primarily
There was less danger of contracting syphilis or gonorrhoea using the smooth loins of a young lad – the penis often stimulated between squeezed thighs, not entering the anus whatsoever.
gin. The house was eventually raided and closed down. In prison, Margaret succumbed and died.
The existence of Molly Houses, sodomites, agent provocateurs and blackmailers continued throughout the 18th and 19th Century. Some of their secret language, from which we take the contemporary gay words drag, trade and trick, and the tradition of referring to men as “she”, lives on.
As Britain entered the Industrial Revolution, its population boomed and London was teeming. It was a man’s world. Men were strong, virile and sexual and it was understood that men released their sexual desires while women were simply vessels for procreation. If there was a lack of women then other men might suffice; especially younger men who had the appearance of girls.
There was less danger of contracting syphilis or gonorrhoea using the smooth loins of a young lad – the penis often stimulated between squeezed thighs, not entering the anus whatsoever. * From The Raid On Mother Clap’s Molly House In 1726, from the website Homosexuality in Eighteenth Century England, A Sourcebook, compiled by Rictor Norton.