Overviews: The Gay Subculture in Eighteenth-Century London Homosexual Terms in 18th-century Dictionaries Georgian Views of Homosexuality in the Ancient World Sodomy and the Catholic Church The Buggery Statute The Age of Consent Essays on 18th-century topics Primary Documents All the documents faithfully reproduce the spelling, punctuation, capitalization and italicization of the original sources. You may wish to supplement this material with non-gay material reproduced in my other sites, Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports and The Georgian Underworld. See also Bits & Pieces (Miscellaneous odds and ends, updated in the manner of a blog) SOME SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DOCUMENTS 1609 The Sodomite Popes 1624 The Trial of Richard Cornish         (ship master and cabin boy in Virginia) 1624 A Gallery of Beautiful Boys 1631 Trial of the Earl of Castlehaven 1631 Verses following the Trial of the Earl of         Castlehaven 1631 Trial and Execution of Broadway and         Fitz-Patrick 1641 The Life and Death of John Atherton         The Bishop of Waterford, Ireland, hanged         for sodomy with his tithe proctor 1684 Sodom, or The Quintessence of Debauchery 1698 The Trial of Capt. Edward Rigby         (first victim of an agent provocateur) 1698 The Women's Complaint to Venus 1700s Early Newspaper Reports 1700-1720 1700 A Flaming Whip for Lechery 1701 Passion for a Catamite 1702 Lives of the Ancient Philosophers 1702 The Vice of the Venetians 1703 The Shortest Way with Whores and Rogues 1703 Homosexual Dream Symbolism 1703 Thomas Baker's Tunbridge-Walks 1704 An Account of the Turks 1707 The Tryal and Conviction of Several         Reputed Sodomites 1707 Trial of Sodomites 1707 Trials of Thomas Vaughan and Thomas Davis for blackmail conspiracy 1707 Newspaper Reports for 1707 1707 Daniel Defoe, On the Public Prosecution and Punishment of Sodomites 1707 The Woman-Hater's Lamentation 1707 The He-Strumpets 1707 Bumography, or A Touch at the Lady's Tails 1708 Almonds for Parrots Satire on effeminate men/sodomites 1708 Sir Narcissus Foplin 1708 The Rival Dutchess; or, Court Incendiary The lesbian loves of Queen Anne's favourite Abigail Masham 1708 Satire on Queen Anne and her 'She-Favourite' 1709 Sermon by Thomas Bray 1709 The Trial of George Skelthorpe 1709 The Dying Words of George Skelthorpe         (blackmailer) 1709 A Full and True Account of a raid on a molly house 1709 The Mollies Club 1709 Venereal Disease (i.e. can be transmitted by oral and anal intercourse between men) 1710 The Tipling Philosophers 1715 The Game at Flats   A song about two lesbians 1715 A Dialogue in Defence of Ganymede 1718 Jonathan Wild & Charles Hitchin (organized crime and the mollies) 1718 A Defence of Homosexuality 1719 Trial and Execution of Three Blackmailers 1719 Footpads and Sodomites 1720s & earlier Some Cross-Dressing Women 1721-23 Newspaper Reports 1721-1723 1721 The Dying Speech of William Casey (robber attacks a sodomite) 1721 The Trial of George Duffus — "No harm, nothing but love" 1721 The Conspirators; or, The Case of Catiline, Part I 1721 The Conspirators; or, The Case of Catiline, Part II 1722 The Trial of John Casey (ring of robbers/blackmailers) 1722 The Trial of John Dicks — "My precious little Rogue" 1722 The Trial of Thomas Rodin —"so far from being ashamed, that he gloried in it" 1723 The Trial of Charles Banner (picking up a post-boy) 1724 Those Glorious Platonicks (satirical note on effeminate men) 1724-5 Blackmail, a Hanging, and a Masquerade Ball 1725 Trial of Goddard and Rustead for Blackmail 1726 Newspaper Reports 1726 Address to the Grand Jury 1726 The Trial of Thomas Wright (hanged for sodomy) 1726 The Trial of William Griffin (hanged for sodomy) 1726 The Trial of George Kedger (sentenced to death, but reprieved) 1726 The Trial of