ABSTRACT
Many of the women who were prostitutes in sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century England were women of relatively limited means about whom we have scant information. They were usually of a very different social status from the women in the category of “mistresses.” Prostitutes were also far more likely to be in urban than rural settings. In London there were serious attempts to keep the prostitutes out of the city walls, but by the beginning of the seventeenth century there were brothels in many places throughout the city, making activity far harder to supervise. Much of the information we have comes from trial records and prison records. Some who were prostitutes were also found to break the law in other ways, such as stealing. Some prostitutes were also cross-dressers, perhaps because their clients preferred this. One important aspect of the lives of prostitutes was their willingness to step outside of acceptable behavior, not only in their sexual lives, but in their language, and their refusal to behave as directed while in prison, which was usually at Bridewell.
