Societal attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over time and place, from expecting all males to engage in same-sex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing it under penalty of death. The following individuals received the death penalty for it.
Executed individuals
Belgium
Name
Date
Notes
John de Wettre
8 September 1292
A "maker of small knives" condemned at Ghent and burned at the pillory next to St. Peter's.[1]: 17
Italian, burned alive in front of the Louvre in Paris.[11]
Richard Renvoisy
6 March 1586
Canon of Sainte-Chapelle du Roi in Dijon and "master of children", wrote Quelques odes d'Anacreon mises en musique in 1559. His "too free association with his young students made him fall into a crime", and he was subsequently burned.[17][18]
Hanged and body burned in Issoudun. Sentenced by bailiwick on 28 November.[11][12]
Jean-Imbert Brunet
4 May 1601
Local priest of Ollioules, burned by the Parliament of Provence.[19]
Unknown
7 March 1654
Italian priest accused of sodomy, one of three tortured prisoners. He, "having confessed by all rigorosity (sic) of his pains, was condemned to be first hanged, and afterwards burnt - a sentence carried out the next day" in Paris.[20]
Jacques Chausson
1661
attempted rape of a young nobleman, Octave des Valons.
Procurer, burned on Place de Grève in Paris. Accused of killing a kidnapped boy.
Two unknowns
1745
Former associates of the bandit Raffiat, who was broken on the wheel in 1742. They were pierced in their tongues, hanged and burned; they were also charged with blasphemy.[23]
Parish priest of Ludres, condemned to be burned by the sovereign court of Lorraine; made an edifying speech to his parishioners speech before he was executed, and organized pilgrimages were made to the execution site afterwards.[24][25]
Germany
Name
Date
Notes
Heinrich Schreiber
1378
Convicted by a Munich civil court, probably executed.[7]
Br. Hans Storzl
1381
Two monks, two Beghards, and a peasant, burned in Augsburg for "having committed heresy with one another."[7]
Mayer, a weaver of fustian, and Weber, a fruiterer, both citizens of Nuremberg, committed sodomy together for 3 years until they were spotted in the act behind a hedge by a hook-maker's apprentice. Weber had also committed sodomy with Endressen, a cook, an Alexander, and others over the past 20 years. Mayer was beheaded, and his body was burnt with Weber as he was burned alive.[27]
Hans Weber
Hans Wolff Marti
11 March 1596
Marti, a tradesman, citizen of Wehr, had committed sodomy in various places and times, including first with a bargeman at Ibss, with another partner at Brauningen, and with a peasant at Miltenburck. Beheaded with the sword "as a favour" before his body was burned.[27]
Ludwig le Gros
15 June 1704
Prussian soldiers, beheaded in Berlin after confessing to having sexual relations with each other under Charles V's code of 1532 which criminalized sodomy.[28][29][30][31]
Prussian cross-dressing lesbian executed for sodomy in Halberstadt; her execution was the last for lesbian sexual activity in Europe.
Ephraim Ostermann
31 January 1729
Baker, age 30. Arrested for two sexual acts with his apprentice, Martin Köhler, who allegedly died of "unnatural loss of semen". Admitted under torture to similar acts on 20 other men. Beheaded in Potsdam under the court of Friedrich Wilhelm I.[31][32]
After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the persecution of homosexuals in Germany became a priority of the Nazi police state. Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals; ten thousands of which were sentenced by courts. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and between 5,000 and 6,000 were imprisoned in concentration camps. The death rate of these prisoners has been estimated at 60 percent, a higher rate than those of other prisoner groups. A smaller number of men were sentenced to death or killed at Nazi euthanasia centres. After the war, homosexuals were initially not counted as victims of Nazism because homosexuality continued to be illegal in Nazi Germany's successor states.
