NOTORIOUS FEMALE PICKPOCKETS
MOLL CUTPURSE (1584? -26/07/1659), was born Mary Frith in London, England. She was the most notorious female criminal in 17th-century London. She began her life of crime as a common pickpocket. Then she expanded her territory and became a highway robber dressed in men’s clothing. After a stint in jail, she opened a shop in London which was a cover for selling stolen items. She was an original thief as an entertainer, a broker of stolen goods, and a celebrated cross-dresser. She has become something of a mythical figure.
She was born the daughter of a cobbler. Her first encounters with the law occurred in her teens, between 1600 and 1602, when she was prosecuted for allegedly stealing purses. In 1609 Frith’s family, frustrated with her unfeminine behavior, lured her to the docks with the promise of watching a wrestling match and then tricked her onto a ship bound for North America. With the money she was to bet on the match, she negotiated her passage back to shore and joined a group of pickpockets, a profession then engaged in by many London teenagers, from whence originated her famous nickname, “Moll Cutpurse”. Pickpockets would cut purses straight from their victims’ clothing, a tactic introduced at the time, and run away with it.
In her twenties, she became publicly known for her comedic musical performances in taverns, where she would sing, dance, and play her lute, while dressed in male clothing. She then moved her act into tobacco shops and playhouses. Pickpockets operated in busy places like playhouses, and the cross-dressed Frith, performing a bawdy song and jig or smoking a pipe in a tobacco shop, provided a powerful distraction while her accomplices took advantage of the crowd.
Her style of dress and her performances caught the attention of writers and the public at large. She allegedly rode between the London boroughs of Charing Cross and Shore-ditch on the famous performing horse Marocco (mentioned by William Shakespeare in Act I, scene 2 of Love’s Labor’s Lost) while wearing male attire, on a wager from the horse’s owner William Banks. It was said that she carried with her a banner and a trumpet to give her ride a dramatic air and it caused a riot in the streets after she was quickly recognized. By August 1610 she had become well known for her style of dress making “some immodest & lascivious speeches,” while in men’s apparel. Frith was arrested in April 1611 and was sent to Bridewell correction house for a few months, possibly as a result of that performance. In October 1612 the performance of afterpieces was banned throughout England, the Fortune being named as the site of lewd songs and dances liable to attract cutpurses and to disturb the peace.
In December 1610, she was arrested once more and sent back to Bridewell, having been arrested in Powles Church the center aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral “with her petticoat tucked up about her in the fashion of a man,” according to ecclesiastical court records. On January 27, 1612, she was examined by the bishop of London and gave a confession which was printed in The Consistory of London Correction Book (a record of cases of the Consistory Court of London, where offenses against religion and morality were tried). Frith admitted to flaunting her male attire, blaspheming, and swearing, being a drunkard, and keeping lewd and dissolute company, including cutpurses. Her interrogators pressed her to admit to being a prostitute and to encourage other women into the same profession, but she denied both charges. Arrest records of the period describe prostitutes disguising themselves as men so as to be less noticeable to the authorities. Also, women wear male clothing to visit or elope with their lovers. Frith’s style made her an enigma, attracting both fascination and revulsion from the public and censure from the courts. In February 1612, Frith was made to do penance at St. Paul’s Cross (a pulpit in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Cathedral), as a result of her examination in January of that year.
By 1614 Frith had established a brokerage of stolen goods, based in her house on the north side of Fleet Street, where thieves would bring their spoils and be paid for them, and those who had been robbed would come in search of their possessions and pay for their return, a resourceful practice that was easier than going through the law courts. The local authorities permitted the practice, even bringing petty criminals to Frith to be interrogated; as a woman acquainted with a number of local thieves, she was a useful resource for those on either side of the law.
On March 23, 1614, Frith married Lukenor Markham. Gervase Markham, a man who may have been Lukenor’s father, was a prolific author, his best-known work being The English Hus-wife (1615), a guide to being a model woman. The marriage between Frith and Lukenor Markham appears to have been one of convenience. He is not mentioned in her will, the two may never have lived together, and during one court case Frith could not remember how long they had been married. She continued her business independently while gaining the elevated status of a married woman, sometimes using it as a shield from the law. Thus, she was able to defeat legal suits against her under her maiden name by arguing that she had a husband.
