Moll Cutpurse
Preserved but no longer current.
The familiar name of Mary Frith (about 1585-1660), a woman of masculine vigour, who not infrequently assumed man's attire. She was a notorious thief and once attacked General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath, for which she was sent to Newgate. She escaped by bribery, and died at last of dropsy. Middleton and Dekker's play, The Roaring Girl (1611) is founded on her doings.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Moll Cutpurse” mean?
The familiar name of Mary Frith (about 1585-1660), a woman of masculine vigour, who not infrequently assumed man's attire. She was a notorious thief and once attacked General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath, for which she was sent to Newgate. She escaped by bribery, and died at last of dropsy. Middleton and Dekker's play, The Roaring Girl (1611) is founded on her doings.
Is “Moll Cutpurse” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.