This month we go back a bit further into the history of European Courtesans. Fanny Murray, born Frances Rudman, played out her life as a Courtesan in Georgian period England, London, not Paris, France. Later in this month we'll listen to an important panel discussion about present day prostitution focusing on Mexico, and San Diego - Los Angeles California.
FANNY MURRAY
Born Frances Rudman
1729 -1778
Born in 1729 in the small spa resort town of Bath, as the daughter of a musician, Frances was a child with no advantages. With our modern sensibilities and social services, it's difficult to accept, but the girl may have started out selling flowers on the street to support herself or contribute income to her family and then found sex work was more profitable. No doubt the vacationers to Bath included those seeking sex. By the time she was thirteen, Frances, the child laborer, had at least three 'lovers'. Survival rather than morality prevailed.
At the time actresses, prostitutes, mistresses and courtesans were thought to be, shall we say, of the same ilk. The only way to distinguish one from another was to know who their patron's were. As a courtesan Fanny's came from elite, aristocratic and royal social circles. However, she started out as a young teen prostitute. In all my years of reading and writing this blog about Courtesans and Mistresses, she is the youngest who is documented.
From my previous research: It was common for women to marry at sixteen. In arranged marriages, to be married at thirteen, though sometimes the bride was not delivered to her new husband for a couple years, or lived with him and his family as a daughter-in-law in training, as there was an understanding that a woman should be fully physically mature before pregnancy. Pregnancy was always dangerous. Marriage was the best option for most women. Marriage was a honorable contract that implied a husband would financially support his wife and children. It was also usually the best option for a woman physically. A faithful wife would have just one man to have sex with and bear children with. The arrangement supported her survival until her death. Dire circumstances, however, dictated otherwise.
The nubile Frances had men in their twenties pursuing her, some who no doubt were addicted to sex with very young females barely out of puberty, even or who had not yet even had a period. Other men were older or just plain old. Our modern equivalent would be the infamous rogue Jeffery Epstein, who in August 2021 hung himself in prison while awaiting trial, and who over many years procured a great number of girls under the fraud that they would be paid to give massages, and with the aid of his executive assistant and sometimes 'playmate' Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of procuring and sex trafficking in 2022. Today we would consider these men dangerous predators.
Among the men who pursued the young Frances was John Spencer the great-grandfather of Lady Diana Spencer - the mother of Prince William who will someday be King of England. This John Spencer may very well have been Fanny's first seducer, and its not known if he paid for that encounter, however, girls were known to earn more money by selling their virginity over an over again with the help of the brothel-keeper, or madam of a 'bawdy house.' That Spencer was of the peerage, from one of the richest families in the Kingdom, was important to Fanny's career as a courtesan.
Spencer was known as a stunt-pulling practical joker, trying to keep things funny, but by the time he seduced Fanny, he was closer to 40 than 30 and sick as an alcoholic. He was said to have seduced hundreds of young women but, important to our understanding is that there were many men just like him and in that time and place they were not accused, tried, imprisoned, or punished. Also, from my research elsewhere, I wish to mention another reason men went for these girls and that was the knowing that prostitutes usually got venereal diseases, which were feared as they should be. The reasoning was that such a young girl probably did not yet have these terrible diseases.
By 1743 Frances was dumped by Spencer (and another man - making me wonder if they both thought they were her one and only), and became the Mistress of a man named Richard Nash, who fancied himself a protector, but was probably training her sexually. This was a lifestyle upgrade but it lasted just about a year. As author Barbara White points out, her research being extensive and inclusive of various stories, these accounts range from Frances being a "hoodwinked virgin" to willfully seeking out a brothel. They also range in describing what her status as a prostitute in London was when she was the lowest of the low. Many a street prostitute was enslaved and worked until the final stages of venereal disease, when she was thrown the street she was attempting to escape. Some were so poor they didn't own the clothes on their back and were charged for the garments they wore at work, included mended stockings and hair ribbons.
There is also a possibility that Fanny did at some point become infected with a sexually transmitted disease. Be it the feared syphilis or gonorrhea, or perhaps because of abortions, Fanny never had a child, and that was usual among prostitutes. There were many expensive 'cures' for these diseases that were likely ineffective and most required time off.
In 1744, age fifteen, Frances Rudman changed her name to Fanny Murray and went to London from Bath. Bath had attracted rich visitors who wanted to cure their illnesses in the thermal spring waters, as well as the good-for-nothing who were out to scam the rich. However, it's likely that by seeing the rich and how they lived, Fanny became more ambitious.
In London the madams who worked slave-prostitutes paid little and it was near-impossible to escape when one did not even own her own clothing. However, Fanny did escape and set herself up at her own address and that implies that she was a Mistress again or had the patronage to be a Courtesan.
By 1747, age eighteen, Fanny was experiencing the attentions of men who wished to lavish her with gifts and otherwise compensate her very well for her time with them. If she had been thought to be reluctant, at this point she is known to have accepted her life and indulged herself. She had the reputation of enjoying pleasures and of spending lavishly but again we encounter a question. How much was show, acting, or the cost of doing business, to attract the big spenders?
In 1746 her 'protector' was Sir Richard Atkins, 6th Baronet Clapham, who was ridiculed as a love-struck fool for letting her take advantage of him as he set her up finely. The relationship lasted eight years, taking up much of her years when, if she were a common woman, she would've married and had children. There were rumors that the love was real and that they planned marriage or had already had a 'speed marriage' (elopement), but Atkins came from a historic and rich family that was, of course, not comfortable with such a match.The family was also beset with death. Determined to live life to the fullest, Sir Richard himself died at the age of twenty-eight and she never became Lady Atkins.
