Primary Documents All the documents faithfully reproduce the spelling, punctuation, capitalization and italicization of the original sources. 1800–1803 Newspaper Reports (A man apologises for defaming a servant; several cases of blackmail; conviction of a one-armed homosexual seller of obscene prints; a drunken servant molests his master) 1802 Trial of Henry Elmstead 1804 Newspaper Reports (Including the hanging of Methuselah Spalding, illustrated) 1805 Newspaper Reports (including a remarkable conspiracy case) 1806 Newspaper Reports 1806 A Sodomite Club in Warrington 1807 Newspaper Reports (Many men stand in the pillory; one man kills himself in prison) 1807 A Navy Court Martial 1808 Newspaper Reports (a female blackmailer; a condemned sodomite kills himself) 1809 Newspaper Reports (including the notorious case of the Earl of Leicester) 1809 Defamatory Words between Clergymen 1810 Newspaper Reports (mobs of 30,000 people gather when sodomites are pilloried) 1810 Court Martial of James Nehemiah Taylor (A confession and a diary extract express a belief that homosexualty is innate and should not be punished with death) 1810 The Vere Street Club 1811 Newspaper Reports 1812 Newspaper Reports (Cobbet objects to being imprisoned with sodomites; an ox disrupts a pilloring; a possible gay network in Maidstone) 1812 Lord, Remember Me! (The execution and confession of a sodomite whose wife begs him not to disclose the names of his partners) 1813 Newspaper Reports 1814 Newspaper Reports (A man is convicted of having sex with another man specifically with the other man's consent; a native of the East Indies is hanged for sex with a boy) 1815 Newspaper Reports 1815 Debate on Abolishing the Pillory 1816 Newspaper Reports 1817 Newspaper Reports 1817 Scandal in the Isle of Man (Young man shoots his brother-in-law for trying to break up his gay affair with local baronet.) 1818 Newspaper Reports 1818 Marylebone Gang (Sixteen gay men are arrested at their meeting place in Marylebone, and imprisoned in Newgate in a single room) 1818 Prison Conditions (Conditions in prison affecting homosexual offenders) 1819 Newspaper Reports (Two thousand people attend the burial of a sodomite hanged in April; a gay pauper is hanged in December.) 1820 Newspaper Reports (Execution of a discharged soldier; an extortion conspiracy) 1820 The Kept Man-Mistress 1821 Cross-Dressing Women in Paris 1821 Newspaper Reports (Includes the execution of five members of an extortion ring) 1822 Newspaper Reports (A man is charged specifically with consenting to sex with another man; a man is tried for conspiring to accuse another of sodomy in order to gain an inheritance; a Chelsea Pensioner is sentenced to be hanged; a network of gay men centred upon the Duke of Newcastle's valet is prosecuted) 1822 History of the Dutch Persecutions of the 1730s 1822 The Scandal involving the Bishop of Clogher 1822 The Bishop of Clogher 1822 The Trial of James Byrne 1823 The Bishop of Clogher vs. James Byrne 1823 Newspaper Reports (In March, execution of gay men in the circle centred upon the Duke of Newcastle's valet) 1823 The Parson and the Boy by William Cobbett 1824 Legal Precedents in Blackmail Cases 1824 Newspaper Reports 1825 The Case of John Grossett Muirhead 1825 The Barley Mow Club Room 1825 Early Reflections on the History of Homosexuality 1826 Newspaper Reports 1826 The Sodomite Inn 1826 Rumours in the Village of Dunham 1826-29 Career of Thomas Brewer 1827 Newspaper Reports 1827 Richard Heber (Wealthy book collector flees England to escape arrest) 1827–29 The Case of John Richmond Seymour 1828 Newspaper Reports 1828 Hatch the Buffer 1829 Newspaper Reports 1830 Newspaper Reports 1830 Police Entrapment (The Hyde Park Gang) 1831 Newspaper Reports 1832 Newspaper Reports 1832 Scandal involving the Duke of Cumberland 1833 Newspaper Reports 1833 The Mystery of 'Eliza' Edwards Transgender actress 1833 William Bankes (trial for indecent behaviour) 1834 Newspaper Reports 1835 Newspaper Reports 1835 Execution of John Spershott 1835 The Trial of James Pratt and John Smith 1835 The Last Men Executed for Sodomy in England 1836 Newspaper Reports 1837 Newspaper Reports 1838 Newspaper Reports 1838 The Story of a Black Hustler 1838 Monomania with Unnatural Propensity 1839 Newspaper Reports 1839 The Boys in the Bathhouse 1839 Blackmail [a timid man wearing three rings is blackmailed] 1840 Newspaper Reports 1840 The Hairdresser and the Suicide 1840s Infamous Clergymen, 1840s 1840 Merely a Misdemeanour 1840 Homosexuality among Convicts in Australia 1840s Legal Issues and Practices 1840s Policemen as Entrappers and as Participants 1840s Cruising and/or Extortion 1840s George Dawson Lowndes: A Case of 'Monomania' 1840s Men in Women's Clothes 1841 Newspaper Reports (incl. a shipowner who allegedly gropes a shoemaker) 1842 A Gang of Extortioners 1842 Newspaper Reports 1842 Trial for Slander against a Clergyman 1842–43 Libels against the Duke of Brunswick 1843 Newspaper Reports 1843 The Infamous Case of Sir Felix Booth 1843 Caught in Hyde Park 1843 Writing on the Walls 1844 The Story of Alonzo Johnson, Strolling Player 1844 Miscellaneous News Reports 1844 The Horrible Affair at Newcastle 1844 A Man of Colour, a Butler, and a Strolling Player 1844 'I will frighten the gentleman' 1845 Miscellaneous News Reports including a charge against an illegitimate son of King George IV 1845 The Master and His Manservant 1845 The Case of Henry Bourne 1845 A Network of Quakers and Jews 1845 A Gay Meeting-Place in London 1845 Indecent Print used as Evidence 1845-46 Alleged Conspiracy against a Police Magistrate in Dublin 1846 The Story of 'Black Joe' 1846 Tranvestite Male Prostitute 1846 Miscellaneous News Reports 1846 A Bankruptcy 1846–47 Prosecutions of Consenting Partners 1846 Attempt to Blackmail Son of a Baronet 1846 Groom Blackmails Member of Parliament 1846 Sex between Prisoners in Wisbech County Gaol 1847 Miscellaneous News Reports 1848 Miscellaneous News Reports 1848 The Earl of Kingston at the Bus Stop 1848-49 Soldiers and Sailors 1849 Miscellaneous News Reports 1849 A Rainy Night in the Park 1849 Ballet-Dancer Disguised as a Woman 1840s–1850s Criminal Statistics, 1840s–1850s 1850 Eliza/Elijah Scott, the Black Man Woman 1850s News Reports for the 1850s 1853 Shoemaker Libels a Butler 1854 Newspaper Reports 1854 On the Way to Fairlop Fair 1854 A Mania for Masquerades 1855 A Few Words about Margeries 1855 Newspaper Reports 1856 Newspaper Reports 1857 Newspaper Reports 1857 Policeman Charged with Homophobic Abuse 1857 Fortune-Teller Extortionist 1857 A Chemist and His Errand Boys 1858–59 Newspaper Reports 1859 The Case of Archibald Mann 1859 The Philanthropist 1859 Flogging in the Navy 1860s Newspaper Reports 1870–74 Newspaper Reports 1863 Too Much Crinoline 1864 Father Ignatius and His Singing Boys 1869 Brother Augustine 1870–71 Fanny and Stella, Female Impersonators 1874 'Queen of Camp' 1875 Newspaper Reports 1875 Suicide at Christmas 1876 Newspaper Reports Man is sentenced to 18 months' hard labour for sex with an 18 year old who is sentenced to 6 months' hard labour for consenting to the act. 1876 A Black Ship's Cook 1877 Newspaper Reports Man sentenced to life imprisonment for sex with a consenting 17 year old Post Office lad, who gets ten years; a black barber sentenced to 10 years. 1878 The Exeter Scandal (Clerk of the Peace for Devon propositions soldiers) 1879 Newspaper Reports 1879 The Keevil Libel Case 1880 The Hulme Fancy Dress Ball 1881 Newspaper Reports 1882 Newspaper Reports 1883 Newspaper Reports 1884 The Dublin Scandals 1885 Newspaper Reports 1885 Love-Letter Gone Astray 1885-86 Gross Indecency The earliest cases prosecuted under the new legislation making "gross indecency" a crime (the Labouchere Amendment) 1886 Unnatural Crime 1887 Newspaper Reports 1888 John Dennison, Organ Grinder 1889 Newspaper Reports 1889 The Cleveland Street Scandal 1890 News Reports 1890 Indecent Bathing 1890 The Belfast Scandal 1890 The Southsea Scandal 1890 The Chelsea Workhouse Scandal 1890 The Story of Two Hairdressers 1891 Newspaper Reports 1891 Prosecution and Suicide of Prominent Historian 1891 Attempted Extortion at Brighton 1891 Scandal at Barnstaple 1891 "Yum, Yum!" - A Career in Debauchery 1892 Newspaper Reports 1893 Newspaper Reports (Several convictions of men for consenting to have sex together) 1894 Newspaper Reports CITATION: If you cite this Web page, please use the following citation: Rictor Norton (Ed.), Homosexuality in Nineteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 25 April 2023 <http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/nineteen.htm>. Return to Gay History and Literature