One Sunday evening in February 1726, the premises of Margaret Clap in the London district of Holborn were raided by police constables.

By dawn, around 40 gay men had been rounded up and arrested. Margaret or “Mother” Clap was arrested herself and sent to the pillory the following July for ‘keeping a Disorderly House…for the Entertainment of Sodomites’. She was also sentenced to two years in prison. Most people were released through lack of evidence, but three men who were detained that night were hanged at Tyburn for committing the act of sodomy on May 9.

Margaret Clap ran a molly house, a place where ‘Sodomites’ or ‘Mollies’ to use contemporary parlance could meet relatively freely. Sunday was targeted because it was the most popular evening of the week. Following this ambush, more molly houses were raided, marking the early months of 1726 as the height of anti-gay furvour in London.

This was led by the Society for the Reformation of Manners. This had been set up in 1691 with the aim of suppressing profanity, immorality and lewdness, with a particular focus on eradicating brothels and prostitution. The Society grew particularly powerful in the 1720s, in line with a strong anti-sodomite feeling that was stoked up by the media. This era was the start of the so-called ‘free’ press in England, with the Licensing Act having lapsed in 1695. Our modern-day libel laws start from here as prior to this date, everything (theoretically) had to pass through a government censor before it could be published. By the 1720s, the newspapers were every bit as lurid, partisan, and shit-stirring as the tabloids of today with agendas very much along party political lines. In many ways, very little has changed in the last three centuries.

While Mother Clap did not run a brothel – unlike some other molly house owners of the time – she did provide beds which were used for homosexual activity. She was also perfectly comfortable with transvestism, another social taboo of the time. This was reason enough to convict, particularly with testimony. Interestingly, the main reason why there were numerous raids in late 1725 and early 1726 was due to an embittered homosexual turned snitch. This man, Mark Partridge, basically gave the police a grand tour of all the molly houses of London, effectively enabling the crackdowns. Other ne’er-do-wells also provided evidence against the Mollies, as did the constables who had infiltrated the clubs.

I studied early 18th century England for my Masters degree and wrote one of my dissertations on gay culture in London at the time. My main thesis was on political propaganda in the press between 1712 and 1716. This was all very useful when writing ‘1725’ and ‘Back to the Molly House’, two stories which were set in this period.

In the former, Hooke and Rufford’s liaison is interrupted when a molly house is raided in December 1725. Rufford manages to escape, but Hooke is caught and sent to the pillory. This story was loosely based on a real-life raid that took place in that same month.

‘Back to the Molly House’ is set in the first six months of 1726, at the height of the raids. It centres on how Hooke and Rufford can keep their relationship going, particularly after the latter is caught cruising on The Sodomites’ Walk. This was a real place in Moorfields where gay men regularly went. Entrapment was common, but clearly many thought it worth the risk. The story looks at the political and social effects of being outed as a molly at the time, with a focus on the support provided by these nascent gay communities. The press relished outing gay men – something it still loves doing to this day – and there was real societal impact for anyone so named.

Molly houses weren’t new in the 1720s, and the Society for the Reformation of Manners had brought trials against ‘Sodomites’ in 1707 and 1709. However, the media and societal attacks against ‘Sodomites’ reached their peak in England in 1726. Fast forward exactly 300 years and the same seems to be happening again, particularly against our trans friends. The echoes of history are clear and the trajectory is concerning.

However, there is also hope. The attacks in the 1720s died down because the Society for the Reformation of Manners overreached, with some quarters of the press expressing horror at the trials. The general public also saw them as officious meddlers and they lost support quickly. Furthermore, the judges became of the view that things had turned into a witch-hunt, not least because nearly all the evidence seemed to be coming from the same two men, men who were clearly involved in all of the activities they were testifying about. By the end of 1726, the prosecutions had ceased, and the Society was disbanded in 1738.

Another thing that shines through in the primary sources is the power of community. Molly houses were liberating places where people could meet with like-minded friends, very much like LGBTQ+ communities and furry conventions today. As well as having the freedom to be gay, some mollies also cross-dressed, which was another scandal of the time. It is therefore worth remembering that even when times are dark, there can still be hope, and through those dark times, friendship always endures. Indeed, the three men who were hanged following the raid on Mother Clap’s were hanged together on that Monday May morning. Their names were Gabriel Lawrence, William Griffin, and Thomas Wright.

The history I’ve detailed above is very much a simplified version of it. If you would like to read more about the raid on Mother Clap’s Molly House, Rictor Norton has a page dedicated to it on his excellent website. This is full of primary sources and explanations about homosexuality in the 18th century, which proved invaluable when writing my stories. I highly recommend you visit the site, while feel free to collar me if we happen to be at a con or meet together. As the audience for the Historical Writing panel at Scotiacon learned, I can really drone on about this period.

Meanwhile, you can find ‘1725’ in the Christmas-themed anthology Happy Howlidays and ‘Back to the Molly House’ in The Wideness of the World, the latest edition from the Furry Historical Fiction Society.