The open squares and pavements of eighteenth-century Covent Garden in London were alive with conversation and trade. Market stall holders called out their produce to passers by while business was conducted in the nearby alleyways and offices. At the centre of this community stood a large, imposing building with the scent of roasted coffee drifting from its open windows. The owner, Moll King, was well known, feared and respected as one of Georgian England's most successful businesswomen.
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| unknown artist, Moll King (Broadside Engraved Portrait of the Notorious Mistress of King's Coffee-House in Covent Garden...), undated, Engraving, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.1294. Public Domain. |
Moll King was born in 1696 in a garret (an attic) in Vine Street in the parish of St Giles in the Fields in London. Her father Crispin, a shoemaker, was said to have been preoccupied with his own pleasures while Moll was a young girl, and spent his earnings with his 'boon companions'. A short biography of Moll written after her death points out that while Crispin followed his own interests and spent money with friends he left Moll and her mother to 'shift for themselves'. They sold fruits, fish and vegetables in the streets to raise money for their dinner. Written by someone who knew Moll, the stories in The Life and Character of Moll King may well be accurate, although Moll may have exaggerated her childhood adversity and the personalities of her parents to provide not only contrast to her later success but an 'underdog' image that had people rooting for her. Without further evidence it's impossible for now to say.
At a young age Moll was noticed by a lady named Mrs Atwood who lived in Charles Court in the Strand, who employed her as a servant. But Moll missed everyday life in the London streets, where she had grown up and learned to fend for herself, and she soon left Mrs Atwood to return there as a fruit seller, pushing a barrow around the lanes and alleys and calling out for custom. During this period she met Tom King, a man originally from West Ashton in Wiltshire who was working as a waiter in a brothel in Covent Garden. Tom was nicknamed 'Smooth Faced Tom' by those who knew him, likely reflecting that he chose not to grow a beard. They married and began to save funds towards their joint livelihood, Moll displaying notable business skills after purchasing a batch of nuts just before a price rise. In one season sit was said that she made £60 just selling 'small nuts', an estimated equivalent worth today of around £7,000.
Soon into their marriage though, the couple experienced a setback. Moll found out that Tom had been carrying on an affair with a woman who Moll later claimed 'severely beat her', and seems to have begun an affair of her own in retaliation. The man, named Murray, was described in 1747 as someone 'now in a very high station in one of the public offices' but is otherwise left anonymous. She left Tom, and enjoyed some freedom in the company of men, but always kept her wits about her. Her biographer wrote in 1747 that 'she was not so happy as to have a liberal education, she had very good natural sense, with flighty turns of wit, and remarkably sober... while she saw the town ladies get dead drunk with their sparks [male companions] she took care to keep herself cool'. Eventually Moll and Tom reconciled, and Moll always maintained that 'she tenderly loved him, and would never have left him one hour, had not she been well assured that he kept company with a lewd woman'. The couple went back to working life and living together, Tom at the brothel and Moll now running a stall in Covent Garden Market.
Moll dreamed of running a coffee house, one of the new fashionable places frequented not just by passing customers but intellectuals and those of wealthy status. She discussed the idea with Tom and they rented a coffee house, called King's, at the price of £12 a year. It was a huge success, and one contemporary remarked that 'persons of every description' visited them, including those in 'full dress with swords and in rich brocaded silk coats' as well as 'chimney sweepers, gardeners and market people, in common with her lords of the knighted rank'. A large section of the couple's customer base came from the market traders, who stopped in for a warm refreshment during a long day of selling. Moll charged a penny for a dish of coffee, and also offered drinks of tea and chocolate. It wasn't long before they needed to enlarge the premises to make way for demand, and Moll and Tom bought the house next door and soon after, the house next to that, creating a large establishment situated opposite Tavistock Row, with one side of the building on Tavistock Street.