Gabriel Lawrence (hanged for sodomy) 1726 The Trial of George Whittle (a molly-house keeper is acquitted) 1726 Letters from Philogynus (exposé of gay cruising grounds and clubs) 1726 A Modest Proposal (to castrate sodomites) 1726 A Letter from the Drury Lane Ladies (complaining that sodomites are ruining their trade) 1726 The Trial of Martin Mackintosh (caught by an undercover police agent) 1726 The Trial of Patrick Malcolm 1726 The Trial of William Brown (who defended the right to his own body) 1726 The Raid on Mother Clap's Molly House 1726 The Trial of Mother Clap (for keeping a molly house) 1726 An Ecclesiastical Prosecution 1726 Faustina, A Satire on the Luxury and Effeminacy of the Age 1727 Newspaper Reports 1727 The Trial of Charles Hitchin (thief-taker and molly) 1727 Reformation Necessary to Prevent Our Ruin 1727 A Story from the East Indies 1728 Newspaper Reports 1728 Molly Christenings 1728 Drag Parties at Miss Muff's 1728 James Dalton's Narrative (highway robber infiltrates a molly house) 1728 But Among Our Own Selves We'll Be Free 1728 Two Kissing Girls of Spitalfields 1728-31 Gay Love-Letters from Lord Hervey to Stephen Fox 1729 A Well-Hung Blackmailer 1729 Sodomastix and Other News Reports 1729 Life of Thomas Neaves (describes mock birth in a molly house) 1729 Hell Upon Earth 1729 Of Sodomy and Bestiality (Review of laws against homosexuality in antiquity) 1730 Dutch Purge of Homosexuals 1730 A Case of Pedophilia 1730 The Trial of Gilbert Laurence (for raping a boy) 1730 The Trial of Peter Vivian (for soliciting) 1730 The Trial of William Goodman (for blackmail and robbery) 1730 The Trial of Holiwell and Huggins (for having sex together in St Paul's Cathedral) 1730 A Blackmail Conspiracy 1730–31 Newspaper Reports, 1730–1731 1731 Moral Relativism 1731 Plain Reasons for the Growth of Sodomy 1731 A Frolick on Saffron Hill 1731 A Proper Reply To a late Scurrilous Libel William Pulteney's attack on John, Lord Hervey 1732 Newspaper Reports 1732 William Curtis, Hustler (testifies against a Club of Sodomites) 1732 A Trial involving Princess Seraphina (a drag queen) 1732 Prison Chums 1732 Stolen Gay Love-Letters 1732 The Toast Satire on the lesbian "Myra" 1733 Newspaper Reports (castration proposed as punishment for sodomy) 1733 An Account of the Societies for Reformation of Manners 1734 Newspaper Reports (incl. suicide of a servant of the Archbishop of Canterbury) 1734 Pretty Doings in a Protestant Nation (Lesbianism) 1735 Newspaper Reports Enlarged 1735 An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot Alexander Pope's caricature of John, Lord Hervey 1735 A View of the Town 'hanging is too mild a punishment' 1735 Immorality of the Ancient Philosophers 1730s Sodomites in Bristol Including obituary of a "noted Old Catamite" who celebrated mock birth ceremonies 1735 or 1749 The Sappho-An Lesbian erotica; description of sex between women and the use of the dildo 1735 Prosecuted for Consenting Sex 1736 Newspaper Reports 1737 Newspaper Reports 1737 Venereal Disease in Catamites 1738 Newspaper Reports 1738 Caught in a Bog-House (Two men sentenced to death, then pardoned by the King, but both die in Newgate) 1738 A Ramble through London A Conversation between a Sodomitical Baronet, a Bawd, and the Author,           on a Bench in St. James’s Park 1739 Newspaper Reports 1739 The State of Rome, under Nero and Domitian Satire prompted by a homosexual scandal at Wadham College, Oxford 1739 A Female Dragoon 1740 Newspaper Reports (an Alderman convicted of sodomy is pardoned) 1740 Lewd Philosophers 1741 Newspaper Reports 1742 Newspaper Reports A man murders the new girlfriend of his long-term kept man 1743 Newspaper Reports (man killed in the pillory; bad business in the Temple bog-houses; hanged man's body rejected for dissection because he had VD) 1743 The Trial of Deacon and