Teresia Constantia Phillips
| Teresia Constantia Phillips | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 2 January 1709 Chester, England |
| Died | 2 February 1765 (aged 56) Kingston, Jamaica |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Con Phillips |
Teresia Constantia Phillips or Con Phillips (2 January 1709 – 2 February 1765) was a British courtesan and bigamist who published a scandalous autobiography.
Phillips was born in Chester in 1709. Her early life is not reliably known as the major source is her autobiography. Her education was said to have been paid for by her godmother, Catherine Powlett, the Duchess of Bolton. She attended Mrs Filler's boarding-school in Westminster until her father remarried to a servant. It has been suggested that the choice of step-mother may have led to her godmother removing the source of funding. She was raped at the age of 12 or 13 (or 15) by a character known as "Thomas Grimes". This was thought to be the assumed name of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, but more recent research identifies her attacker as Thomas Lumley-Saunderson, 3rd Earl of Scarbrough. Phillips herself never realised who her attacker was and intriguingly her autobiography was dedicated to the man who attacked her, the 3rd Earl of Scarborough.
In November 1722 she married a bigamist at the Anglican church of St Benet's, Paul's Wharf. This man assumed responsibility for her debts. Less than two years later she married at the same church a rich merchant called Henry Muilman in February 1724. The marriage did not last long. It has been speculated that the marriage was ended after her past was discovered. Muilman refused to pay her the money that had been agreed as part of the separation and a dispute began. During the long court case she was said to have had seven other affairs. The men involved included her surgeon and the Tory M.P. Sir Herbert Pakington, 5th Baronet. In 1727 she began a relationship with the gardener Philip Southcote.
Phillips went abroad to France a number of times to avoid her creditors, but this was not always successful and she served time in the debtors' prison from 1742 to 1744. The long-running court case between her and Muilman was settled in 1748.
Phillips wrote scandalous memoirs which had thinly hidden descriptions of her liaisons. Her main work was An Apology which was published in eighteen parts making up three volumes from 1748 through to 1749. Michael Mascuch notes that the tone changes from a self-effacing apology to a proud justification for her victory over adversity and ill treatment. These potentially libellous works led to Henry Fielding casting "Mrs Fllps" as a whore in a puppet play he wrote and he later urged the full force of the law of libel to be used against people like her and Paul Whitehead. Whitehead was presumed to be her accomplice in her publications.
...
Wikipedia