[JRFF 2.2 (2011) 202–235] ISSN (print) 1757–2460 htp://dx.doi.org/10.1558/JRFF.v2i2.202 ISSN (online) 1757–2479 © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2012. Jolly Jades, Lewd Ladies and Moral Muses: Women and Clubs in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain Robert Collis 1 University of Sheield, Department of Russian & Slavonic Studies Jessop West, 1 Upper Hanover Way, Sheield UK Email: r.collis@sheield.ac.uk Abstract This article argues that the range of female participation in the associational culture of fraternalism in early eighteenth-century Britain—in terms of class background, social seting and moral philosophy—was surprisingly rich and varied. In efect, such a claim complements the body of work writen in the past two decades, by historians such as Steve Pincus, Brian Cowan, Markham Ellis and Helen Berry, vis-à-vis the place of women in the public sphere of the cofeehouse in post-Restoration and Augustan England. This hypothesis will be developed by outlining the active involvement of women in three distinct spheres of fraternal culture in early eighteenth- century Britain. First, I will explore the manner in which women participated in or mimicked the culture of alehouse clubbing in early eighteenth-century London. Second, I will emphasize the prominent role of aristocratic ladies in mixed bacchanalian and masquerade societies, including the Order of the Horn, The Hell-Fire Club and the Gallant Schemers, that met in several notable town houses or country retreats of the English and Scotish gentry. Lastly, a study will be made of the all-female Fair Intellectual Club, which was established in May 1717 in Edinburgh. Keywords: women, clubs, societies, Britain, eighteenth-century history Augustan Britain was awash with clubs, societies and fraternities; a cultural phenomenon noted with pride by several contemporary com- mentators. 2 It has long been argued (or taken for granted) that women 1. Robert Collis is an Early Career Leverhulme Research Fellow at The University of Sheield, Sheield, UK. E-mail: r.collis@sheield.ac.uk 2. For a discussion about pride in Britain’s early eighteenth-century clubbing culture, see Peter Clark, British Clubs and Societies 1580–1800 (Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 2000), 5.