John Rykener , also known as Eleanor , [note 1] was a 14th-century sex worker arrested in December for performing a sex act with John Britby, a man who was a former chaplain of the St Margaret Pattens church, [2] in London's Cheapside while wearing female attire.
Although historians tentatively link Rykener, who was male, to a prisoner of the same name, the only known facts of the sex worker's life come from an interrogation made by the mayor of London.
Rykener was questioned on two offences: prostitution and sodomy. Prostitutes were not usually arrested in London during this period, while sodomy was an offence against morality rather than common law , and so pursued in ecclesiastical courts. There is no evidence that Rykener was prosecuted for either crime.
Rykener spoke of being introduced to sexual contact with men by Elizabeth Brouderer, a London embroideress who dressed Rykener as a woman and may have acted as procurer.
According to the court transcription of this account, Rykener had sex with both men and women, including priests and nuns. Rykener spent part of summer in Oxford , working both as a prostitute and as an embroideress, and in Beaconsfield had a sexual relationship with a woman. Rykener returned to London via Burford in Oxfordshire, working there as a barmaid and continuing with sex work. On returning to London, Rykener had paid encounters near the Tower of London , just outside the city.