Moll worked incessantly, rising at 1-2am, especially on market days, and the couple slept in a bed on an upper storey accessed by a ladder which was removed during trading hours. But Moll had a keen business sense and recognised a new opportunity and soon offered more than just hot drinks. She noticed that Covent Garden attracted 'young rakes' who looked for 'pretty misses' to spend their evenings with, and it was reported that men could 'be sure of finding a nymph in waiting at Moll's Fair Reception House'. King's Coffee House became a place where men and women could meet, with the lingering promise of more than a dish of coffee. But Moll took care to offer a more luxurious experience than the local brothel. The women at King's dressed like 'persons of quality' and were attended by men dressed as footmen. There were no beds at the house, and so Moll was careful to stipulate that the house was to be used as a meeting place rather than a brothel, but she was equally eager to recommend places to stay for the night locally that would be appropriate. There were instances where the footman who accompanied the woman with a candle would also pick the pocket of the gentleman while he was preoccupied with his new companion, and if not him, sometimes the women themselves.
Money quickly accumulated, and Moll and Tom bought a country house in Hampstead Heath in North London. On one occasion Moll overheard a group of lads travelling past, one pointing out the house, as 'Moll King's folly'. She yelled back from a window, that it was actually 'your folly... for you know how Fool's pence flew fast enough about, and they helped to build it'. Tom in particular spent more time in seclusion and away from the business in his later years, after he fell in ill health. Moll's 1747 biographer stated that Tom enjoyed drinking, and this, and 'other vices' was the reason for his later decline. Moll worked at the coffee house each day, telling everyone she enjoyed her work and loved to see her customers, who she called 'her pretty birds'. Tom died at their home in Hampstead in 1738.
After Tom's death, Moll appears frequently in court, probably because she was seen as an easy target as a widow, now that she did not have a male figure to defend her. But her resolve and resilience was profound. She embarked on money-lending at a high rate of interest, and was criticised for indecency. On 23 May 1739 she was summoned to receive judgement for keeping a 'disorderly house'. Reluctant to pay the £200 fine, she opted to serve time in prison until the authorities, knowing she could well afford the fine, put pressure on her to pay. She also appeared on charges of violent assault and for 'beating a gentleman' in her house, her only defence being that 'if she was to pay... all the insolent boys she had thrashed for their impudence, the Bank of England would be unable to furnish her with the cash'. To inspectors who received complaints from concerned residents that the house was being run as a brothel, Moll proudly showed them the only bed, which was hers that she had shared with her husband, accessed only by a ladder. She also bribed other critics, joking that she had 'bubbled the Bench' to avoid further legal action.
However Moll was protective of the women she worked with and who frequented her coffee house and her customers developed a language so that only they would know what was being discussed. These phrases included 'to nap the pad' (to go to bed) and used the word 'daisies' for diamonds. One survives today, 'Old Codger', used to describe an old man. Moll was welcoming to everyone, regardless of her status, but could clearly become physical if disrespected. She liked to be punctual and valued the trait in others, and owned a Bull puppy that was given to her as a gift from a customer. She married again, to a Mr Huff, who it was widely believed had married her for her wealth. Once again, Moll had the foresight and caution to draw up a 'widow's will', which provided her son with an education at Eton after her death, a boy described at the time as a 'very hopeful young fellow'. Moll experienced bad health in her later years and retired to her house in Hampstead - she owned three homes at this point - and died there on 17 September 1747. A mock heroic poem was written after her death, named Covent Garden in Mourning. A 25-page biography was also printed in the year she died, called The Life and Character of Moll King, of King's Coffee House in Covent Garden. Published in 1747, it was printed by W. Price in London and sold for three pence a copy.
Moll's trace is not often acknowledged, but she shows us that women could be successful business owners in the Georgian era, and even during her marriage to Tom she seems to have been the driving force behind the couple's fortune and notorious fame.
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Hogarth's London, pictures of the manners of the eighteenth century. Henry Benjamin Wheatley, Constable and Company London 1909
The Life and Character of Moll King, of King's Coffee House in Covent Garden, who departed this life the 17 sept 1747. Published 1747 by W Price.
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