By 1750 Fanny Murray had all the riches that the famous Parisian Courtesans had. She lived elegantly in the fine neighborhood of Saint James Place, dressed in the latest fashions as well as beautiful, expensive jewelry, traveled in a private carriage, and had an exclusive viewing box at the theater. She was impetuous and lived for the moment, also attracting men of a rougher nature, and is thought to have been indifferent about securing her future.
Then through some misfortune, I speculate the end of a relationship, Fanny may have once again become a prostitute working for a pimp or madam, though this information is suspect. She - or another woman like her - were listed in an actual book of prostitutes as a good for a Jewish man, perhaps a merchant! This woman is called 'brown.' (I speculate that Fanny was herself Jewish.)
What is understood was that, knowing that this courtesan business was mercurial and that 'protectors' could move on to the next new courtesan without a word, most attempted to keep some men in waiting. Some were open about this while others had to do so secretly, risking the loss of the man who was keeping them in style. Did Fanny always do what was best for her future? Perhaps not, for she was not especially calculating in also entertaining less genteel men. During a period of estrangement with Sir Richard, she may have also fled debtors by leaving the country. But by the late 1740's she was the most popular courtesan ever. Interest in Fanny, curiosity about her, worship of her, came in the form of poetry, art, and fashion, and while women of the highest classes would not socialize with her, women too were interested in her. She would be the equivalent of today's influencer, with thousands of followers on YouTube.
Throughout Barbara White's book, we learn about the history of prostitution in England during the times Fanny Murray lived through. We learn about the overall attitude towards women. Rich men vied with each other to have the favors of popular courtesans and courtesans vied with each other to have the attentions of the richest, best men. To become Kept by a Royal was perhaps the highest one could achieve. There is no evidence that Fanny ever was, though she may have entertained other men of the peerage and attended parties - even sex parties - attended by members of the peerage.
By 1755 Fanny Murray was withdrawing from any form of prostitution and seeking to live a respectable life. She wrote to perhaps the wealthiest man in England, the son of her seducer John Spencer, who'd died of alcohol before he turned 40! At twelve years old, this son John became 1st Baron Spencer of Althorp in 1761 and 1st Earl Spencer in 1765. Her existing letters, which reveal intelligence and the ability to write and express herself, and so revealing that the girl who sold flowers on the street had received some education, implore that she wishes to give up the life. Implied is that she put the blame on the man's father for her ruin. She may have also been near dead broke and facing street prostitution or debtors prison. It was a smart move.
From the time that she sought the Spencer's support she never again was a prostitute, mistress, or courtesan, keeping to her pledge to live an exemplary life! This son John and his wife, decided to help her and could afford to; perhaps it was well understood that in fact John Spencer the father had lead her to ruin. She as granted 160 pounds a year for life. It was decided that she should also marry a man named David Ross, an educated man, and an theatrical actor of talent and some fame. It was a match-make that Ross also agreed to with some worry that Fanny would not keep to her promises. Some speculated that he only married her for the money but he had a good salary himself and would continue his acting career for decades. They had a secret, five month courtship and in May of 1756 they married quietly, no honeymoon, and then lived in separate residences for a year. (I speculate that David Ross was Jewish, and I also do wonder if he was perhaps homosexual. Of all people, why would Spencer have chosen him as a possible husband for Fanny?) Obviously this slow and private courtship reveals Ross was not rushing into marriage.
As Mrs. Ross, Fanny was entirely honorable. For years, however, she and her husband were plagued by her past and her having been depicted as a woman of ill repute for which she was ridiculed. David Ross was a celebrity and continued to have an excellent career as a stage actor, however by 1776 he was aging and in declining health and so was she, and had been for years. She had also lost her looks, her figure. Frances Rudman, Fanny Murray, Mrs. David Ross for twenty years, died in 1778, the Georgian England - American Revolution years being her last. The Spencers had been supporting her as promised for those twenty years and before she died she wrote to thank them.
In upcoming posts we'll explore the possibility that Fanny was a participant in certain sex-clubs in England's capitol, and how she - and others - marketed and promoted herself. Author Barbara White doesn't speculate as I do, but I also wonder if the rumors or facts may have also influenced the Spencers to come to allow Fanny to live far better in her aging than many a courtesan.
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Interested in prostitution? You may be interested to read the following months in my archives.
SLAVIC WOMEN : IMPORTED AS BRIDES - MISTRESSES - TURNED OUT AS PROSTITUTES - RUSSIAN - UKRAINIAN - POLISH July 2014
HEIDI FLEISS : GIRL NEXT DOOR TO HOLLYWOOD MADAM TO BIRD SANCTUARY! WAS BEING KEPT THE TURNING POINT FOR THIS UNUSUAL WOMAN? March 2020
SEX TRAFFICKING : MORE PEOPLE ARE SEX TRAFFICKED TODAY THEN THERE WERE EVER AFRICAN SLAVES IN AMERICA April 2021
Also please note that an exploration here at Mistress Manifesto is the question of Choice. While I presently do think some women choose prostitution at a time when there are opportunities for education and employment to do something else with their lives, unlike ever before, I realize not every woman does have those opportunities and that women's income is still not equal to that of men. Choice does not come into it when the majority of women presently in that business are manipulated into it or forced before they are adults.
I'm basically opposed to prostitution. I suspect that most women who become prostitutes are living lives closer to being enslaved than having made a choice. I'm extremely concerned about sex trafficking and human trafficking in general.
Please note that I read this book as an e-book and any references to page numbers are through the Hoopla app which might not reflect the paper book page numbers. Missy
