Theresa Berkley or Berkeley (died September 1836) was a 19th-century English dominatrix who ran a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

in Hallam Street, just to the east of

Portland Place Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London. Named after the Third Duke of Portland, the unusually wide street is home to BBC Broadcasting House, the Chinese and Polish embassies, the Royal Institute of British A ...

, Marylebone, London, specialising in flagellation. She is notable as the inventor of the "chevalet" or " Berkley Horse", a BDSM apparatus.

Career as a dominatrix

Theresa Berkley ran a high-class flagellation brothel at 28 Charlotte Street (which is today's 84–94 Hallam Street). She was a "

governess A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, th ...

", i.e. she specialised in chastisement, whipping, flagellation, and the like. She invented the " Berkley Horse", an apparatus that reportedly earned her a fortune in flogging wealthy men and women of the time. There are no artworks depicting what Theresa Berkley looked like, and occasional descriptions usually report that she was attractive, with a strong disposition. An expert with all instruments of torture, her talents became highly sought after by the

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At t ...

of the day. She was a master of the art of inflicting pain for pleasure, and practised absolute privacy to protect her clientele. Her clients were said to have been both men and women of wealth, and her career was financially lucrative. Her fame was such that the pornographic novel '' Exhibition of Female Flagellants'' was attributed to her, probably falsely. One writer said of her:

Quotes related to her deeds of domination and sexual torture

According to an unnamed source quoted by Henry Spencer Ashbee: She enjoyed a certain amount of torture inflicted ''on her'' by her clients, given that they were willing to pay her price, but she also employed a number of women for that task if indeed her clients wished to inflict more pain than she was willing to take herself. As reflected in the below quote:

After her death

Shortly after her death in 1836, her brother, who had been a missionary for 30 years in Australia, arrived in England. When he learned the source from which the property she had left him had been derived, he renounced all claim, and immediately went back to Australia. In default, the property was bequeathed to Dr Vance, her medical attendant and executor; but he refused to administer, and the whole estate, valued at £100,000, was escheated to the crown. Dr Vance came into possession of her correspondence, several boxes, which was said to have contained letters from the highest aristocracy, both male and female, in the land. The letters were eventually destroyed.

Notes

References

* Anil Aggrawal, ''Forensic and Medico-Legal Aspects of Sexual Crimes and Unusual Sexual Practices'', CRC Press, 2008, , p. 150 * Patricia J. Anderson, ''When Passion Reigned: sex and the Victorians'', BasicBooks, 1995, , p. 98 * Åke E. Andersson, Nils-Eric Sahlin, "The complexity of creativity", Synthese library: studies in epistemology, logic, methodology, and philosophy of science v. 258, Springer, 1997, , p. 59 * Iwan Bloch, ''Le Marquis de Sade et Son Temps'', Editions Slatkine, repr. 1970, p. 196 * Iwan Bloch, ''The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization'', BiblioBazaar repr. 2009, , p. 573 * Iwan Bloch, ''Sexual Life in England, Past and Present'', F. Aldor, 1938, p. 353 * Bernhardt J. Hurwood, ''The Golden Age of Erotica'', Sherbourne Press, 1965 * John K. Noyes, "The mastery of submission: inventions of masochism", ''Cornell studies in the history of psychiatry'', Cornell University Press, 1997, , pp. 12–14 * Mike Pentelow, Marsha Rowe, ''Characters of Fitzrovia'', Chatto & Windus, 2001, , p. 97 * Geoffrey Leslie Simons, ''A Place for Pleasure: the history of the brothel'', Harwood-Smart Publishing, 1975, , p. 52 *

Autumn Stanley Autumn Stanley (1933–2018) researched inventions by women and patents obtained by women in the United States. She is widely known for her book titled, ''Mothers and Daughters of Invention''. Early life and education Autumn Joy Stanley was born ...

, ''Mothers and daughters of invention: notes for a revised history of technology'', Volume 36", Rutgers University Press, 1995, , pp. 585–586

Bibliography

* Ashbee, Henry Spencer Ashbee (aka "Pisanus Fraxi") (1969) ''Index of Forbidden Books'' (written during the 1880s as ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum''). London: Sphere * Marcus, Steven (1966) ''The Other Victorians: a Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkley, Theresa 1836 deaths Year of birth unknown English brothel owners and madams English dominatrices Women inventors English inventors People from Soho Whipping 19th-century English businesspeople 19th-century English businesswomen