Blair (for having sex together) 1743 The Execution of Hunt and Collins 1744 Decoy Ducks (Soldiers decoy gay men in St James's Park and rob them) 1744 Newspaper Reports (including a masquerade party) 1744 Travels into Turkey Story of an old woman who falls in love with a girl 1745 Newspaper Reports 1745 A Dutch Sodomite Englishmen intercede to save the life of a Dutch sailor 1745 "He Loved a Soldier as He Loved His Life" 1745 A Tragic New Year's Eve 1745 Trial of Richard Manning and John Davis (two men caught kissing and fondling) 1746 Newspaper Reports (An old offender stands in the pillory) 1746 Second Trial of Richard Manning 1747 A Constitutional Inclination 1747 The Character of Fribble from David Garrick's farce Miss in her Teens 1747 Newspaper Reports (a Turkish sailor is sentenced to 500 lashes for sodomy) 1748 Newspaper Reports 1748 Lord Strutwell from Tobias Smollett's novel Roderick Random 1749 Newspaper Reports 1749 Ancient and Modern Pederasty (A defence of homosexuality) 1749 Unhappy Gift from God 1749 The Petit Maitre. A Poem 1749 The Game of Flats (lesbianism) 1750 Newspaper Reports 1750 Confession of Thomas Munn 1751-81 Bristol Gaol Delivery Fiats 1751 Newspaper Reports (A man accused of unnatural practices kills himself) 1752 Newspaper Reports 1752 The Adventures of Captain Greenland 1753 Newspaper Reports Two men kiss under the gallows; a sodomite burned at the stake in Cracow 1754 Newspaper Reports Incl. Timothy Raven and the Sodomitical Dr Walton; a man hangs himself after rumours spread 1754 Charge to the Grand Jury 1755 "As Common as the Night" The Life and Death of a Soldier Prostitute 1755 The Case of Catherine Vizzani A study of the lesbian body 1755 Newspaper Reports for 1755 1756 Newspaper Reports for 1756 1757 Newspaper Reports for 1757 1757 A Male Prostitute 1757 The Plague of Effeminacy 1758–60 Newspaper Reports for 1758–1760 1759 "He heard the word Buggerer" (Conspiracy to blackmail Sir Humphry Morice) 1759 A Robber Swears Sodomy against his Victim 1760 The Trial of Emanuel Rose 1760 Some Cross-Dressing Women 1760 A Female Husband Exposed 1761 The Fribbleriad by David Garrick 1761 The Trial of Thomas Andrews (for sodomitical rape) 1761 The Trial of John Lowther (A sodomite makes a pass at the wrong man) 1761 Newspaper Reports Brutal treatment in the pillory 1761 A Cruising Alley 1762 Newspaper Reports 1762 Molly Exalted (Pillory Broadside) 1762 Biography of Marc Anthony Muretus 1763 Newspaper Reports Man killed in the pillory 1763 Life and Death of an Entrapper 1764 Newspaper Reports (incl. arrest of men in women's clothes 1764 The Times by Charles Churchill 1764 Epitaph on a Notorious Sodomite 1764 Beccaria, Of Crimes and Punishments 1765 Newspaper Reports 1766 Newspaper Reports 1766 The Unnaturalists, or Deserters of the Fruit Shop 1766 Mary East, the Female Husband 1766 Debate about the Destruction of Sodom 1767–69 Newspaper Reports 1769 Blackstone's Commentaries Blackstone's discussion of laws against sodomy 1769 The Sodomite Snake 1769 The Boots (A silly poem) 1769 Juvenal's Satires 1770s Accusations of Sodomy in the Westminster and Middlesex Quarter Sessions Rolls for the 1770s 1770–71 Newspaper Reports County court agrees to pay the cost of prosecutions. 1770 Thomas Gray's Love-Letters to Charles Victor de Bonstetten 1770s-1790s Mrs Piozzi's Reminiscences 1772 Newspaper reports ; plus a major section for 1772: The First Public Debate about Homosexuality in England The Trial of Robert Jones – full text The State of the Case of Captain Jones – full text News reports about Captain Jones – 37 reports Letters and Editorials from the London Evening Post – 9 items Letters to the Morning Chronicle – 18 letters Letters and Editorials in the General Evening Post – 10 items Letters to the Public Ledger – 6 letters Satirical squibs against Jones: On an