Finding Teresa Berkley, part 1
This perticular subject will be adressed in english, to open up the possibility of someone finding it, and being able to help out.
During my research for my upcoming book, I stumbled upon a governess/dominatrix in London, living there around the beginning of the 19th century. Reading about her, I realized that she was really making a name for herself. And a lot of cold, hard cash. I got curious and felt that I wanted to know more about her: who was she? where did she come from? Were the stories about her wealth true? And are her memoires really gone? Did she even exist?
The story
Teresas story goes something like this: She was born around 1750 (+/- 10 years), and started her career at a brothel in Soho Square, formerly known as "The white house" (now Manor house), in 1787. She then started her own establishment in 1828, on 28 or 26 Charlotte street, which is today 84-94 Hallam street. There she serviced men and women who fancied the rod. She also had other women working for her there, so it was basically a flogging-brothel. She is said to have been the queen of flogging, and also had the famous Berkley-horse made for her (the stories differ to wether someone made it for her, or if she invented it). It is supposed to have been given to the Society of Arts at the Adelphi when she died. She serviced all kinds of noble men and women (perhaps even royals), and had numerous letter written to her from them, and she saved them all to be published after her death, along with her memoirs
Teresa supposedly died in september 1836, and left over 10.000 Gbp after her (equivalent to about 12.000.000 gbp today), which were willed to her brother. He arrived in London around the time of her death, after having been living as a missionary for 30 years i Australia. When finding out where her money came from, he declined and went back to Australia, and her estate went to her executor Dr Vance (who also had been her physician). He didn't want it either, and when he passed away, the estate was esheated.
Starting research
My research started online, as it is the easiest and least timeconsuming way of research. Or so I thought.
A lot of people online have written about Teresa, and quite a few of them give out their sources. Only problem is: the sources are all the same. Two sources are prominent: Henry Spencer Ashbee's Index Librorum Prohibitum, and The exhibition of female flagellants, where Mary Wilson wrote a great deal about Teresa in the preface. There are other books and authors refered to, but when exmining them, it all leads back to these two books. Knowing a bit about victorian London and its prostitutes, I started to fear that she was working under pseudonym, or was made up. But my gut told me to go on, try and find her.
I am quite used to genealogy research and thought that It would be quite easy to find out if she was real or not. I have done tons of this kind of research in Sweden, so it couldn't be that hard, now, could it? Well...
In Sweden, when one has an adress to someone, and a year when they lived there, it is quite easy to get started and get a lot of information. You just look at the church books, and find the proper adress. And there you can read: who lived there (names), how old they were, wether or not they were married, if they recently moved somewhere, if they had been to church, how their grades on the chatechism was and when they had their last communion. If they died during the year, this was also mentioned (and then one could look in death registers to find out more).
With this in mind, my thought was: easy, piecy, lemon squeesy. But I got a lot more lemons than I bargained for. Turns out english records are not that easy to find ones way around in.
Since I had a trip to London planned anyway, I started contacting archives to get some help. And I got some, but not nearly as much as I had hoped.
Turns out that the church didn't keep this kind of records, and the only records on adresses are Rate books. They contain name of the residence, how many are living there, and information on what rate they have to pay. Thats it. That would be enough to confirm och decline wether she was real or not. But no, not that easy either.
I had two adresses: Soho square, and 28 Charlotte street. The first one felt unnecessary since she probably didn't live at the brothel, but merely worked there. So I started to look for Charlotte street. There were several. However in the correct district (St Marylebone) there were two. And since I from other sources knew that it was the one that is now callad Hallam street, a quick look at a historic map told me that Charlotte street, Portland place, was the one.
