Constantia Jones

Constantia Jones (c.1708—December 22, 1738[1]) was a prostitute[2] in London, United Kingdom during the term of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, who was sentenced to hang for stealing 36 shillings and a half-guinea from one of her clients. Her accuser, describing her as "a three-penny upright," testified as follows: "As I stood against the Wall, [she] came behind me, and with one hand she took hold of . . . --and the other she thrust into my Breeches Pocket and took my Money." Based on this testimony, Jones was sentenced to hang at Tyburn.[3]

Jones, who had been sent to the notorious prison at Newgate some twenty times before, was 30 years old upon her execution.[3] Historian Peter Linebaugh asserts that regardless of her guilt or innocence, her conviction on such flimsy evidence indicates the bias of 18th-century English courts against the trade of prostitution and those who worked in the industry.[3] Although officially London courts took all persons as equally worthy, class distinctions were still operative, and therefore testimony from a "gentleman," in particular, would weigh heavily against that of a prostitute. Jones would have been a weak defendant, as she had been in Newgate on multiple occasions.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Deaths in History on December 22". OnThisDay.com. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  2. ↑ British Sex Workers: British Adult Models, British Courtesans and Prostitutes, British Dominatrices, British Erotic Artists. Llc Books. 2010. ISBN 9781157981787. ASIN 115798178X.
  3. 1 2 3 Linebaugh, Peter (2003). The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century. Verso. ISBN 9781859846384.
  4. ↑ Linnane, Fergus (2004). London's Underworld: Three Centuries of Vice and Crime (New ed.). Robson Books Ltd. ISBN 9781861057426. ASIN 1861057423.
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