1835: Letter from police magistrate Hensleigh Wedgwood to the Home Secretary Lord John Russell about two prisoners condemned to be executed for having had sexual relations with each other. Catalogue ref: HO 17/120/60
The prisoners were called James Pratt, aged 30, and John Smith, aged 40. They were the last two Englishmen to ever be executed for sodomy. A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes.
Transcript
This offence I allow is a very heavy one against God, and shows a most degraded nature, but surely, Mylord, is it not a crime against society of such a description as to call for the spilling of blood, that punishment should be reserved for terrifying crimes, for those offering violence to the lives or persons of others: and I am convinced that the only reason why the punishment of death has been retained in this case, is the difficulty of finding any one hardy enough to undertake what might be represented as the defence of such a crime. A disgraceful punishment would, I am sure, be more agreeable to the feelings of mankind, as well as more effectual in checking the offence. …
But besides this, there is a shocking inequality in this law in its operation upon the rich and poor. It is the only crime where there is no injury done to any individual and in consequence it requires a very small expense to commit it in so private a manner and to take such precautions as shall render conviction impossible. It is also the only capital crime that is committed by rich men but owing to the circumstances I have mentioned they are never convicted. The detection of these degraded creatures was owing entirely to their poverty, they were unable to pay for privacy, and the room was so poor that what was going on inside was easily visible from without.
- How is homosexuality portrayed in this letter?
- Look at the LGBTQ+ laws timeline. How long after this case was the death penalty for sodomy abolished?
- Does this letter give any suggestions as to why these two might have been the last two men ever executed for sodomy?
- Wedgwood suggests that these men were arrested not just because of the act itself, but because of their class and lack of wealth. Why is this?
- Look at this and other cases in this lesson. How does class play a role in how LGBTQ+ people have been able to navigate the law?