Fanny and Stella

by Neil McKenna

  Much of the material in this book is drawn directly from the trial transcript (DPP 4/6), the depositions (KB6/3) and the letters (KB6/3, part I) in the National Archives, and designated in the notes as ‘Trial’, ‘Deposition’ and ‘Letters’. I have relied heavily on contemporary newspaper reports of the trial and its aftermath, all of which can be consulted at British Library Newspapers in Colindale, London.

  1 Leading Ladies

  1 ‘When they were seated’ – ‘The Funny He-She Ladies’, Curiosities of Street Literature, Comprising Cocks and Catchpennies (London, 1871).

  2 ‘the very fairest’ – Echo, 3 May 1870.

  2 ‘The general opinion’ – The Lives of Boulton and Park: Extraordinary Revelations (London, 1870).

  3 ‘There was a young man’ – The Pearl, November 1879.

  3 ‘lasciviously ogled’ – Extraordinary Revelations.

  4 ‘no harm in it’ – Pall Mall Gazette, 6 March 1881.

  5 ‘sterner features’ – Evening Standard, 2 May 1870.

  6 ‘charming as a star’ – Quoted in the opening speech of Sir John Karslake, Trial.

  6 ‘Stella, Star of the Strand’ – Extraordinary Revelations.

  7 ‘I’m a police officer’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1870.

  7 ‘How dare you’ – Evening Standard, 2 May 1870.

  7 ‘Look here’ – Deposition of Detective Sergeant Kerley/Reynolds’s Newspaper, 14 May 1871.

  9 ‘Your name and address?’ – Trial testimony of Inspector Thompson.

  10 ‘There were flannel petticoats’ – Trial testimony of Detective Officer Chamberlain.

  10 ‘One of the police’ – Deposition of Hugh Mundell/Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  11 ‘a cruel sell’ – ‘The Funny He-She Ladies’.

  11 ‘so brave’ – Trial testimony of Detective Officer Chamberlain.

  2 The Hapless Swain

  12 ‘These young men’ – Extraordinary Revelations.

  12 ‘the nightly resort’ – Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow, Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840–1880 (Hatfield, 2001).

  12 ‘a few pilgrims’ – All the Year Round (19 May 1877) quoted in Davis and Emeljanow, Reflecting the Audience.

  12 ‘23 years and a half’ – Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  13 ‘very little experience’ – Deposition of Hugh Mundell.

  13 ‘an “idle” sort of a life’ – ibid.

  14 ‘Those two are women’ – ibid.

  14 ‘I took them to be women’ – Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  14 ‘We think you’re following us’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell.

  15 ‘these monsters’ – ‘H. Smith’, The Yokel’s Preceptor: Or, More Sprees in London! (London, c.1850).

  16 ‘I talked to them’ – Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  16 ‘only be too happy’ – Deposition of Hugh Mundell.

  16 ‘never anything improper’ – Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  17 ‘our private box’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell.

  17 ‘Dear Mr Mundell’ – ibid.

  17 ‘It’s a good joke’ – ibid.

  18 ‘In what way’ – Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  18 ‘I shall ask for Mrs Park’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell.

  19 ‘a bit of brown’ – ‘Walter’, My Secret Life (Amsterdam, c.1880).

  19 ‘back-door work’ – The Pearl, 1880.

  20 ‘I said I had’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell/Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  21 ‘They were talking’ – Extraordinary Revelations.

  21 ‘principally dowagers’ – Deposition of Amos Westropp Gibbings.

  22 ‘Who are they?’ – Daily Telegraph, 7 May 1870.

  22 ‘I have my doubts’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell.

  23 ‘I am not a lady’ – ibid.

  23 ‘There was a great deal of confusion’ – The Times, 7 May 1870/ Extraordinary Revelations.

  23 ‘quite in a myth’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell.

  23 ‘led on’ – ibid.

  3 The Slap-Bum Polka

  24 ‘a cute detective chap’ – ‘The Funny He-She Ladies’.

  25 ‘He asked whether two gentlemen’ – Deposition of Martha Stacey.

  26 ‘My mother remonstrated’ – ibid.

  27 ‘in drag’ – Deposition of Amos Westropp Gibbings.

  28 ‘laughing, chaffing’ – Deposition of Martha Stacey.

  28 ‘Slap-Bum Polka’ – Jack Saul, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (London, 1881).

  29 ‘very effeminate’ – Reynolds’s Newspaper, 5 June 1870.

  30 ‘handsomest frocks’ – Trial testimony of Detective Officer Chamberlain.

  4 In the Dock

  31 ‘When first before’ – ‘The Funny He-She Ladies’.

