Teresia Constantia Phillips
English courtesan and memoirist
Teresia Constantia Phillips or Con Phillips (1700/1703 – 2 February 1765) was a British courtesan and bigamist who married at least five times and published a scandalous autobiography. The case is described in Lawrence Stone's Uncertain Unions: Marriage in England 1660–1753 (1992).
Life
Phillips was born in Kensington in 1700 or 1703. Her early life is not reliably known as the major source is her autobiography. Her mother died when she was two years old. Her education was said to have been paid for by her godmother, Catherine Powlett, the Duchess of Bolton. She attended Mrs Filler's boarding-school in Westminster until her father remarried to a servant. It has been suggested that the choice of step-mother may have led to her godmother removing the source of funding. She was raped at an early age by a character known as "Thomas Grimes". This was thought to be the assumed name of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, but more recent research identifies her attacker as Thomas Lumley-Saunderson, 3rd Earl of Scarbrough.
The public source identifies “Teresia Constantia Phillips” as english courtesan and memoirist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Teresia, Constantia and Phillips.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Teresia Constantia Phillips”, the useful work is to connect “english courtesan and memoirist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18757134. VIAF identifies the subject as 42734415. The Library of Congress control number is n85089685. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1700, 1703, 1765 and 1660.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Teresia Constantia Phillips”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Teresia Constantia Phillips primary sources, Teresia Constantia Phillips archive and Teresia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Teresia Constantia Phillips”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Teresia Constantia Phillips” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.