Molly house


Molly-house was a term used in 18th- and 19th-century England for a meeting place for homosexual men. These meeting places were generally taverns, public houses, coffeehouses or even private rooms where men could either socialize or meet possible sexual partners.
Even if these clubs tended to display a heavy sexual connotation, some critics are reluctant to classify them as brothels.
Rictor Norton, for example, argues that the regular customers could have been in fact mutual friends, at least at the beginning, since consistent evidence concerning male prostitution seems to be insufficient until the 1780s.
At that time homosexual sexual activities were illegal and were heavily prosecuted; they remained capital offences until 1861. In this context, particularly during the 1720s, molly-houses came to be the scenes of raids and arrests, and their customers the ideal target for blackmailers.
Molly-houses can be considered a precursor to some types of contemporary meeting places for the gay community.

Etymology

The word molly is a pet-form of the female forename Mary, and had two main connotations in 18th century English. The first one is close to the word moll, designating a lower-class girl or woman, occasionally a prostitute. The second one is classified as slang, defining an effeminate, usually homosexual, male. Along with the possible perception of intrinsic female features deriving from the association with the name Mary, another possible origin of this denomination for a homosexual man could be found in the Latin form mollis, indicating the supposed passive-effeminate partner in male homosexual relationships.
In a 1762 Swedish/English dictionary by Jacob Serenius and in a 1767 French/English dictionary by Thomas Nugent the word was present, but simply defined a sodomite, without effeminate connotations.
Other uses of the word can be seen in the verb to molly, in the expressions mollycot and Miss Molly.

History

Gender issues in 18th century London

According to several critics, the English society of the time was giving an increasing importance to the concepts of family and household as fundamental units for reproduction, subsistence and interaction between generations: in this context, male and female roles evolved into more static forms. Men were associated with an active, assertive role both in sexual behaviour and in managing the household, while women were defined in terms of their maternal functions, contrarily to a tradition common at the start of the century, attributing them features related to lustfulness and aggressiveness in sexual matters. It is possible to see that the notion of molly-house seems to be deeply rooted in the developing of a distinctive identity according to gender and sexual orientation, a peculiar social phenomenon considered crucial by some critics in gender studies.
As stated by Robert Shoemaker,... any activity, in which could be seen as acting passively was further marginalised.
In fact, some of the activities popular among the homosexual community, that were seemingly taking place in molly-houses, were often associated both to female roles and to a family environment.

Molly-houses and the homosexual subculture in London

As sodomy was a capital offense, 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. As a consequence, molly districts seemed to appear, and eventually grow, in areas in which their business could be acknowledged and tolerated at the same time: such connivance could be often found in areas with a high rate of criminal acts such as theft and prostitution.
An editorial in The London Journal singled out a number of areas:
The presence of pillories punishing sodomitical offenses, ironically, identified the sites where such acts frequently took place. Pillories were often organised near the crime locations attributed to the accused.
Molly-houses could be considered the most organised phenomenon of London 18th century homosexual subculture. They were enclosed, private spaces gathering individuals with a common purpose, that is to say, socializing and seeking pleasure with partners of the same sex.

Law enforcement and sources of information

Before 1533, the "unnatural sin" of sodomy or buggery, was dealt with by the ecclesiastical courts. From that year however, the country's first civil sodomy law was introduced as An Acte for the punishment of the vice of Buggerie, and also criminal courts could prosecute individuals accused of such crimes. According to the Old Bailey Online Proceedings site:
In order to obtain a conviction, it was necessary to prove that both penetration and ejaculation had occurred, and two witnesses were required to prove the crime. Both the "active" and "passive" partner could be found guilty of this offence. But due to the difficulty of proving this actual penetration and ejaculation many men were prosecuted with the reduced charge of assault with sodomitical intent.
From the late 1690s to the early 1710s, the Societies for the Reformation of Manners actively pursued prostitutes, Sabbath breakers and also homosexual men, through the means of spies and provocateurs to dismantle molly houses and prosecute individuals. In the 1720s and 30s thief-takers like Charles Hitchen and Jonathan Wild stimulated the Societies' activities. The peak of this wave of prosecution is to be recognized in the late 1720s with a raid on the most famous molly house, Mother Clap's. According to Rictor Norton:
Molly-houses at that time were evidently and intrinsically related to since they gathered those who were called sodomites being a capital offence, so most of the information concerning molly-houses and the community around them is available through an indirect form, that is, mostly through newspaper reports and the accounts given during the Old Bailey trials relating to sexual offences, such as sodomy, assault with sodomitical intent and keeping a brothel, or sometimes the ones related to theft cases.
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, John Dunton's The He-Strumpets. A Satyr on the Sodomite-Club, James Dalton's A Genuine Narrative of all the Street Robberies Committed since October last and as well as other works.
Later in the eighteenth century, waves of prosecutions can be identified in the 1750s and 1770s. However most of the details concerning sexual offences trials came to be more and more rare due to an increasing need of a strait-laced morality, but fraud and extortion cases seemed to continue in giving retail at length detailed accounts of alleged sexual encounters between men.