  33 ‘was crowded’ – Illustrated Police News, 7 May 1870.

  34 ‘crammed’ – Evening News, 30 April 1870.

  34 ‘great surprise’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1870.

  35 ‘these two women’ – ibid.

  35 ‘did with each’ – KB6/3, The National Archives.

  37 ‘Both conducted’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1870.

  37 ‘Last evening’ – ibid.

  38 ‘lasciviously ogling’ – Extraordinary Revelations.

  38 ‘I have been’ – Deposition of Detective Officer Chamberlain.

  38 ‘I found’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1870.

  39 ‘for a year past’ – ibid.

  39 ‘seen both the prisoners’ – Deposition of Police Constable Walker.

  40 ‘Much of the evidence’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1870.

  40 ‘The onus’ – ibid.

  5 Foreign Bodies

  42 ‘EXAMINATION OF PEDERASTS’ – Charles Vibert, Précis de médicine légale (Paris, 1893, translated by Dede Smith).

  42 ‘I was in the street’ – Trial testimony of Dr James Paul.

  44 ‘Step inside’ – Deposition of Dr Paul.

  44 ‘Unfasten’ – ibid.

  44 ‘Without saying’ – ibid.

  44 ‘I did not use’ – ibid.

  44 ‘force’ – ibid.

  44 ‘I examined them’ – ibid.

  46 ‘a wheezing’ – C. J. S. Thompson, Ladies or Gentlemen? Women Who Posed as Men and Men Who Impersonated Women (New York, 1993).

  46 ‘doubtful repute’ – Observer, 22 May 1870.

  46 ‘Maria’ – Thompson, Ladies or Gentlemen?

  47 ‘no appearance of a beard’ – Alfred Swaine Taylor, The Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence (London, 1861).

  47 ‘The state of the rectum’ – ibid.

  49 ‘abused by men’ – Deposition of Dr Paul.

  49 ‘special continental vice’ – The Leader, 18 September 1858.

  50 ‘I had never seen’ – Trial testimony of Dr Paul.

  50 ‘I examined Boulton’ – Deposition of Dr Paul.

  50 ‘Boulton was then removed’ – ibid.

  50 ‘The anus was very’ – ibid.

  51 ‘a foreign body’ – Deposition of Dr Paul.

  51 ‘an inordinate length’ – ibid.

  51 ‘Traction’ – ibid.

  51 ‘the dimensions’ – Ambroise Tardieu, Étude médico-légale sur les attentats aux mœurs (Paris, 1857, and seventh edition, 1878, translated by Dede Smith).

  6 Wives and Daughters

  53 ‘Say Stella’ – Jonathan Swift, ‘To Stella, Visiting Me in My Sickness’, 1720.

  53 ‘independent means’ – entry in the 1841 Census.

  53 ‘And Ernest was’ – Trial testimony of Mrs Mary Ann Boulton.

  56 ‘Mamma’ – ibid.

  58 ‘everything’ – ibid.

  59 ‘reverses’ – ibid.

  59 ‘If he asked his father’ – ibid.

  60 ‘consumptive’ – ibid.

  61 ‘I was always’ – ibid.

  7 Becoming Fanny

  65 �
��And all that’s madly wild’ – Thomas Parnell, Poems upon Several Occasions (London, 1773).

  77 ‘sound in principles’ – Sir James Park, Some Account of Myself, unpublished and undated MS, c.1835.

  8 A Tale of Two Sisters

  79 ‘A SISTER’S LOVE’ – Jethro Jackson, The Family Treasury of Western Literature, Science and Art (London, 1854).

  79 ‘sterner features’ – Evening Standard, 2 May 1870.

  85 ‘your mincing’ – Louis Hurt to Ernest Boulton, 8 April 1870, Trial.

  86 ‘They always said’ – Trial testimony of Hugh Mundell.

  9 Monstrous Erections

  88 ‘At Wakefield Street’ – ‘The Funny He-She Ladies’.

  88 ‘The crowd’ – Reynolds’s Newspaper, 15 May 1870.

  89 ‘It is suspected’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1870.

  89 ‘these foolish if not unnatural’ – Illustrated Police News, 7 May 1870.

  90 ‘Nothing’ – Extraordinary Revelations.

  90 ‘the filthy details’ – Reynolds’s Newspaper, 29 May 1870.

  90 ‘noble lord’ – ibid.

  90 ‘allow seats’ – Evening Standard, 6 May 1870.

  91 ‘a most indecent’ – The Times, 30 May 1870.

  91 ‘such ebullitions’ – ibid.

  91 ‘The list’ – The Times, 16 May 1870.

