Theresa Berkley

Theresa Berkley or Berkeley (died September 1836) was a 19th-century English dominatrix who ran a brothel in Hallam Street, just to the east of Portland Place, Marylebone, London, specialising in flagellation.

[3] She invented the "Berkley Horse", an apparatus that reportedly earned her a fortune in flogging wealthy men and women of the time.

One writer[7] said of her: She possessed the first requisite of a courtesan, viz., lewdness; for without a woman is positively lecherous, she cannot keep up the affectation of it, and it will soon be perceived that she moves her hands or her buttocks to the tune of pounds, shillings, and pence.

[8]According to an unnamed source quoted by Henry Spencer Ashbee, she used a wide variety of torture instruments, including cat-o'-nine-tails, leather straps, holly brushes, green nettles, and a hook and pulley.

In default, the property was bequeathed to Dr Vance, her medical attendant and executor; but he refused to administer, and the whole estate, valued at £100,000 (equivalent to about £11,890,600 in 2023),[11] was escheated to the crown.