Study Questions
1. Where was Moll born?

2. What happened to Moll’s mother?

3. How does Moll spend the first three years of her life?

4. Where does Moll live during most of her childhood?

5. What was Moll’s driving ambition while she was growing up?

6. What does Moll identify as her worst failing?

7. What impressed Moll most during her affair with the elder brother?

8. Why did Moll marry Robin, her first husband?

9. How long were Moll and Robin married?

10. What happened to the children Moll had with Robin?

Answers
1. Moll was born in Newgate Prison in London, England.

2. Moll’s mother was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted for petty theft. However, after she ‘pled her belly,’ that is, let prison authorities know that she was pregnant, her sentence was reduced to transportation to the American colonies.

3. After Moll’s mother was shipped off to the colonies, Moll was taken by gypsies from Newgate Prison. She traveled about with them until she somehow managed to escape when she was three years old.

4. Moll lived with a school mistress to whom she refers as ‘nurse.’ The nurse cared for Moll until she was fourteen years old.

5. Moll wished to become an independent “gentlewoman.”

6. Moll names vanity as her downfall.

7. Moll enjoyed the money and physical pleasure the elder brother gave her.

8. The elder brother made it clear that he would never marry Moll, and he also bribed her with five hundred pounds.

9. Robin and Moll were married for five years.

10. According to Moll, “the two children were indeed taken happily off my hands by my husband’s father and mother.”