Saturday 31 May 1845
Thursday 12 June 1845
THAMES-OFFICE. – REVOLTING CASE. – Yesterday, Jacob Gill, a tailor, aged thirty-eight, of No. 6. William-street, Mile-end Old-town, and Harley Archer, a broker, aged forty, of No. 34, St. George-in-the-East, were brought before Mr. Broderip, charged with the commission of a namelss offence, with a lad named John Huatt, aged fifteen years. Thomas Young, aged thirty-two, a brewer, who gave his address No. 53, Gloucester-street, Hoxton, was charged with an indecent assault on the same lad.
It would be impossible to insert more than the decision, as the particulars are quite unfit for publication.
Mr. Broderip said the several cases depended on the testimony of the lad, who, in the midst of apparent physical suffering, had related the horrible details with extraordinary precision and coolness, and a Jury would say whether he was to be believed. This case exceeded in abominable profligacy any thing of a similar nature which had come before him during a magisterial experience of twenty years. He committed Gill as a principal in one case, and as an accessory in another for the capital offence. He also committed Archer for a capital offence, and in default of bail he committed Young for a misdemeanour. (Morning Post)
Friday 13 June 1845
THAMES. – Thie whole of yesterday, at this court, was consumed in hearing a series of cases the evidence to which is utterly unfit for publication, so unparalleled was the revolting infamy it disclosed. In one of the police-sheets from the Denmark-street station-house, St. George's-in-the-East, H division, were charges by which Jacob Gill, 38 years of age, a tailor, residing at No. 6, William-street, Glocester-street, St. George's-in-the-East, and Hartley Archer, both professing to belong to the Society of Friends or Quakers, and also to have taken the teetotal pledge, Thomas Young, a journeyman brewer, and two Jew boys, named Henry and John Hart, cigar makers, who are cousins, and each about 16 years old, the former residing at No. 3, New-street, Mile-end Old-town, and the latter at 16, King-street, St. George's-in-the-East, were accused of an abominable crime. On the previous day Edward Hyatt, a tailor, but at present carrying on business as baker, at 74, Long-alley, Worship-street, made a communication to Inspector Donegan, who instantly sent Sergeant O'Brien, 5 H, to make the necessary inquiries, and the result of an active investigation was, that the whole of the prisoners were in custody on the above charge, before 10 o'clock the same night. Mr. Pelham defended the two Quakers, Gill and Archer; Mr. Lewis appeared for the Jew lads, and Young was undefended. It appeared that the boy Huatt went on trial to Gill as an assistant in the tailoring business, on Thursday last, and from his account of the proceedings these suspicions were excited against Gill. The evidence of this boy, who fainted away several times whilst giving his testimony, was absolutely hideous. The evidence against Hartley Archer was equally conclusive.
At the instance of Mr. Lewis, the case of the two Jew lads, Hart, was taken first, and they were acquitted and discharged.
Young was locked up in default of bail for the misdemeanour, and, on committing the prisoners Gill and Archer on the capital charge,
Mr. BRODERIP said, charges of so shocking a nature were very easily made, and, at the same time, very difficult to be disproved. The evidence in the present cases depended on the testimony of a lad, who gave it under apparently great mental suffering, as was obvious to all present, and yet he went through the horrible details, which it was his (the worthy magistrate's) most painful duty to hear, with great clearness and precision. It would be for a jury to say what credit they wuld attach to the lad's evidence; but, whatever might be the result, he could only say that the disgusting details of abominable profligacy, exposed in the odious narrative which had occupied the court during that day, exceeded in its revolting grossness all that came under his observation during the 20 years in which he had sat upon the bench. Gill he would commit as principal on one charge, and accessory to another. Archer should be also committed as a principal, and it would be the province of a jury to say whether they were or were not guilty of the crimes alleged against them. (Evening Mail)
Friday 20 June 1845
At the Thames police-office on Wednesday the 11th inst., a gang of miscreants, five in number, were charged with the commission of abominable crimes. Two of them (both said to be Quakers) were committed on the capital charge, a third was committed for misdemeanor, and two Jew boys were admitted to bail. (Stamford Mercury)
Saturday 26 July 1845
Jeremiah Duck was charged with a similar crime to that of which the last prisoner was convicted; found guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
John Waites was charged with a similar offence; found guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. (Norfolk Chronicle)
Joshua Fowl and Ishmael Pettit
Friday 1 August 1845
UNNATURAL CRIME. – On Monday last, police-constable Roughton apprehended Joshua Fowle, a porter, and an old man named Ismael Pettit, charged with committing an unnatural offence on the same afternoon, in a ditch near Gaol-lane [Wisbech]. After a long exmaination before the magistrates on Tuesday last the prisoners were committed for trial at the next Cambridgeshire assizes. (Lincolnshire Chronicle)
Friday 1 August 1845
On Monday last, police-constable Roughton apprehended a young man named Joshua Fowl, porter, and an old man named Ismael Pettit, charged with an unnatural offence by the side of a field in Gaol-lane, Wisbech. They underwent examination before the Magistrates on Tuesday, and were committed for trial at the Cambridgeshire assizes in March next. Pettit is between 60 and 70 years of age, and is a man of some estate. (Stamford Mercury)
Saturday 9 August 1845
Joshua Fowl, (40), labourer, and Ishmael Pettit, (73), bricklayer, Wisbech, committed for trial at the next assizes, by J. Whitsed, Esq., and J. R. Weatherhead, Esq., for a nameless offence. (Cambridge Independent Press)
Saturday 21 March 1846
Saturday 21 March 1846
UNNATURAL OFFENCE. – Ishmael Pettet (73!) and Joshua Ford (40), of Wisbech, were charged with having on the 20th day of July, at Wisbech St. Peter's, committed an abominable offence. – Mr. PRYME for the prosecution; Mr. WELLS for the defence. – Of course the evidence is wholly unfit for publication. – Verdict, Guilty: Eighteen calendar months' hard labour. (Cambridge Independent Press)
SOURCE: Various newspapers, dates as given.
CITATION: If you cite this Web page, please use the following citation:
Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Network of Quakers and Jews, 1845",
Homosexuality in Nineteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook, 21 November 2016
<http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1845jews.htm>.