Elizabeth Adkins was a prominent figure in London's underworld during the early 18th century as a prostitute, pickpocket and thief whose aliases included "Mary"' or "Maria Godson," although she is best known as Moll King. It has been speculated that she, among others, was the basis for the main character in Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...

's novel Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1722, after his work as a journalist and pamphleteer. By 1722, Defoe had become a recognised novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719...

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In 1718, she was apprehended stealing a gold watch from a gentlewoman at St. Anne's Church, Soho and sentenced to seven years' transportation. She was caught while attempting to sneak back into the country from the American colonies and sentenced to death. However, while she later won a reprieve, she remained imprisoned in Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...

 throughout the autumn of 1721 where she may have met Daniel Defoe who had been visiting his friend journalist Nathaniel Mist

Nathaniel Mist

Nathaniel Mist was an 18th century British printer and journalist whose Mist's Weekly Journal was the central, most visible, and most explicit opposition newspaper to the whig administrations of Robert Walpole. Where other opposition papers would defer, Mist's would explicitly attack the...

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