Constantia Jones

Constantia Jones (c.1708—22 December 1738[1][2]) was a prostitute in London, United Kingdom during the term of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, who was sentenced to hang for stealing 36 shillings and a half-guinea from one of her clients.[3] Her accuser, describing her as "a three-penny upright," testified as follows: "As I stood against the Wall, [she] came behind me, and with one hand she took hold of . . . --and the other she thrust into my Breeches Pocket and took my Money."[3] Based on this testimony, Jones was sentenced to hang at Tyburn.[3]

Jones, who had been sent to the notorious prison at Newgate some twenty times before, was 30 years old upon her execution.[3] Historian Peter Linebaugh asserts that regardless of her guilt or innocence, her conviction on such flimsy evidence indicates the bias of 18th-century English courts against the trade of prostitution and those who worked in the industry.[4] Although officially London courts took all persons as equally worthy, class distinctions were still operative, and therefore testimony from a "gentleman," in particular, would weigh heavily against that of a prostitute.[5] Jones would have been a weak defendant, as she had been in Newgate on multiple occasions.[6]