Find the accessibility copy of my talk VIA THIS LINK

Here I’ve gathered materials referenced in my conference presentation “Politick Whores, Nightwalkers, and She-Friends: Navigating London’s Sex Industry in the Long Eighteenth Century” and its companion zine handout, at the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA. April 2026. Most of these are pieces or resources I’ve created, please enjoy.

Some resources on sex work history in 1700s London (and a bit beyond)

• Encyclopedia entry on “Brothels” for Open-Access DIGITENS Digital Encyclopaedia on Sociability in Europe in the Long Eighteenth Century (June 2025).
  • see also entries including “Covent Garden” by Francis Boorman, “Taverns” by Ian Newman, “West End of London” by Rohan McWilliam, and “London theatres (and their audiences)” by Clara Manco
• “Selling Sex, Work, and Literature: Then and Now.” Syllabus, 29 August 2023. https://syllabusproject.org/selling-sex-work-and-literature-then-and-now/.

Some maps of sex work in 1700s London

• Interactive collection “William Hogarth’s Harlot’s Progress (1732) and Rake’s Progress (1734-35)” locations and contexts, mapped via Layers of London (Jan. 2024)
• Locations mentioned in Harris’s List:
  • my rough mapping of locations in 1764 and 1793 editions via Google Maps
  • Matthew Sangster’s mapping of locations in 1788 edition via Romantic London
• Find more cool, interactive maps of this era via The Map of Early Modern London (here’s the entry on Ram Alley), The Grub Street Project, and Mapping Black London (non-exhaustive list)

Useful primary sources

Catalogues and guides:

An Auction of Whores, or, The Bawds Bill of Sale, for Bartholomew Fair (1691)

Catalogue of Jilts, Cracks, Prostitutes, Night-Walkers, Whores, She-Friends, Kind Women, and Others of The Linnen-Lifting Tribe (1691)

The Countryman’s Guide to London (1760)

Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies (1757–93) (list of open-access volumes via UPenn)

The Man of Pleasure’s Pocket-Book (1779–80)

Richard King, The New Cheats of London Exposed (1770?, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1792, 1795, 1799, 1800)

J. S., City and Country Recreation: or, wit and merriment rightly calculated, for the pleasure and advantage of either sex (1705)

César de Saussure, A Foreign View of England (1902)

César de Saussure, Lettres et voyages de Monsr César de Saussure en Allemagne, en Hollande et en Angleterre, 1725-1729 (1903)

The Town Spy: Or, a View of London and Westminster (1725)

The Tricks of the Town Laid Open: or, A Companion for Country Gentlemen (1746, 1747)

Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz, A Picture of England, 2 vols (1789)

Periodicals:

The Covent Garden Magazine Or the Amorous Repository (1772–75)

The Bon Ton Magazine (1791–95)

Slang dictionaries

Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), with many reprints and later editions also available

Green’s Dictionary of Slang is also an excellent aggregator of historical slang dictionaries

Interested in more? Check out all things Sally Salisbury (c.1690–1724)

“Prostitutes, Priests, and Politics: The Celebrated Sally Salisbury’s Surprising Afterlives” (in progress)

“Sally Salisbury from Sex Work to Coffin Robbery: A Case Study in Eighteenth-Century Fame.” Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies (ODSECS). 15 November 2023.

“Reimagining the Creation of B-List Celebrity: Sally Salisbury’s Eighteenth-Century Transmedia Adaptations.” ASECS Annual Conference. Baltimore, MD. April 2022.

“Talking Statues, Treasonous Bishops, and Grave Robbery: Creating the Celebrated Sally Salisbury’s Print Afterlives.” ASECS Annual Conference. Orlando, FL. March 2018. Winner of the ASECS Women’s Caucus Catherine Macaulay Prize.

“How Sally Gets Around: Gossip, Information, and Serial Print Culture in Victorian England.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (INCS) Conference. San Francisco, CA. March 2018.

Further scholarship on sex work, prostitution, and eighteenth-century London

“Cataloging the Restoration Jilt: Sexual Commodification, London Guidebooks, and Didactic Erotica.” Special Issue on Aphra Behn of Women’s Writing, edited by Hannah Straw and Elaine Hobby (forthcoming 2027)

“Politick Whores, Nightwalkers, and She-Friends: Navigating London’s Sex Industry in the Long Eighteenth Century.” American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Conference. Philadelphia, PA. April 2026.

“Uncommon Fame, Reputation Transitions, and Information Shifts in Richardson’s Clarissa.” Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles (SEAA 17-18) workshop at Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur (SAES) Annual Conference. Toulouse, France, June 2025

“Cataloging the Restoration Jilt: Sexual Commodification, London Guidebooks, & Didactic Erotica.” Aphra Behn and Her Restoration International Conference, Aphra Behn (Europe) Society. University of Kent, UK. July 2024.

“Teaching the Jilt; or, Possible Futures of Eighteenth-Century Sex Worker Literature in Twenty-First-Century Classrooms.” Western Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (WSECS). San Francisco, CA. Feb. 2024. Helene W. Koon Memorial Award, 2nd place

“‘Gimme more’: What Defoe’s Roxana and Britney Spears Can Tell Us about Celebrity, Commodification, and Autonomy.” Defoe Society and Early Caribbean Society Atlantic Routes & Roots Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. July 2023.

“Women on Display in the Papers: Prostitute Narratives and Charlotte Lennox’s The Lady’s Museum.” ASECS Annual Conference. Minneapolis, MN. March 2017.