Likely executed in Florence. He did not believe his crime was serious and felt that if he was worthy of death, "then many others were to be considered worthy of death".[36]
Servant, burned in Venice. Tried and convicted by the Lords of the Night along with fellow servant Giacomello di Bologna on December 29, 1348, who was only banished as he did not confess.[37]
Rolandina Roncaglia
20 March 1354
Transgender female prostitute, burned in Venice. Originally from Padua, prior to presenting as female she was sometimes mistaken for a woman because of her feminine mannerisms. Initially married to a woman, but later had sex with a man and began presenting as female before moving to Venice. Sold eggs by day and sexual favors by night; most clients did not know of Roncaglia's sex, but per her account no one in Venice objected to her transitioning. Worked for 7 years before she was reported by a client and arrested.[38][39][40]
Nicoleto Marmagna
3 October 1357
Venetian boatman and his servant, burned by the Lords of Night. Marmagna was married to Braganza's sister.[37][5]
Barber, burned in Venice. Resisted interrogative torture, refusing to and retracting any given confessions.[42]
Clario Contarini
1407
A group of young nobles and clerics, burned in Venice. From a group of 35, including 14 nobles, tried by the Council of Ten; scandal ensued due to the backgrounds of the accused.[43]
Beheaded and burned together in Piazza San Marco, Venice, by the Council of Ten. Two from a group of six tried by the Council, and the only ones executed due to their active status; the others received lesser punishments.[37]
Marino Alegeti
Marco Baffo
11 September 1476
Hanged in Venice by the Council of Ten. Baffo was married to the daughter of Piramo da Veglia.[48]
Francesco Toniuti
Francesco Cercato
1480
Hanged between the columns of a square in Venice.[49]
Turkish footman; strangled and burned in Pratello, Florence. Converted to Christianity nine months prior. Buried in the temple.[44]
Messer Rinieri
25 September 1556
56-year-old cathedral canon and man of letters from the Franchi family, hanged and burned in Perugia by Sixtus V for "having repeatedly scaled the walls of the seminary of said Perugia, on behalf of sodomy."[58]
Becher, beheaded and burned between the two columns of San Zulian, Venice; convicted of sodomy "among other faults", which we were read alound from a platform over the Grand Canal.[60]
Musician and canon of the Basilica of Nostra Signora di Loreto, laicizied and beheaded in Loreto for relations with a student of his, 16-year-old Luigi Dalla Balla. Giovanni Leonardo Primavera, another lover of Dalla Balla, escaped persecution in 1585.[66]
From a group of eleven, mostly Portuguese and Spanish, who were arrested in a church near San Giovanni Laterano for organizing same-sex marriage ceremonies, burned in Rome:
Strangled in Palermo; also executed was Giacopo di Giacopo, who made false allegations against Giuseppe de Marino in another sodomy trial.[64]
D. Carlo Barone
3 August 1579
Executed (Barone unknown, Bevaceto beheaded, Russitano and Scolaro strangled) and burned in Palermo. The father of D. Pietro Vinacito paid the court 15,000 scudi to spare the men, but the executions were still carried out.[64]
20-year-old pedant (teacher) from Ponticelo, hanged in the Archi and burned in Genoa; tried along with another teacher who was also sentenced to death but it is unknown if he too was executed.[68]
Hanged together in Ponte, Rome, after being led through the city.[59]
Muzio di Senso
Ottaviano Bargellini
1593
A member of a senatorial family (Bargellini) and a Jew (Orsini), beheaded together in Bologna. Orsini converted to Christianity before the execution as Paolo and his body was displayed in Piazza Maggiore.[53][69]
Hanged in Naples with Nicola Fanfano. At his execution he admitted that his implication of Fanfano was made under torture, but Fanfano was still hanged.[74]
Alessandro Borromeo
3 June 1668
20-year-old Paduan noble, son of Girolamo Borromeo, beheaded and burned in Venice by the Council of Ten. Described as "scandalous" and "without Christian law" for seducing his friends.[48]
