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Rebecca and The Bloody Codes

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It should be understood that prostitution, per se, was not illegal in 18th century London. Beginning in 1757, Samuel Derrick, an Irish hack reporter worked with Jack Harris, the self-proclaimed Pimp-General of all England, to produce annual books called “Harris’s Lists of Covent Garden Ladies,” in which the names and addresses of top whores were listed along with intimate descriptions of their skills. For example:

Miss. L-v-b-n No, 32 George Street, Queen Anne Street, East
If we are not misinformed, this lady is one of the daughters of fortune, having a pretty goo income left her by an old flagellant, whom she literally flogged out of the world.

Miss R-b-s-n of the Jelly Shops.
This Lady is Jew, but has no objection to a bit of Christian flesh; but not in Shylock’s way, she chooses her lover and less than a pound will satisfy her.
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Author's Introduction

Later today, I will begin posting my newest story, “Rebecca and the Bloody Codes.” This is a story (and girl) that I have played with in my mind for a long time. I hope it appeals to my readers.

I enter into this project with trepidation when I think of the seriously great authors who have covered (either directly or indirectly) this era and topic before.

The year before the action happens in my story, in 1722, Daniel Defoe, fresh from the runaway success of Robinson Crusoe, published The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, the story of a women, born in Newgate prison to young woman about to be hanged for petty theft. Pleading her “belly,” the execution is postponed and she is later transported to the Virginia colony leaving Moll to be raised from the age of three until adolescence by a kindly foster mother. Thereupon, she sets forth on a life of lusty adventures. Not really pornography, but a romping good read. BTW – there are some questions as to whether Defoe really wrote it – his name did not appear on any edition until decades after his death.

In 1749, two decades after my story, Henry Fielding published The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, generally considered the first English prose work to be considered a novel. Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued that it has one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned." It became a bestseller, with four editions being published in its first year alone. I presume most readers are familiar from one of the movies or TV adaptations. I read the book in my misspent youth, though, in this time of benighted education and devil-inspired tweeting, few will have read its 346,747 words.

Most significant of all, is the work which leaves my humble efforts to grovel in the mud, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (popularly known by the protagonist’s name Fanny Hill), published by John Cleland in 1748. It is considered the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel. It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. Surprisingly, though clearly pornographic, it never uses any anatomical or “dirty” words for parts or actions. A substantial part of the humor and entertainment of the book comes from a plethora of inventive euphemisms (the vagina, for example, is often referred to as the “nethermouth.”).

With these and other quality writing to choose from, my readers would be well advised to leave now and seek better entertainment.

For those foolish enough to remain, this story will move slowly, I am trying, more than usual to give a feeling and experience of early 18th century London. There will be [trigger warning] extensive non-consensual sex, some sex cum punishment, a possible prison whipping, and always (courtesy of the “Blood Codes”) the ominous threat of a hanging for an innocent young woman.

I have, as of this moment written about one third of the book. Even I do not know how it ends.
 
Rebecca and The Bloody Codes​

Chapter 1 Rebecca of Dartford

Rebecca Godwyn came from a respectable family living in Dartford in Kent. Born to Roger and Alice Godwyn in May, 1705, Rebecca was the oldest of seven children, all of whom, remarkably, were still alive in 1723. Roger was a moderately successful farmer and chalk miner. He was prosperous enough to maintain his large family in decent state until 1720. Early that year, he had been caught up, as were many others in feverish herd investing in the South Sea Company. The company was engaged in the trading of government debt and reported astounding growth. Shares that sold for £100 at the beginning of the year, would hit over £1,000 in early August. Roger bought in, on credit at just over £800. By the end of September, shares had fallen to £150 and he was wiped out. Not only did he lose all his savings, but he was left owing a substantial sum for the borrowed shares.

Rebecca had enjoyed a loving and reasonably prosperous home for her first fifteen years. But after her father’s financial embarrassments, life began to change. Shortly after Rebecca’s sixteenth birthday in 1721, he was forced to sell the farm in a soft market and move his family into a tiny three room, rented cottage. His only source of income now was working in the chalk mines. Fortunately, he was a dab hand, and the mine owners liked him. The family tightened their belts and got by, hoping things might improve. Willing to work long hours, Roger brought in decent money for a while.

However, as the ripples of the investment bubble spread throughout England and even to the Continent, industries saw their trade drop sharply. The chalk mines cut hours several times during 1721, and finally, in early 1722, they were forced to cut more hours, even for senior workers like Roger, and, mostly painful, they imposed a 60% cut on the tonnage paid to workers. By the fall of 1722, Roger’s income was one third of that the prior year. Alice and Rebecca and the older children tried to pitch in, but there was precious little work being farmed out by anyone.

In October, with money running very short, Roger volunteered for work in the new shaft. One week later, there was a cave-in that killed him. At that time there was no insurance or workers’ comp or any required pay to the family of a killed employee. However, the mine owners, though badly stretched themselves, were good people and paid each family three weeks extra wages. This money and the fact that the second oldest, Tommy, 15, got a job at the mines pushing wheelbarrows all day helped. But Tommy earned just 10d a day, just their rent, with nothing left over for food. Then the next younger boy, Roger, got a job tending an Oast while it smoldered for 2d a day.

By the first of the year, the Godwyn family’s position was getting precarious. Then, like manna from heaven, in March, a letter came from Roger’s cousin in London. He had started a new business renting out house cleaners. He offered Rebecca a job at 10d a day with room and board included. This would allow her to send almost her entire wages back to help the family. She quickly accepted the offer and the cousin told her to come to London at the end of May to start work.
 
