What Were the Principal Features of the Molly Culture in Eighteenth Century England?

What were the principal features of the Molly culture in eighteenth century England? How have historians accounted for its decline?

Spencer states that the word Molly stems from the word ‘moll’ which was slang for female prostitute. In eighteenth century England a Molly was used to describe effeminate homosexual males.

A principal feature of the Molly culture were the ‘Molly Houses’ in which these men would meet which often took the form of public houses, although not exclusively as Bray reports that some Molly houses were private houses Hitchcock claims that ‘there were perhaps 20 Molly houses in existence at any one time’. Although found in London, Molly houses were not restricted to any particular area, Bray states:

‘they were scattered across the whole of the built up area north of the Thames...from the slums of Wapping...to the wealthy western suburbs before the countryside began again beyond Westminster’.

This suggests that the Molly culture was not restricted to certain sectors of society nor did it follow strict class lines unlike much of society at the time, but in fact ‘permeate all levels of society’ Bray states that was because they were ‘not mediated by existing social forms, of class or otherwise; it was set alongside them, a social institution in its own right’.

Within these Molly houses a principle feature of the culture was the partaking of drinking; ‘the drinking went together with singing and dancing and the drunken good humour one would expect’ even if the Molly house was not a tavern the owner would have brought drink in. Molly houses often contained rooms known as the ’marrying room’ or ’the chapel’ in which Mollies could ’get married’ have sex as well as pretend to give birth to surreal and inappropriate objects. Another feature of the Molly culture was the christening of men with female nicknames which incorporated the effeminate behaviour and slang which were attributes of the Molly culture. Samuel Stevens, an informant for the...