Activities

The adoption of specific codes and rituals in relating to each other seemed to be another feature allowing cohesion in the group. These peculiarities were often described in trials and libels, often to be put on public display and disapproval. Some of the uses seemed to be:
the Marshal was complimented by the Company with the Titles of Madam and Ladyship.
From James Dalton's A Genuine Narrative of all the Street Robberies Committed since October last:
Their chief Names are as follows. Ellinor Roden, China Mary, Flying Horse Moll, Smal Coal Mary, Johannah the Ox-cheek Woman, Tub Nan,' Sukey Pisquill, Garter Mary, Hardward Nan, Prety Criss, a Soldier of the 2d Regiment, Aunt England, a noted Soap Boyler, Pomegranate Molly, Orange Mary, an Orange Merchant near London-Bridge,'Old Fish Hannah,'Kate Hutton an old Man that never wears a Shirt, Thumbs and Waste Jenny, Queen Irons, alias Pippin Mary, Hanover Kate, spouse to Pippin Mary,Miss Kitten, Rose Gudger, 'Black Moll, &c.
They could take on a female persona, have a female name, and affect feminine mannerisms and speech. Again from Jonathan Wild:
The men calling one another my Dear, and hugging, kissing, and tickling each other, as if they were a Mixture of wanton Males and Females, and assuming effeminate Voices and Airs

The most known molly-house in 18th century London was the one owned by Mother Clap, which had been open from 1724 until 1726, when a raid sustained by the Societies for the Reformation of Manners had it dismantled. It was located in Field Lane, near to another tavern The Bunch of Grapes in Holborn, a suburban parish of Middlesex a short distance from the City of London. This area came to be renowned as a rookery in the next decades, and described as a sort of distinct town, or district calculated for the reception of the darkest and most dangerous enemies to society; in which when pursued for the commission of crimes they easily conceal themselves and readily escape. A literary example can be interpreted as a sort of confirmation of the reputation of this lane, since Charles Dickens placed here Fagin's den, an old Jewish man earning a living as a fence, in his 1837 novel Oliver Twist.
This peculiar homosexual meeting place, however, became well known to the public during the 1720s through the trial of its keeper, Margaret Clap, indicted for keeping a disorderly house and for encouraging her customers to commit sodomy; and, particularly, through the account given by an agent provocateur, Samuel Stevens.
On Sunday Night the 14th of November. I went to the Prisoners House in Field-Lane, Holbourn. I found near Men Fifty there, making Love to one another as they call'd it. Sometimes they'd sit in one anothers Laps, use their Hands indecently Dance and make Curtsies and mimick the Language of Women - O Sir! - Pray Sir! - Dear Sir! Lord how can ye serve me so! - Ah ye little dear Toad! Then they'd go by Couples, into a Room on the same Floor to be marry'd as they call'd it. The Door at that Room was kept by - Ecclestone to prevent any body from balking their Diversions.

She and half a dozen of her customers were also put into the pillory, fined, and imprisoned for periods of up to two years. Three of her customers were hanged for sodomy: Gabriel Lawrence, a 43-year-old milkman; William Griffin, a 43 year old furniture upholsterer; and Thomas Wright, who was a molly house keeper.

Trials and personalities related to molly-houses

In the eighteenth century according to the Old Bailey Proceedings, only two individuals were formally arrested for keeping a molly-house: Margaret Clap and Julius Cesar Taylor but several accused of sodomitical practices seems to be reported as brothel keepers as well.
On 9 May 1726, three men were hanged at Tyburn for buggery following a raid of Margaret Clap's molly-house. Their trials are fundamental since they provide important details for the descriptions of the gay community surroundings. On 12 April 1727 Charles Hitchin was convicted of assault with sodomitical intent.

In popular culture

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
Theatre