Damaris Page

Damaris Page (c. 1610 – 9 October 1669), also known as Damarose Page, was an English brothel keeper, entrepreneur and property developer in London, who was one of the most successful and famous prostitutes of her time. On 18 April 1653 she wed James Dry at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey.

Like other high profile bawds such as Elizabeth Cresswell, Page was almost as famous as the politicians of her time. The subject of Grub Street pamphlets in 1660, characterised as "The Wandring Whore" and the "Crafty Bawd", She agreed to press-gang the dock worker clientele, further building her fortune. She worked with such officers as Sir William Spragg, and it was said that "as long as Damaris Page lived he was sure he should not lack men". The practice made her deeply unpopular and her house was an early target of the 1668 'Bawdy House Riots' that occurred in March 1668. Samuel Pepys documented the attack on the property of Page "the great bawd of the seamen", "the most Famous Bawd in the Towne." She appeared before a local magistrate, Robert Manley, as a victim of the riots who had lost significant property; she was one of the main witnesses brought against Robert Sharpless, a central instigator of the riots. Her evidence was notably given significant weight during the court case, despite being an unmarried woman and a brothel keeper.

Following the riot, Page and Cresswell are listed as the addressers of The Whores' Petition, sent to Lady Castlemaine, the King's lover, notorious for her own wild promiscuity. Some historians, such as Linnane, infer an active role of the addressers Page and Cresswell in the writing of the document. Others such as Mowry and Turner suggest it is an organ of political ventriloquism on behalf of anonymous, radical dissenters.

Given her great experience in whoring, Lady Castlemaine would, they argued, be able to deeply sympathise with prostitutes across the city. "Should your Eminency but once fall into these Rough hands", they wrote, "you may expect no more Favour than they have shewn unto us poor Inferiour Whores".

In her last years Page became close to her sister Margaret, to whom she left money in her will. On 9 October 1669, during incarceration in the Marshalsea prison, she fell sick and died. She was buried the following day at St George the Martyr, Southwark. She had amassed a considerable fortune by the time of her death.