Paolo Cricetti
10 December 1668
19-year-old friend of Borromeo, beheaded and burned in Venice.[48]
Tortured, strangled with a noose and burned in Milan; also convicted of other crimes. His accomplices were also tortured.[75]
Unknown
29 March 1710
Hanged and beheaded in Milan. Voluntarily confessed to having passive and continued relations with his master, along with "treasonous homicide" and robbery; head displayed at Boschi di Longhignana.[76]
Hanged in Bologna; his eyes and nose were also cut off to render his body unrecognizable.[53]
Vincenzo Pelliciari
20 July 1727
Hanged in Modena. Publicly boasted that he had married the devil and had regular relations with him, along with other heresies and blasphemies; tried by the Inquisition and executed by the secular wing.[71]
Giovanni Antonio Cremis
28 May 1736
From Felizzano, hanged and burnt in Alessandria. His accomplice, 15-year-old Giovanni Stefano Barnaba Mordea of Asti, is sentenced to row oars in the royal fleet for 5 years.[78]
Unknown
12 September 1736
28-year-old barber of the boat in S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini, hanged on the bridge of Sant'Angelo, Rome.[79]
30-year-old becher from Cannaregio, beheaded and burned in Venice by the Council of Ten for "sodomy having used many iniquities".[48]
Bartolomeo Luisetti
10 April 1764
Son of quondam Antonio of Villa Albese, suffocated and burned in the square of del Brolo, Milan, in front of S. Stefano. Pietro Verri reported on the case, claiming Lusietti was a pederast but that he "had never committed a misdeed in his life".[76]
Spanish soldier (or sailor[32]) and a local Maltesebardasso (teenage prostitute[32]), both burned; execution described by the Scottish traveller William Lithgow.[80] More than 100 bardassoes fled to Sicily on a galley the following night.[81]
Dutch sailors from St. Maertensdyck and Ghent, aged 23 and 18 respectively, on the Zeewijk which wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos on 9 June. While on the islands, they were caught in "the abominable and god-forsaken deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah." They were subsequently marooned on separate rocky islands nearby.[87][88][89]
hanged and burned in the Hague. Backer was a house servant hiring middleman.[91]
Jan Schut
Frans Verheyden
Occupation unknown, milkman, coat embroiderer, occupation unknown, and servant, hanged and thrown into the sea at Scheveningen with 50-pound weights.[91]
Cornelius Wassermaar
Pieter Styn
Dirk van Royen
Herman Mouillant
Pieter Marteyn Janes Sohn
24 June 1730
Strangled and burned in Amsterdam. Keep was a decorator.[91]
Johannes Keep
Maurits van Eeden
House servant and Johannes Keep's servant, age 18, drowned in a barrel in Amsterdam.[91]
Cornelius Boes
Jan Westhoff
29 June 1730
Soldiers, strangled and buried under the gallows in Kampen.[92]
Steven Klok
Leendert de Haas
17 July 1730
60-year-old candlemaker, distiller, and a gentleman's servant, strangled and burnt in Rotterdam, and their ashes dumped from a boat at sea.[92]
Casper Schroder
Huibert van Borselen
Pieter van der Hal
21 July 1730
Grain carrier, glove launderer, agent, and tavern keeper; hanged and thrown into the sea at Scheveningen with 100-pound weights.[91]
Adriaen Kuyleman
David Munstlager
Willem la Feber
Antonie Byweegen
Fishmonger, hanged and burned to ashes in the Hague.[91]
Laurens Hospinjon
16 September 1730
Chief of detectives in the Navy, strangled and thrown in water with a 100-pound weight in Amsterdam.[91]
Cornelis Palamedes
19 October 1730
Teacher, age 56, half strangled and burnt to ash in Veen near Heusden; previously had relationship with Dirk van Royen (see 12 June 1730).[92]
Loer, 48, farmer, scorched alive and strangled before being burnt to ash; had committed sodomy with several persons, including on his way to and from church.
Berents, 32, a Liplander, scorched alive and strangled before being burnt to ash.
Immes, 45, from Huifinga, strangled to death and burned.
