Mary Ann Donovan: Icon For The Ages

In which an Irish girl in 19th century London reads a magistrate for filth

Hi everyone!

Here’s what I’m thinking I’ll try out with this newsletter: share interesting tidbits I come across while researching, which aren’t enough to make a whole podcast episode about, but which I need to yell about.

Which brings us to the story of iconique 19th century urchin Mary Ann Donovan.

I came across her story as I’m reading an advance copy of Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of 19th Century London by Oskar Jensen. The book will be released in North America in February 2024 but you can get it already in the UK, apparently!

Picture it: March, 1859. Mary Ann Donovan, an 18-year-old Irish girl is brought before a magistrate for the “crime” of attempting to sell combs on the wrong street. There weren’t streets that were OK for comb-selling and others not; she was selling on Cornhill, a street where nobody was supposed to be selling anything because it was a fancy street in the financial district, and you weren’t allowed to cause an obstruction in foot-traffic. Apparently Mary Ann’s comb-selling did just that, by forming a crowd of interested buyers.

It was also alleged that when Mary Ann was arrested, she used “vile” language against the constable, including saying she would “smash” him. She denies this charge (but not the comb-selling).

Mary Ann spoke in her own defense, saying that if anyone used vile language, it was the constable.

The Lord Mayor overseeing this case is like, “don’t come into the city to sell combs, which sounds to me like a cover-story for you doing sex work. The options for your punishment are a fine or one month In prison.” (this is not a direct quote obviously)

He probably assumed that would be that, but Mary Ann challenged him, asking, “Then, what can a poor girl do?” (an actual quote)

When he sniffed that she should try to earn an “honest living,” Mary Ann goes off. Here is what she said:

“Why, I do try, and you stop me. I often stay about the streets all day to do so by selling my combs, and only gain a few halfpence.; but I suppose you think I might go on the streets*, but that I’ll never do.”

(* a euphemism for sex work)

As Oskar Jensen notes in Vagabonds, the journalist recording this confrontation noted that she spoke these words “vehemently and with great natural eloquence.”

The Lord Mayor is like, “There are many means for making an honest living.”

And Mary Ann is like, "Then, Sir, tell me how. I can’t take a shop, and if I sell in the streets you say I am liable to [a] forty shillings fine or a month [in prison]. If I beg, you’ll give me three months, perhaps; and if I steal, I don’t know what will become of me. So tell me, if you can, what a poor girl can do.”

There weren’t microphones invented yet, but mic drop, Mary Ann Donovan.

The Lord Mayor, not realizing he was witnessing the iconic defiance of a girl calling out the entire broken system, sent her to prison for fourteen days.

And that’s the last we know about Mary Ann Donovan.

xoxo Ann