Nursery Rhymes - Who Was Kitty Fisher?

The tale of Lucy Locket was never intended for children. We don't know who Lucy was but Kitty Fisher, daughter of a German immigrant, had a meteoric rise from the gutter

Catherine Maria Fischer was born in London in 1738, the daughter of a Lutheran silver chaser from Germany. Her background was described as low and mean.

She found work as a milliner making hats for society ladies and her chances of advancement should have been slim but being exceptionally pretty, her rise from the gutter was meteoric.

How Kitty Fisher Rose in 18th Century Society

In 1756 Kitty met ensign, later General Anthony George Martin who introduced her into society. Like bees around a honey pot the young bucks gathered and before long Kitty became the pin up of the Young Club.

Shortly after it took the name of its founder becoming known as Arthur's Club.

This very expensive gambling house in St James's had a membership limited to only six hundred men. The average waiting time for admittance was three years. Kitty's portrait hung on the wall.

Her future was further enhanced when she met John Ligonier, an army officer of French origin who had proved himself during the War of the Spanish Succession.

He fought under the Duke of Cumberland and was equerry to King George 2nd. Indeed, Kitty was to encounter the King while out walking on Ligonier's arm.

The Price of Notoriety

Kitty's scandalous life style provided the gossip sheets with plenty of material. By 1759 she was the object of so much hype that she wrote to the Public Advertiser asking them to desist and condemning the baseness of the little scribblers but it had little effect.

She was claimed to spend twelve thousand pounds a year on maintaining her lifestyle and to have her own chaise carried by liveried servants while her diamonds were reckoned to be worth five million francs.

In 1760 a filly foal was named after her, sired by the prized stallion Regulus. Even seventy years later in Venice, a bead was given the name Kitty Fisher's eyes.

On meeting Casavona in 1763 it was suggested to him that he could "have" Kitty for ten pounds but she retorted that it would cost him fifty. He declined on the grounds that he preferred women who spoke other than in English. At that time, a certain Sir Akins had given her a bank note for £1,000 and Kitty is reported to have eaten it.

Kitty early came to the attention of Sir Joshua Reynolds who painted her on several occasions. In all she is associated with twenty three different portraits.

Kitty' Plans to Marry

By now she was regarded as being "beautiful, dainty and utterly immoral." Apart from her looks she gained a reputation as a daring horsewoman and a wit. Between 1758 and 63 she was unassailable. Cushioned by the patronage of so many men of power she had little fear of running foul of the law.

However, she had the wisdom to recognize that her ascendancy would be short lived and in 1766 she married John Morris, the MP for Rye in Kent UK and the son of an admiral. They moved to his family home of Hemsted in Kent.

The marriage was short lived for four months after the wedding, Kitty died, possibly from lead poisoning absorbed from her white make-up. She was buried in the family vault wearing her best ballgown. She was twenty nine. Hemsted House went on to become Benenden School.

As for the nursery rhyme, it is probably some form of slang. Lucy Locket lost her pocket (in other words she lost her her patron) / Kitty Fisher found it (perhaps she stole him away or he simply preferred the beautiful Kitty) /Not a penny was there in it (maybe he proved to be broke)/ just a ribbon round it.

The last line suggests something different in that the pocket might have been a condom, regularly worn by men as protection against disease, usually made of pigs' bladders and tied on with ribbon.

The fact that the purse was empty might have been a euphanism for impotence.