Brewer's: Moll Cutpurse

Mary Frith, a woman of masculine vigour, who not unfrequently assumed man's attire. She was a notorious thief and cutpurse, who once attacked General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath, for which she was sent to Newgate. She escaped by bribery, and died at last of dropsy in the seventy-fifth year of her age. (Time of Charles I.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content