ELIZABETH ‘MOLL’ ADKINS 1696-1747

She dodged the law to run an empire of vice!

As proprietor of King’s Coffeehouse, Elizabeth Adkins was, to all intents and purposes, a businesslike sort of lady. Yet under her assumed name of Moll King, she was one of 18th century London’s most notorious women.

Moll supplemented her income first as a sex worker, then as a pickpocket and procuress. Despite stints in Newgate and even the threat of transportation, Moll flourished.

The small coffeehouse she ran with her husband, Eton-educated Tom King, expanded and money began rolling in not only for coffee, but also for the services of the ladies who took rooms above the shop.

Among those who heard of Moll’s infamy was Daniel Defoe. Moll fascinated Defoe and he immortalised her in his legendary work, Moll Flanders (1722), telling the story of a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who, just like the woman that inspired her, fell foul of several laws but still lived to a ripe, comfortable and happy old age.

The protagonist of William Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress, showing a woman’s descent into prostitution, took her name from Moll Flanders. Here she reclines in her boudoir while the bailiffs barge in

Whether known as Elizabeth Moll, this coffeehouse owner or knew how to make some money