Damaris Page (c. 1610 – 9 October 1669) also known as Damarose Page, was a London brothel keeper, entrepreneur and property developer, one of the most successful and famous prostitutes of her time.

Life and career

Little is known of Page's early life. She was born in Stepney to John Aderson (Addersell) and worked through her teenage years as a prostitute known under the surname Page, though it is not understood how she acquired the name.

Faramerz Dabhoiwala Faramerz Noshir Dabhoiwala (born 1969) is a historian and senior research scholar at Princeton University where he teaches and writes about the social history, cultural history, and intellectual history of the English-speaking world, from the M ...

, "Damaris Page" (c. 1610–1669), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, (2004) online edition (subscription only)Chapter one
David Cordingly (2009) ''Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives'' Random House
/ref> On 18 April 1653 she wed James Dry at

St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey is an Anglican church dedicated to St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey in the London Borough of Southwark. The majority of the present building is late 17th century and is Grade II* listed. Its parish extends as far as ...

. In 1655, she was brought to court for bigamy, as it was stated that she also had been married to a William Baker of Stepney for the previous 15 years, though is likely that it was a fabricated charge as there was no evidence of this marriage in the parish registers. Page stated that the marriage to Baker was never sanctified and she was acquitted. She was concurrently charged with killing one Eleanor Pooley on whom she had tried to perform an abortion with a two-pronged-fork. For this offence she was convicted of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

and would have been hanged; however, she was pregnant at the time of trial (she "pleaded her belly") and so saw out a three-year sentence in

Newgate Gaol Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, th ...

. After her release she continued her businesses as before, and remained single after the death of James Dry. Page became rich during the boom years of economic development of the East End of London, offering services as a prostitute to the burgeoning population of seafaring workers of the docks and later through running brothels. She ran the Three Tuns in Stepney for seamen and another brothel in Rosemary Lane, near the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

, for naval officers who moved in richer circles. She drew many of her prostitutes from the cohort of women whose husbands had been recruited to fight in naval battles or had been killed there, leaving their wives without any means of support. By the middle of the century Page had moved into property speculation, investing the money she made from her brothels. She built houses on the

Ratcliffe Highway The Highway, part of which was formerly known as the Ratcliffe Highway, is a road in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The route dates back to Roman times. In the 19th century it had a reputation for vice and crim ...

, north of Wapping, and around in residential areas near the

, the income from which supported her for the rest of her life. Like other high profile bawds such as

Elizabeth Cresswell Elizabeth Cresswell (c. 1625 – c. 1698), also known as Mother Creswell and Madam Cresswell of Clerkenwell, was one of the most successful prostitutes and brothel keepers of the English seventeenth century. Starting with houses in Bartholo ...

, Page was almost as famous as the politicians of her time.Carolyn Turgeon (2001) "Moll Flanders"; ''World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historic Events That Influenced Them.'' Gale Publishing. HighBeam Research. The subject of

Grub Street Until the early 19th century, Grub Street was a street close to London's impoverished Moorfields district that ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate north to Chiswell Street. It was pierced along its length with narrow entr ...

pamphlets in 1660, characterised as "The Wandring Whore" and the "Crafty Bawd", she may have been one of the inspirations for the character of

Moll Flanders ''Moll Flanders'' is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1722. It purports to be the true account of the life of the eponymous Moll, detailing her exploits from birth until old age. By 1721, Defoe had become a recognised novelist, wit ...

(1721), created by

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

Following the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

, Charles II greatly expanded the navy for new European wars and from the mid-1660s Page was connected with figures in the highest levels of government. Charles II's brother the Duke of York, later to be

King James II James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

, was said to favour Page's brothels. She agreed to

press-gang Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is the taking of men into a military or naval force by compulsion, with or without notice. European navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means. The large size of ...

the dock worker clientele, further building her fortune. She worked with such officers as Sir William Spragg, and it was said that "as long as Damaris Page lived he was sure he should not lack men". The practice made her deeply unpopular and her house was an early target of the 1668 'Bawdy House Riots' that occurred in March 1668.

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

documented the attack on the property of Page "the great bawd of the seamen", "the most Famous Bawd in the Towne." She appeared before a local magistrate, Robert Manley, as a victim of the riots who had lost significant property; she was one of the main witnesses brought against Robert Sharpless, a central instigator of the riots. Her evidence was notably given significant weight during the court case, despite being an unmarried woman and a brothel keeper. Following the riot, Page and Cresswell are listed as the addressers of '' The Whores' Petition'', sent to

Lady Castlemaine Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine (née Barbara Villiers, – 9 October 1709), was an English royal mistress of the Villiers family and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of Eng ...

, the King's lover, notorious for her own wild promiscuity. Some historians, such as Linnane, infer an active role of the addressers Page and Cresswell in the writing of the document. Others such as Mowry and Turner suggest it is an organ of political ventriloquism on behalf of anonymous, radical dissenters.Melissa M. Mowry (2004) ''The Bawdy Politic in Stuart England, 1660–1714: Political Pornography and Prostitution'', Ashgate Publishing, pp. 60–64 In an act of brazen public satire, the two brothel owners request that the infamous aristocrat act on the behalf of her 'sisters' and repay the madams for the rebuilding of their brothels, funded by the national tax coffers. They address Castlemaine as a prostitute herself and list the sites of the brothels where her fellows struggle. It is addressed as:

The Poor Whores' Petition to the most splendid, illustrious, serene and eminent Lady of Pleasure the Countess of Castlemayne &c: The humble petition of the undone company of poore distressed whores, bawds, pimps, and panders ... Signed by us, Madam Cresswell and Damaris Page, in the behalf of our sisters and fellow sufferers (in this day of our calamity) in Dog and Bitch Yard, Lukenor’s Lane, Saffron Hill, Moorfields, Chiswell Street, Rosemary Lane, Nightingale Lane, Ratcliffe Highway, Well Close, East Smithfield etc.University of Massachusetts archive
''Politics, Literary Culture & Theatrical Media in London : 1625–1725'' "The Whores' Petition".

Given her great experience in whoring, Lady Castlemaine would, they argued, be able to deeply sympathise with prostitutes across the city.Linnane, Fergus (2007). ''London: the Wicked City: a Thousand Years of Prostitution and Vice''. Robson. p. 76 . "Should your Eminency but once fall into these Rough hands", they wrote, "you may expect no more Favour than they have shewn unto us poor Inferiour Whores". Diarist

noted that Castlemaine was "horribly vexed" by the petition. The work itself was so finely tuned to the political dynamics of the day that though the printer was arrested, the court censor writes that "I can fasten nothing on ''The Poor Whore's Petition'' that a jury will take notice of." The Petition caused a flurry of

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

satires, poems and ballads on the subject through the following year. The historian James Turner terms this event as an example of a new carnivalisation of sexuality in Restoration England, where genuine political attack, satire, street commentary and bawdy theatre came together. In her last years Page became close to her sister Margaret, to whom she left money in her will. On 9 October 1669, during incarceration in the Marshalsea prison, she fell sick and died. She was buried the following day at

St George the Martyr, Southwark St George the Martyr is a church in the historic Borough district of south London. It lies within the modern-day London Borough of Southwark, on Borough High Street at the junction with Long Lane, Marshalsea Road, and Tabard Street. St George t ...

. She had amassed a considerable fortune by the time of her death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Damaris English female prostitutes English brothel owners and madams 17th-century English women 17th-century English businesspeople 1610 births 1669 deaths Businesspeople from London Inmates of the Marshalsea 17th century in London

Life and career

Further reading

References