nn
n
n
n
n When Mary Frith was a little girl she was describednas ‘… a very Tomrig or Rumpscuttle,’nwhich isn’t a description we use of little girls too often in our own dayn(although perhaps we should); she was, as we might say instead, a tomboy. Shenwould run, jump, hop and fight with boys, and very often beat them, and soonndeveloped a taste for tavern-life. Her parents had thought to put her intonservice but she had no love for housework and had a ‘… natural abhorrence tonthe tending of children.’ Instead,nshe grew up to be ‘a lusty and sturdy wench,’ took to a life of crimenand gained notoriety as a bully, forger, receiver of stolen goods,nfortune-teller and as a pick-pocket, from which she earned her nickname of ‘MollnCutpurse.’
n
n
n
 |
| A Cutpurse |
n
n
n
nIn those days (the early 1600s) before pockets became popular,npeople would carry their money and valuables in a purse on their belts orngirdles, and a cutpurse would surreptitiously cut the strings by which it wasnsuspended and steal it away. They worked in teams; a ‘bulk’ would createnan obstruction or distraction (usually starting a fight), the ‘file’n(like Moll) would cut the purse whilst the third, the ‘rub’, would carrynit off. For a £20 wager, Moll dressed in a doublet and breeches, boots withnspurs and with a trumpet in her hand and a banner over her back, rode fromnCharing Cross to Shoreditch on Morocco, a famous performing horse.
n
n
n
 |
| Morocco – the Performing Horse |
n
n
n
nMoll wasnhauled before an ecclesiastical court for the ‘crime’ of impropriety, (wearingnmen’s clothes), and was sentenced to do penance wearing a white sheet at thendoor of Old St Paul’s Cathedral, after which she regularly wore men’s clothes,nfeeling that she had paid for the licence to do so. She was said to have weptncopiously as she underwent the punishment, which undoubtedly pleased thenauthorities, until it came out later that she had drunk six pints of winenbefore she went to be punished. She was also, it is said, the first woman whonregularly smoked tobacco in England.
n
n
n
 |
| Moll Cut-Purse Smoking |
n
n
n
nShe was a fine horsewoman, an adroitnfencer and fought readily with a cudgel, and contrary to the norm of her day,nshe appeared on stage in plays and also played the lute to an audience (whennonly male performers were allowed in the theatre). She also made what isnconsidered to be a marriage of convenience in 1614, to counter allegations thatnshe was a ‘spinster’ (which was code for ladies who, shall we say, favour thenflatter shoe).
n
n
n
 |
| Middleton and Dekker – The Roaring Girle – 1611 |
n
n
n
nMoll was known as a ‘roaring girl’, after the ‘roarers’nof her day – young men who drank heavily in taverns and then fought savagely innthe streets, just for the hell of it – and a play by Middleton and Dekker ‘ThenRoaring Girl’ (1611) was written about her exploits, presenting her in anflattering, if idealized, light. Another play, Amends for Ladies, ancomedy also featuring Moll Cutpurse, by Nathaniel Field, appeared in 1639.
n
n
n
 |
| Nathaniel Field – Amends for Ladies – 1639 |
n
n
n
nAfter King Charles returned from the Scotch War in the same year, she rushednout into Fleet Street, shook and kissed the King’s hand shouting, “WelcomenHome, Charles,” and paid £20 for wine to be poured down the Great Conduitnwhich brought fresh drinking water into the city of London. When the Civil Warnbroke out, Moll declared herself most definitely for the King, and her exploitsnas a highwaywoman served the Royal cause, as she only robbed Cromwell’snsupporters. She was said to have robbed General Fairfax and his men of 250nJacobuses (a golden coin worth 25 shillings), on Hounslow Heath, shot himnthrough the leg and killed two horses belonging to his servants, was pursuednand taken prisoner by the Roundheads and sent to Newgate Prison, where shengained her freedom with a bribe of £2,000.
n
n
n
 |
| Moll (or Mall) Cut-Purse |
n
n
n
nShe considered the robbery to benjust, as the Parliamentarians had, in her opinion, stolen the crown from hernKing. She used the proceeds from her highway robberies to buy food andnprovisions for the cavalier soldiery. In later life, she became a procuress andnran a bawdy house, catering for both male and female clientele, high and lownalike, and made more money by becoming a go-between that negotiated betweennthieves and the robbed for the safe return of stolen property. She also hadntrained animals, which she exhibited for profit, and can be seen with an ape, andog and a parrot in a contemporary portrait.
n
n
n
 |
| Moll Cutpurse and her animals |
n
n
n
nShe died from dropsy, on July 26thn1659, aged 74, and left only £100 out of an estimated fortune of once overn£3,000, having given away most of the proceeds of her crimes, much of it tondistressed cavalier soldiers. She left her remaining money to a relative, JohnnFrith, a shipmaster at Rotherhithe, advising him to spend the money on wine,nlike a man, rather than risk drowning in salt water, like a dog, with £20 to benset aside and spent to make wine run once more down the Fleet Street Conduit.
nnn
n
n
n
 |
| Middleton and Dekker – The Roaring Girle – 1611 |
n
n
nnn