Bawdy Houses

One of the consequences of Portsmouth being a Naval and garrison town has been the preponderance of cases coming before the courts concerning unruliness. As early as 1655 the Justices received a petition from 23 local notables complaining about a Joan Wilkes running a bawdy house on the Point and who was ‘an uncivil and ungodly woman, who curses and swears and is great disturber to her neighbours’.

Strangers not welcome

National events often impacted on the local crime scene in Portsmouth. For example, a number of cases in the court papers for1655-6 concern the plague that was spreading across the country. The Town’s reaction to the threat of disease was to close its gates to prevent potentially infected strangers from visiting. A surviving example of a court record shows that a William White was bound over for entertaining a Londoner without the appropriate permission who subsequently died at White’s house. Sadly such tactics were not successful and the outbreak claimed many local lives. Indeed a rather ominous marginal note states that William did not appear to answer before the court.