Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England 1700-1830

Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England 1700-1830 by Norton, Rictor. Paperback edition. ISBN: 9780854491889.

This pioneering historical study is the first comprehensive chronicle of the English gay community at its 18th-century roots, sporting for the first time a distinctive subculture with its "molly houses", "sodomites walks", "maiden names" and gay slang. Rictor Nortons research into trial records and contemporary documents establishes a vital cornerstone for the reconstruction of gay history. Challenging in its demonstration that the molly subculture was primarily a working-class community of blacksmiths, milkmen, publicans and shopkeepers, Mother Claps Molly House also records the exuberant lives of personalities such as Charles Hitchin the "thief-taker", the dramatists Samuel Foote and Isaac Bickerstaff, William Beckford of Fonthill, and Rev. John Church, prosecuted for his blessing of gay marriages. All these are set against a backdrop of persecution, blackmail and the pillory. And yes, "Mother Claps" actually was the name of a prominent molly house!