Jans, 40 or 41, from Aduwert, strangled to death and burned; no response.
Hendrix, 40, from Nieuwkerk, strangled to death and burned; no response.
Wygers, 45, from Doefem, strangled to death and burned; no response.
Brakel, 37, strangled to death and burned; no response.
Rol, 32 or 36,[93] from Esinga, strangled and burnt; swayed back and forth upon being sentenced and bowed to all present before leaving.
Donderen, 30, strangled and burnt; cried out "Oh! Oh!" upon hearing sentence.
Egberts, 19, strangled and burnt; corrected the judge when age was listed incorrectly in sentence, and bowed saying "It is all right, sir," before leaving.
Peter Cornelisz, 20 or 21, strangled and burnt; appeared to be about to faint as sentence was read but sighed instead.
Hendrik Cornelisz, 21, strangled and burnt; said "I forgive you and thank you gentlemen for the sentence which I shall receive."
Leuwes, 19, strangled and burned; sighed and quickly left.
Idses, 18, strangled and burnt; told the court "I forgive you for the sin you have committed against me."
Jan Jansz, 18, strangled and burnt; no response.
Cornelis Jansz, 18; told the court "You may see how you direct me."
Harms, 16, strangled and burnt; no response.
Tamme Jansz, 14, strangled and burnt; remained silent when sentenced.
Iacobs, 16[94] or 18, from Nieuhooven, strangled and burnt; no response.
Dutch, executed in Batavia. Jacobsz, a sailor, was formerly accused of sodomy in 1713.[86]
Rijkaert Jacobsz
Jan Kemmer
1765
Young man executed in Amsterdam. Claimed his first act took place when still in an orphanage and connected to known sodomite networks after an encounter in Amsterdam's town hall's citizens' hall. Named 15 other boys in his confession. Described as "particularly acquainted with the Truths (Biblical truths)."[84]
Abraham Feijs
1772
19-year-old tailor in Leiden, declared in interrogation he had never slept with a woman and had committed sodomy "hundreds of times". Last execution in Leiden.[83]
Jillis Bruggeman
9 March 1803
Last person executed for sodomy in Netherlands[95]
Poland
Name
Date
Notes
Marcin Gołek
9 November 1633
Master baker and his apprentice, burned in Sieradz. Both accused the other of initiating the relationship.[96]
Wojciech ze Sromotki
Portugal
Name
Date
Notes
Two unknowns
1621
Effeminate dancers, burned alive in Lisbon. They were part of a group called Dança dos Fanchonos led by 30-year-old mulatto Antonio Rodrigues.[1]
Santos de Almeida
1645
66-year-old royal chaplain, burned in Lisbon; said to have resided over a "conventicle of fanchonos".[1][5]
Two unknowns
1647
Old Christians, burned for sodomy and religious visions in a Lisbon auto-da-fé.[97]
Unknown
3 April 1669
Old Christian priest, burned for sodomy in a Lisbon auto-da-fé with 79 Judaizers.[97]
Muslim potters in Lleida sentenced to burn for mutual same-sex relations as well as heterosexual relations with Christian prostitutes. Mahoma converted to Christianity and adopted the name Pere Cirera before the execution, so he was drowned before being burned.[8]
Castilian soldier, executed in Saragossa awaiting a public auto-da-fé.[23]
Four unknowns
1558
A Castilian jurist/lawyer, 2 priests, and a French shepherd boy, all burned in a Saragossa auto-da-fé.[5][23]
Unknown
1566
A French interpreter who lived with the Guale, garroted under the orders of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés at Santa Elena. Pedro's nephew and an ensign told him that he was "a Lutheran and a great sodomite," so he lured the interpreter out by claiming he had presents to give to the cacique. The cacique's oldest son, one of two natives living with the interpreter, cried upon hearing this and begged him "to return at once." The interpreter was killed in secrecy on arrival, and the Guale were told that he had disappeared.[104]
Three unknowns
1572