You are going to town with your research on the period and this can only enhance your story. You have chosen an interesting period in which to place your heroine, one in which the lot of young women in general was not particularly pleasant and for those of the lower orders fraught with potential dangers. Corporal punishment of young women and girls was the domestic norm and frequently used as a judicial sanction. Society was mainly agrarian in the period immediately prior to the industrial revolution and local magistrates enjoyed freedom of action to punish real or imagined wrongdoers. Bring on the action.
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
In a shameless display of self-promotion, I am posting some teasers for my next story. I've written about one-third. Therefore, it may be a little while before the whole story comes out. But I will post a prologue and maybe a few chapters to whet your appetites and wet your mouths! I hope all enjoy
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There is nothing against promoting a story that's coming up:icon_writing: (I sometimes do it myself).:deal:

Praefectus Praetorio said:
The Black Act 1723, officially “An Act for the more effectual punishing wicked and evil disposed Persons going armed in Disguise and doing Injuries and Violence to the Persons and Properties of His Majesty's Subject, and for the more speedy bringing the Offenders to Justice,” was passed in response to increased crime and social unrest in the United Kingdom after the collapse of the South Sea Bubble in 1720. When the act went into effect on May 27, 1723, it listed over 200 crimes that carried the death penalty. The death penalty in those days applied to any theft, including shoplifting, that valued at 12 pence or more (£5.90 in 2019). For this reason, the criminal code of that era in England are often called The Bloody Codes. One of the most notorious judges enforcing the act was Sir Francis Page. His coarseness and cruelty earned him a reputation as ‘the hanging judge’, and the singular distinction of being satirized by Pope, Fielding, Hogarth, Dr Johnson and the poet Richard Savage
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Curiously, these harsh laws, made it interesting to enlist into the Royal Navy. Food was often bad on the ships, and discipline harsh, including corporal punishment, but actually, the sailors got to eat every day (not guaranteed in civil life for the poor), and, in contrast to the Black Act, the level of punishment in the Navy was in relation to the level of the crime or discipline breach committed. Acts punished with death by the Black Act, 'only' led to a flogging in the Royal Navy.
 
Migoz2 said:
Really nice start, PrPr. I like the background before all the good, nasty stuff starts. Gives it the feel of a novel of the time and I am sure it will mean that there is a real depth to Rebecca's character.
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She'll be just a simple country girl; sort of a Kentish Eliza Doolittle (with red hair).
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Chapter 2 The Journey to London Town

On May 30, 1723, two weeks past her eighteenth birthday, Rebecca Godwyn kissed her mother and six sibling’s goodbye and left home for the first time in her life. She carried over her shoulder, a sack with her spare clothes and her meager personal possessions and a few pence to pay for a night’s lodging on the way. She made good time in fine weather, covering almost 10 miles. As she got close to Greenwich, she noticed that the environs became less agricultural and more urban. The road turned north to the Thames and at dusk she reached Greenwich.

Rebecca was startled at the rates many of the inns and lodging house charged. Even here, the higher urban costs of London had an influence. At last, she found a rather shabby, but affordable lodging house and paid 10d for a room and supper and breakfast. The dinner was simple fare of meat, bread, and ale in the common room. Tired from her journey, Rebecca went right after to her room and collapsed on the bed without changing. Partway through the night she awoke to some cheesy bugs in the bed.

When she awoke in the morning, our girl was in for a very unpleasant surprise. The country lass was unused to the hazards of the town, and in her exhaustion the night before, had failed to properly stow and secure her bag and instead left it just inside the unlocked door to her room. When she arose in the morning, Rebecca found it missing. Everything she possessed was gone! She was left with the clothes on her back. She went to the innkeeper for assistance, but he just pointed to a sign (which Rebecca couldn’t read) and opined, “Probably one of the pikeys staying last night. They are all gone, a rum lot, good riddance.!”

He refused to give any compensation and just pointed again to the sign (“Not responsible for personal articles.”). He gave her breakfast, hard bread and a pickled egg and turned away.

Rebecca just sat and cried. How could she have been so silly as to let her precious bag be stolen? She considered turning back, but she just couldn’t do that. To take more clothes and money from her almost starving family would be unthinkable. She had to press on to London where her cousin would help her and she could start earning funds. Fortunately, his letter, with directions was in her dress.

At 8:30AM, she left Greenwich on the 9 mile walk to London and her new life. It was lighter without carrying her bag, but she felt almost naked without something in her hand or any of her things.

The last day of May was very warm and by midday, the walk was tiring her. As she came into the outskirts of London, everything was bigger and dirtier than she had known in Kent. When nearer home, she could have stopped by a clear brook to get a free drink; the watercourses here were often built-over and smelled of sewage. In the warm afternoon, tired hungry and thirsty, Rebecca Godwyn from Dartford plodded up Tooley Street through ever more dense masses of humanity.

The prospect of Old London Bridge was a revelation to Rebecca. Not only was the long bridge crossing the Thames impressive in length, but buildings, houses up to four stories, sat on the bridge itself! At places, these encroached on the pathway and made passage narrow and difficult. Crossing the span over the Thames into London left the country girl totally disoriented as she was shoved and pushed and shouted at as she tried to make her way.

Once over, she still struggled with the unaccustomed crowds and trash in the road as she tried to get her orientation in the teeming streets.
 
Giving due weight to the other opinion. Samuel Johnson about 20 years later said, “Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
 
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