MARY FRITH (1584-1659)
Known as Moll Cutpurse, Mary Frith was a master criminal. The daughter of a shoemaker, her activities as a robber, forger, and gang leader made her wealthy enough to have a fine house in Fleet Street. She was celebrated in song and story, but the only crime for which she was ever punished was dressing as a man she was required to do penance at Paul's Cross in 1612 and spent time in Newgate Prison afterward. Biographies: There is an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography under Frith, Mary and a lengthy account of her life and crimes in Alan Hayess Untam'd Desire: Sex in Elizabethan England. Portraits: a woodcut included in some 1639 editions of Nathan Field�s Amends for Ladies.
Known as Moll Cutpurse, Mary Frith was a master criminal. The daughter of a shoemaker, her activities as a robber, forger, and gang leader made her wealthy enough to have a fine house in Fleet Street. She was celebrated in song and story, but the only crime for which she was ever punished was dressing as a man she was required to do penance at Paul's Cross in 1612 and spent time in Newgate Prison afterward. Biographies: There is an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography under Frith, Mary and a lengthy account of her life and crimes in Alan Hayess Untam'd Desire: Sex in Elizabethan England. Portraits: a woodcut included in some 1639 editions of Nathan Field�s Amends for Ladies.