It is written that as the friend of various prostitutes and of the well-known brothel owner Elizabeth Holland, Frith had noticed that the industry catered to only one sex. Frith thus recognized an untapped market among wealthy women for attractive male escorts, and her house began to fill up with soldiers and other “gallants” coming to her for employment, as well as with women looking for lovers.
Molly died of dropsy (edema) in 1659
JENNY DIVER, née Mary Jones (1700–18/03/1741) was a notorious Irish pickpocket, one of the most famous of her day. Born around 1700 in Ireland, Diver was the illegitimate daughter of an unknown father and the lady’s maid, Harriet Jones. After her mother deserted her at the age of five, she grew up in various foster homes. She was finally taken to Northern Ireland where an elderly lady cared for and saw that she had a proper education. As a skilled seamstress, she moved to London, where she became an apprentice of Anne Murphy, who was the leader of a gang of pickpockets. Her partners in crime were reportedly so impressed with her skills that they gave her the name Diver (diver being underworld parlance for pickpocket). She soon became so skilled as a thief that she became the leader of Murphy’s gang and was nicknamed Jenny Diver.
Jenny Diver was described as attractive, educated, and well dressed, and was able to mix among wealthy people without attracting suspicion. Perhaps the best known of her methods was to feign illness, during which she robbed people and handed over the objects to her accomplices. She would also use false arms which made it possible for her to rob people with her arms seemingly visible in her lap.
Diver was not only masterful with her fingers; she was also a talented actress. She excelled at passing herself off as a fine lady in distress, which worked to her advantage in wealthier areas of the city. One of her favorite ploys was executed in conjunction with national holidays and royal celebrations. Stuffing her elegant gown with pillows in order to look pregnant, she would arrive by carriage at a designated place for a particular occasion, attended by her gang posing as her servants. She would maneuver her way into a prominent position to view the festivities, she would suddenly collapse, writhing in agony, convincing onlookers that she was in labor. While they gathered around her to offer their assistance, she would rob them of their jewelry and purses, while her colleagues worked their way around the crowd.
With tactics such as these, she amassed a huge fortune, purchasing a large house, a fabulous wardrobe, and one of the finest carriages in London. Although Diver, used a string of aliases to protect her identity, she was occasionally caught and jailed but was seldom proven guilty. One of her few convictions resulted in banishment to America, but her conspirators managed to bribe several officials so that instead of deportation she spent a month or so in a countryside retreat.
At 38, as Diver advanced in age, her once nimble hands and fingers caused her to neglect her usual elaborate preparations. In April 1738, she was caught while attempting to steal a purse, having failed to arrange for an accomplice to be nearby so she could pass off the stolen goods. Since she was using a new alias of Jane Webb at the time, authorities thought it was her first conviction and once again sentenced her to banishment in America as a first-time criminal.
On June 7, 1738, she departed aboard the galley Forward, taking with her numerous trunks and boxes containing her fortune. Through her considerable wealth, she bribed the captain of the prison ship to allow her a comfortable journey with her property, bribed the governor in Virginia to relieve her of her sentence, and bribed the captain to take her back to England again. Within a year, she was on her way back to Liverpool. When she returned to London, her gang had dispersed, and she was forced to work alone in the less fashionable districts of the city.
On January 17, 1741, she was arrested for the third time for attempting to steal the purse of a feisty young woman in distress, but this time she was correctly identified and could not give a false name. She was apprehended with one accomplice, Elizabeth Davies. Jenny Diver defended both herself and Davies by character witnesses. She was accused not only of theft but also of having returned after banishment, which was a capital crime. Both were sentenced to death, although they claimed to be pregnant but without success. While Davies was deported, Diver’s sentence was not commuted. Due to her notoriety as a famous criminal, she was taken to her execution in a mourning carriage. She was executed with 19 other condemned, although she was the only one taken there separately dressed in a black dress with a hat and veil, and reportedly behaved with composure.
Sentenced to hang, she was said to have repented before her death on the gallows at Tyburn, on March 18, 1740.
Sammy RNAJ — sammy.rnaj.writer@gmail.com