  94 ‘a Theatrical’ – Jim Davis, ‘Androgynous Cliques and Epicene Colleges: Gender Transgression On and Off the Victorian Stage’, Nineteenth Century Theatre, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Summer 1998).

  95 ‘42 stamps’ – The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, 1861.

  96 ‘monstrous erections’ – C. Willett Cunnington, Feminine Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1935).

  96 ‘a whopper’ – Curiosities of Street Literature, Comprising Cocks and Catchpennies (London, 1871).

  96 ‘hair-dressing establishments’ – Graphic, 7 May 1870.

  96 ‘The hairdresser’ – Deposition of Maria Duffin.

  97 ‘sterner features’ – Evening Standard, 2 May 1870.

  97 ‘great quantity’ – The Times, 16 May 1870.

  97 ‘evident defects’ – Cunnington, Feminine Attitudes.

  97 ‘One of the prostitutes’ – Reay Tannahill, Sex in History (London, 1980).

  98 ‘no one who goes’ – Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, 1871.

  98 ‘If a girl’ – Mrs H. R. Haweis, The Art of Beauty (London, 1878).

  98 ‘one of the most innocent’ – Edwin Creer, A Popular Treatise on the Human Hair (London, 1865).

  99 ‘CAUTION TO LADIES’ – The Pearl, April 1880.

  10 A Dirty Business

  102 ‘Amenities of Leicester Square’ – The Pearl, 1880.

  102 ‘considered’ – Daily Telegraph, 10 May 1871.

  103 ‘admirable’ – in Alan Mackinnon, The Oxford Amateurs: A Short History of Theatricals at the University (London, 1910).

  104 ‘well-known’ – Daily Telegraph, 10 May 1871.

  105 ‘Are you good-natured’ – The Times, 24 September 1850.

  106 ‘in a very mincing’ – The Times, 25 October 1850.

  106 ‘Did you see’ – Willy Somerville to Stella Boulton, no date but c.1868, Letters.

  106 ‘There is a considerable’ – Evidence of Howard Vincent, 19 July 1881, Minutes of Evidence of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Protection of Young Girls, Parliamentary Papers, 1881.

  106 ‘A great many’ – Flora Tristan’s London Journal, translated by Denis Palmer and Giselle Pincetl (London, 1980).

  107 ‘army’ – ‘Xavier Mayne’, The Intersexes: A History of Simisexualism as a Problem in Social Life (Rome, 1908).

  107 ‘seven or eight’ – ‘Evidence of Silas Rendell Anniss, 27 February 1871’, in Analysis of the Evidence Given Before the Contagious Diseases Commission, prepared by J. Salusbury Trelawny (London, 1872).

  107 ‘such types’ – ‘Xavier Mayne’, The Intersexes.

  107 ‘oftentimes’ – Statements of Jack Saul to Inspector Abberline of the Metropolitan Police, 10 and 12 August 1889, The National Archives.

  108 ‘fancy woman’ – ‘H. Smith’, Yokel’s Preceptor.

  108 ‘notorious’ – ibid.

  108 ‘spooney boy’ – Statements of Jack Saul to Inspector Abberline.

  108 ‘One man’s prick’ – ‘Walter’, My Secret Life.

  109 ‘If you’ll let us go’ – Deposition of Detective Sergeant Kerley/Reynolds’s Newspaper, 14 May 1871.

  109 ‘I have been in the hands’ – Letter from Malcolm Johnston, Dublin Commission Court – The Queen v Cornwall and Others, August 1884.

  109 ‘Nearly all ’ – ibid.

  110 ‘Camp’ – Statement of Malcolm Johnston, Dublin Commission Court.

  111 ‘in a very extraordinary’ – Morning Post, 23 June 1868.

  111 ‘a charge’ – ibid.

  112 ‘been specially employed’ – Birmingham Daily Post, 10 March 1871.

  112 ‘the system’ – Freeman’s Journal, 9 March 1871.

  113 ‘the slightest doubt’ – Alfred Swaine Taylor, Medical Jurisprudence (London, 1846).

  11 Getting Up Evidence

  114 ‘That if any witness’ – A Compendious Abstract of the Public General Acts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1823).

  114 ‘literally inundated’ – Reynolds’s Newspaper, 15 May 1870.

  114 ‘I have had a great deal’ – Daily Telegraph, 30 May 1870.

  116 ‘I have known Park’ – Deposition of John Reeve.

  117 ‘They were walking’ – ibid.

  118 ‘I have seen about twenty’ – ibid.

  118 ‘frequent complaints’ – ibid.

