FANNY MURRAY : THE PRIVATE CLUB OF MEDMENHAM ABBEY

The same man who had devised the Divan Club, which had a brief existence, Sir Frances Dashwood, decided to form another club, this one that seemed to go without a permanent location for a while, which he called Order of Saint Frances.  The use of a saintly name was subterfuge or irony. Medmenham Abbey, in the countryside of Buckinghamshire, became the location where lewd activities were indulged. His faux 'monks' were to be entertained. It was a gothic retreat for members. "Nuns" were also supposed to live there, for the mutual enjoyment. By the summer of 1752 all was as he had planned. He wished to turn Christianity around and so the place was thought to be about witchcraft and Satanism, Masonry and worse- human sacrifice. Rumors of what went on there were probably exaggerated - even greatly so - but even made it into print in the sexual undergrounds. Rumors were that prostitutes were being sent to serve as 'nuns' from some of London's finest brothels. Other rumors were that the wives of the peerage - Ladies - made use of the place. The names of female participants were supposed to be held secret by the males who invited them. However, the names of famous known prostitutes came up and Fanny Murray was one of them. That said, Dashwood might also have invited those who were simply married and having affairs to use the place for meet ups. He might have simply found a location he could rent that went with his personal fantasy of badness.

It is likely that Fanny Murray attended a meeting or many in the years of 1752-1754.  If so she would have been called by another name, as a matter of ceremony perhaps since her visage was well known, and probably worn the garment of a nun as required of this mockery of Christian morals. As the most popular among the women at that time, she might have lead the revelries. Musical instruments and board games were provided, I suppose if you were shy or bored.

By the summer of 1854. however, Fanny was nearing the end of her days as a Courtesan. About this same time her eight year relationship with Sir Richard Atkins was ending too. And be it all true of not, the idea that she would have ended her last days as a Courtesan at parties at Medmenham Abbey, and far from the role of being the Mistress of one man, could have meant she was in peril.

This was the end of the Courtesan career of a decade in which Fanny Murray lived out her popularity. As author Barbara White suggested, her option would have been to go back into the rougher aspects of prostitution, become the madman of a bawdy house herself, or perhaps publish her memoirs and blackmail the men she intended to portray in them for more money. Other women in her situation had done that, for better or worse.

(Notes re pages 50-51-52-53-54)

And if she had not participated?  Well, this is the dark side of celebrity, when the marketing and public relations suffer and do not serve. 

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FANNY MURRAY EXCEEDS HER RIVALS IN FAME

By the late 1740's Fanny Murray was the most popular Courtesan in London, far surpassing her contemporary and historic rivals. Thousands of prints of her image had been made and circulated.

"Fascination with every aspect of her life, from her lovers to her wealth and beauty, was no longer the lone preserve of male admirers, and extended well beyond the world of gallantry.  As already noted, reputable women, who might not have wished to receive Murray in their homes, were none the less keen to follow her as a fashion icon and to copy her style. ..."

"Although Murray was thinking about withdrawing from prostitution at this time, and eight years had elapsed since she had first been acclaimed the toast of the town, she was still at the top of her profession, the very personification of style and an unparalleled arbiter of taste. Even after Murray had settled into marital respectability, magazines like the Centinel still presented her as a leading trendsetter and influential woman of fashion." (page 70 NaN0)

********************************

For the rest of her life, despite a marriage that endured, Fanny and her husband would never escape her past completely, kind of like what has happened to Monica Lewinsky, never a prostitute or a mistress or a courtesan, who's brief affair with President William Clinton as a young woman, has made her infamous, though she has lived many years past it.

I suppose the criticism and mockery that Fanny endured also says much about popular culture in Georgian England at the time.  For so many of the elite did buy sex. But as it is today, those selling it rather than those buying it are the ones who pay the highest price.  Missy

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PAINTINGS and MALE FANTASY LEAD TO PUBLICITY and THE LAVISH LIFE OF A COURTESAN

In a chapter on the real lives of London prostitutes, author Barbara White writes that there's a possibility that Fanny Murray, a very young woman, was infected with venereal disease and taking a cure might have used all her resources and ended her as a streetwalker as a choice, rather than debtor's prison. The descriptions of the conditions in which these women lived suggest that there were very many levels of prostitution, and the lowest were also pickpockets and associating with a rough criminal class. If so, she might have had to 'service' 100 to 200 men a day. It's possible, though again White suggests it might also not be true, that she was at one point suicidal.

This is similar to today's abducted young sex slaves who are trafficked.  It's difficult to believe anyone who survives could be well psychologically. 

But in 1745 her luck changed and she met John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwhich, who had lost a very long term mistress he was happy with when she was murdered. He would go on to have another very long term mistress as well but Fanny and John had their moment, and this association brought her up in the world. (Notes from Page 41NaN)

In 1744, the Earl had started The Divan Club for a small group who were travelers to the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and which was short-lived. Rumors were that it was not a scholarly gentleman's club but a sex club. A bare-breasted painting which might have been of Fanny Murray - or one of her peer prostitutes - decorated the clubhouse. That an artist was commissioned to paint such a portrait is perhaps indicative of the start of a career in which Fanny would cater to the elite, her time as a Courtesan.

This was a time when gentlemen not only memorialized beauties in art work but also by writing poetry about them and even made lists of the most beautiful women in England to share. (Well, they didn't have the Miss America pageant.) Art, poetry, and lists like these served to promote her as desirable. As men with money came around, Fanny's character became judged as less virtuous(!) as it had been assumed. She did not hesitate to purchase fine things for herself.(Notes from Page 51 Nan)

In the search for truth about Fanny Murray, there is much rumor, much fantasy.

Then a man named Harris came up with Harris List, which was like a 18th century database of prostitutes, and somehow he came up with 400 names.  He listed their names, where they could be found, and what their sexual specialties were. (One wonders how he knew all this.)  In 1747, when she was 19, he included Fanny but it's considered a fabrication.  Fanny M was listed as new to the scene and it was also suggested that she would be ideal for a Jewish man, inferred only a Jew could afford all the things she demanded. She had been in London as a prostitute for at least four years at that point. Was he doing her a favor? Harris may have been a pimp with a 'stable' of 100. He claimed his women had to be 'enrolled' and to undergo medical exams to prove they were disease free and so on. He had a 'club' for women in which, supposedly, a hundred enrolled women drank and awaited a good time.

(Notes from pages 52-53 NaN)

As a Courtesan with enough money to live lavishly, Fanny was finally in position to choose who she would allow into her life and under what terms. Interestingly, she aimed to help those prostitutes who had not been able to avoid the venereal diseases by patronizing a hospital, Lock Hospital near Hyde Park Corner and it was controversial. (page 54 NaN0

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FANNY MURRAY : FROM TEEN PROSTITUTE TO MOST POPULAR COURTESAN IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND : ENTERED INTO THE LIFE and REDEEMED OUT OF IT BY ALTHORP SPENCERS

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