There are two webservices that have the Rate books online: findmypast and ancestry. I tried searching them both, but came up quite empty handed. I found nothing. Well, there were a few Berkeleys, but in one database there were no images of the records and no adresses, and in the other one I found nothing. Maybe she wasn't real after all? To my surprise I noticed that a lot of the records that came up seemed to be missing things, and there were a lot of flaws in them. So I did what I am used to: found images of the rate books for the right parish and year, and started scrolling. I realized that there were chapters and indexes, so I scrolled the indexes and found the right street. I quickly (well, everything is a matter of interpretation) found what page I was gioing to look at, turned to it, and there she was: Berkeley, at 28 Charlotte Street. I found her, finally! She is found there alongside another person named Harkin. This is in 1830, and going back one year I can find Harkin, but not Berkeley, so she probably moved in during the year. This can also be confirmed after I found Thersea Berkley at Chales st the same year. How can I be sure they are the same? There are no more female T Berkeley/Berkley in London at this time. There is only one. I started to look at the following year, T. Berkley is alone at Charlotte street. Now I know she exists,because I can follow her... or could have. Because after reaching the end of 1831, the books stop. Or I can't find them anyway. I tried finding other people 1832 living in the same parish, but nothing. There was a dead end. But I did have the answer to one of my questions: Was she real? Yes, she was.
I looked at the years preceding 1830, and eventually found one more notice on her, wich containd more information. In 1829, when she supposedly moved in at Charlotte street (but didn't), there is one Teresa Berkeley at greek street, in St Anne, Soho.This however comes with another name: Sarah. Sarah Teresa Berkeley. So she had more than one name, as people sometimes do.
In 1828, she shows up at St Pancras, and a place that I read as Diana place. However I can not find this place in any maps.
Now that I know that she exists, and I found her adress for a few years, I guessed it would be easier to find more. But no, still too many lemons. Because, yes, now I have another name to go on, and there is one Sarah Berkley that died 1836, but: 1. she was buried in august, and 2. it is in Northumberland (and no image of the record so I can't find any kind of clues as to if she was tranported there from London, or anything). I can not verify if this is her. Dead end.
Visiting London
Sometimes you have got to have a break. So, I took a break, in London. Did a few register searches online, and strolled around at Soho square. Husband, who was with me, giggled a bit when we realized that the White house where there once was a brothel, now is a co-working house. Not much has changed but the proffession. It is a beautiful house and one can easily imagine the ladies standing in the windows luring in the customers. The brothel, i found out was quite infamous for many years, but that is a different story.
I noticed that the districts of St Pancras, Soho and St Marylebone were all within walking distance, even if it would take some time. Or perhaps, knowing how her finances were at the end, she took a horse carriage.
The trip gave me time to think, and I started looking in all the books I could find that mentioned her, and started to read up on how Englands history were to see if I had missed something. I realized that the story of the brother were unlikely, since there were very few missionaries goin to Australia at the turn of the century, but more in the 1830s. Maybe it was possible to find her, through him? There are passengerlists and he should have been a reverend. There were 8 of them travelling to Australia in the late 1830s. But I have no way of knowing who it was.
So I turned to the will and testament, and finding Dr Vance. But came up short. I do not find her will, nor do I find Dr Vance, the executor.
Indexing problems
In my entire life I have worked with computers in some form, and I have built and used my share of databases, and if there is one thing I have learned is: if something goes wrong when you create the database, you won't get good results from your queries. And this is what I am afraid of: That something went wrong when the databses were created, and therefor I cannot find what I need. And how does one solve this? But looking at the actual books. Right? But now, I am in Sweden and they are in London. I did however find a reference in a book that says to have found her on the correct adress as late as 1835, so this gives me hope. And I found the census from 1831 which should contain this information, but it is on microchip, in Westminster.
Now what?
I am now reading everything I can about the period, to find traces of Teresa, or any other governesses of the birch. So far I have learned a lot about history, some about white male privilige in litterature research and that perhaps I could find something in the collection of books and other things that Henry Spencer Ashbee left to the Brittish museum. I also have a copy of Venus school-mistress where she is mentioned to read, but need to mend the book before I can read it.
This is in no way an end to the story, I will find her, but in due time. If you have access to archives in London, online or have any kind of answers to my questions, please send me a note. I would be forever greatful.
Until next time,
XX
Beatrice