Officer in the Artillery The Latin Epitaph on Bob Jones The Macaroni Club – Essay on contemporary homosexual scandals involving Isaac Bickerstaffe, David Garrick and Samuel Drybutter News Items – about 40 letters, editorials, news reports, and satirical squibs regarding the Macaroni Club scandals Leap-Frog A Letter from Benedick The Recantation and Confession of Doctor Kenrick Dr Young to the Macaronies The Tryal of Dramatic Genius (1773) The Adulteress (1773) 1773 Newspaper Reports 1773 The History of Harry Harper 1773 Plato the Pederast 1774 News Reports 1774 Sodomites and Venereal Disease 1775 News Reports 1776 Newspaper Reports 1776 Thomas Burrows & Co. A club where men regularly met to have sex together 1776 The Trial of Thomas Burrows One of the men who frequented a sodomites' club 1776 Reports on the Trial of Samuel Foote 1776 Sodom and Onan (A satire on Samuel Foote) 1776 L'Amour Socratique (A cosmopolitan view of homosexual love) 1777 Newspaper Reports 1777 Sapphic Love in Portugal 1777 The Case of Chevalier D'Eon 1777 The Tragic Case of Ann Marrow A lesbian blinded in the pillory 1777–78 Extortion Ring 1778 Newspaper Reports 1778 A Sapphick Epistle 1779 James Donally, Extortionist 1779 Newspaper Reports 1780 Burke Proposes Abolition of the Pillory due to death of two sodomites in the pillory 1780 A Sketch of the Times 1780–81 Newspaper Reports (Execution of Loveday and Burke) 1781 The Complete Modern London Spy 1781 Madge Culls (pick-up practices of gay men) 1781 Incident at the Royal Academy (Scandal involving the Hon. Edward Onslow) 1782–84 Newspaper Reports (incl. a monk broken on the wheel and burned at the stake in Paris) 1785 Newspaper Reports 1786 Newspaper Reports (incl. effigies of sodomites paraded through the streets; men beaten by the mob) 1787 Newspaper Reports Two men sentenced to death for consenting sex 1788–89 Newspaper Reports (incl. a man sentenced to solitary confinement) 1789 "Suck Prick!" Two men caught enjoying themselves in the street 1789 A Picture of England (comments by a German traveller) 1790 Newspaper Reports (The enraged mob vents their fury against sodomites in the pillory) 1790 Extraordinary Female Affection Ellinor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen 1791 Newspaper Reports (A baronet convicted of an unnatural crime; advertisements placed for men absconding from justice) 1791 Memoirs of Antonina (scandalous novel portraying Marie Antoinette as a lesbian) 1792 Astrological Predisposition 1792 Legal Precedents of Blackmail Cases 1792 A Case of Blackmail 1792–93 Newspaper Reports (Eighteen men are arrested at a drag party, with nicknames such as Miss Conveniency and Miss Cockatoo) 1792 General Gustavus ('Gusty') Guydickens 1794 Newspaper Reports (The life of a blackmailer of sodomites; a sodomitical seller of pornography stands in the pillory; a man is sentenced to two years' solitary confinement) 1795 Newspaper Reports (A Baronet absconds after conviction of having sex with a Guardsman; man sentenced to two years' solitary confinement) 1796 Newspaper Reports (A blackmailer is sentenced to death; a servant blackmails a Baronet; a man sues his wife for calling him a sodomite) 1797 Newspaper Reports (A 70-year-old man is executed for sodomy; two lovers are hanged together) 1797 The Scottish Law against Homosexuality Commentary by David Hume 1798 Newspaper Reports (A one-armed seller of indecent prints; a clergyman libels several gentlemen as sodomites; vigilantes entrap sodomites in Moorfields) 1799 Newspaper Reports See also Homosexuality in Nineteenth-Century England CITATION: If you cite this Web page, please use the following citation: Rictor Norton (Ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 28 February 2023 <http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/>. Return to Gay History and Literature