  120 ‘I noticed’ – Deposition of George Smith.

  120 ‘I saw him wink’ – Trial testimony of George Smith.

  120 ‘I dare say’ – Daily Telegraph, 14 May 1870.

  120 ‘Oh, you sweet little dear!’ – Deposition of George Smith.

  121 ‘I saw Boulton’ – ibid.

  121 ‘I’ve received’ – ibid.

  121 ‘Take no notice’ – ibid.

  121 ‘You’re as bad’ – ibid.

  121 ‘They used to walk’ – Trial testimony of George Smith.

  122 ‘I’ve cautioned’ – Deposition of George Smith.

  123 ‘I don’t think’ – The Times, 14 May 1870.

  123 ‘Have you been drinking’ – Daily Telegraph, 14 May 1870.

  123 ‘flippant’ – ibid.

  124 ‘getting up evidence’ – Deposition of George Smith.

  124 ‘a mistake as to the date’ – ibid.

  124 ‘at the Treasury-office’ – The Times, 14 May 1870.

  124 ‘I may be paid’ – Deposition of George Smith/Trial testimony of George Smith/The Times, 14 May 1870.

  124 ‘additions’ – The Times, 14 May 1870.

  12 A Victorian Romance

  126 ‘At length I am a bride!’ – Letters from Laura and Eveline, Giving an Account of Their Mock-Marriage, Wedding Trip, Etc., (London, 1903).

  128 ‘He laughed’ – Trial testimony of Mary Ann Boulton.

  129 ‘On one or two occasions’ – ibid.

  130 ‘nourish’ – 1876 advertisement for Rowland’s Macassar Oil.

  131 ‘Rose of the garden’ – Anne Fricker, ‘Fading Away’, 1854.

  131 ‘ripened’ – Trial testimony of Mary Ann Boulton.

  133 ‘interfering’ – Daily Telegraph, 10 May 1871.

  133 ‘a man perfectly well-known’ – Opening speech of the Attorney-General, Trial.

  133 ‘apparently plying’ – ibid.

  134 ‘a marriage’ – The Times, 6 June 1868.

  135 ‘in all, five’ – The Times, 10 November 1869.

  135 ‘a chest’ – ibid.

  136 ‘My dear Mrs Boulton’ – Lord Arthur Clinton to Mrs Boulton, 11 December 1868, Letters.

  136 ‘said he would be very pleased’ – Trial testim
ony of Mary Ann Boulton.

  136 ‘My answer’ – ibid.

  137 ‘When I was dressing’ – ibid.

  137 ‘I fear I offended’ – Lord Arthur Clinton to Mrs Boulton, 12 October 1868, Trial.

  13 Lord Arthur’s Wife

  138 ‘MARRY!’ – The Ladies’ Treasury, March 1867.

  140 ‘I thought Boulton’ – Deposition of Eliza Clark.

  141 ‘I have been’ – ibid.

  141 ‘I used to accuse’ – ibid.

  141 ‘I never could satisfy myself’ – Evening Standard, 30 May 1870.

  141 ‘Boulton generally dressed’ – Deposition of Maria Duffin.

  142 ‘When Boulton was there’ – ibid.

  143 ‘I beg your pardon’ – Trial testimony of Maria George (née Duffin).

  14 The Toast of the Town

  148 ‘Oh! the dresses’ – ‘Cantab’, ‘The Spa at Scarborough: A Reminiscence’ in The Lovers’ Dictionary: A Poetical Treasury of Lovers’ Thoughts, Fancies, Addresses and Dilemmas (London, 1867).

  151 ‘it strengthens’ – Theakston’s Guide to Scarborough (Scarborough, 1868).

  152 ‘Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton, M.P.’ – Scarborough Gazette and Weekly List of Visitors, 15 October 1868.

  152 ‘Oct. 20, 1868.’ – Daily Telegraph, 13 May 1871.

  153 ‘the oldest’ – George Crosby, Crosby’s Guide to Scarborough (Scarborough, c.1850).

  155 ‘honoured’ – Scarborough Gazette and Weekly List of Visitors, 22 October 1868.

  156 ‘an establishment’ – Scarborough Gazette and Weekly List of Visitors, 15 October 1868.

  156 ‘a popular demand’ – Trial testimony of Oliver Sarony.

  157 ‘Lord Arthur had’ – Wybert Reeve to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph, 3 June 1870.

  15 ‘Yr Affectionate Fanny’

  159 ‘Don’t be too particular’ – words and music by John Orlando Parry, 1843.

  162 ‘I am just off’ – Ernest Boulton to Lord Arthur Clinton, 4 December 1868, Letters.