Huge thanks to our old friend, John Fay, for sending me this link. It’s the story of Mary Evans, born just outside Wrexham around 1826, who went on to establish one of the most notorious and luxurious bordellos of Victorian Manchester. In 1868, she published her own memoir and, from this and other records, historian Thomas McGrath has pieced together Mary’s story for online newspaper, The Mill. Here’s the link:
Madam Chester: Victorian Manchester’s Most Notorious Escort
The memoirs tell us that, at 15, and then living in Chester – and having adopted the name Mary Chester – she’d enjoyed a flirtation with an officer of the Wrexham-based Royal Welch Fusiliers and followed him to Dublin, where he’d dubbed her “the Countess of Chester.”
Thomas McGrath picks up the story:
By 17, the ‘Countess of Chester’ had followed the regiment and decamped for Manchester. Eventually, she invested her earnings and set herself up as a brothel keeper, as well as serving as an in-demand courtesan to some of the city’s most influential men. Mary framed her life as one of hedonistic pleasure, boasting of the jewels and furnishings that ornamented her home and herself. It was no backstreet brothel. Rooms were decorated with Sèvres porcelain, crystal chandeliers and velvet carpets. Her piano, for example, cost 130 guineas, which was the equivalent of six years’ wages for a female cotton mill worker. She was bestowed with flowers, jewellery, theatre tickets, and holidays to Paris, London and Ireland. In 1857 Mary was gifted a season ticket for the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, where her conspicuous demeanour scandalised the moral middle-class women.
By then, Mary was known as Madame Chester, of course, and there’s much more to her story. But maybe that’s for a further blog!
Leave a Reply