Foreigners, burned in a Saragossa auto-da-fé with 9 Aragonese peasants convicted of bestiality along with their animals.[5][23]
Male prostitute, burned in Madrid; present at the trials of two high-ranking clients, Don Pedro Luis Galceran de Borgia and the Count of Ribagorza, in 1572.[105]
Miguel Salvador de Morales
25 June 1574
Morales, a Trinitarian friar, and Tafolla had known each other since childhood, even sleeping in the same room. Tafolla had just returned from traveling in Italy and went to Morales's monastery in Valencia, where they were caught; both were burned.[5]
Baptista Tafolla
Juan Bautista Finocho
July 1575
Mariner on the galleon San Tadeo, burned in the harbor of La Havana.[99]
Two unknowns
1579
Teenage boys, executed in Seville for "frolicking in bed together."[106]
Unknown
1581
Neapolitan, burned for a "habit of Italy" in Seville.[92]
Diego Maldonado
1585
Sodomite group, burned together in Seville by secular authorities. Maldonado, a member of a "well-to-do family" from Granada, was the group leader.[92][99][107]
African, probably a freed slave, burned in Seville as a alcahuete (procurer). Described as "very well known for the dealings he had with good-looking gentlemen."[106] He wore a ruff, cosmetics, and a wig at his execution, likely as forced humiliation rather than by choice.[92]
Seven unknowns
1587
7 adolescents under 21 years old, executed[j] in Aragon (Saragossa).[23][105]
Gaspar Arrimen
1588
Moriscos in Valencia, both age 20; both burned.[5]
Pedro Alache
Two unknowns
1588
17-year-olds, executed in Aragon (Saragossa).[23][105]
Street vendor of Triana, burned in Seville; described as "fat, deaf, and blind."[109]
Jose Estravagante
1607
Galley prisoners, 31 and 20, respectively; Teixidor had been convicted of sodomy and Estravagente of another crime. Fellow prisoners denounced they were having an affair and they were subsequently burned in Valencia by the Inquisition.[5]
Bartolomeo Teixidor
Two unknowns
1616
Colored, burned in Seville. Names not recorded.[92]
Nicolas Gonzales
1625
20-year-old prostitute from Orihuela and those he implicated under questioning (including 7 slaves, such as a 40-year-old Turk), burned together in Valencia. He named over 60 men and boys when questioned. Gonzales admitted to not only prostituting himself, but also procuring others his age (usually to slaves).[106] 128 quintals of wood were needed to burn all 12 over a 7-hour period, "something never seen or heard of in Valencia".[1][105]
Eleven unknowns
Two unknowns
1626
Executed in Valencia outside of the inquisition palace "without making a noise".[5]
Portuguese mulatto, tried and executed by the Audencia de la Casa de la Contratación in Seville.[108]
Juan Chapinero
1651
Two blacks (one free, the latter a slave), publicly garroted and their corpses burnt in Mexico City.[108]
Nicolás
Juan de la Cruz
March 1670
Indigenous resident of La Lagunilla, publicly burned in the public market of San Juan, Mexico City on a Monday at 4:00 PM.[108]
Five unknowns
25 June 1671
Two mulattoes and three blacks, burned in San Lázaro, Mexico City; caught in the act at Juan de Ávila's mill in Mixcoac. The site of their execution is today the location of Mexico's national archives.[108]
Seven unknowns
13 November 1673
A group of mulattoes, blacks, and mestizos, burned in Mexico City; caught in the act in the same textile mill.[108]
Two unknowns
20 November 1686
A mulatto and a mestizo, burned together in Mexico City; a black man was publicly shamed as an accomplice.[108]
Two unknowns
February 1735
Sentenced to death and their corpses burned in Mexico City "for the grave crime of Sodomy"; case reported in the Gazeta de México.[108]
Two unknowns
27 August 1738
Indigenous, sentenced to burn in Mexico City for the "nefarious crime"; on the way to be executed, members of the local cofradía accompanied them.[108]
Unknown
23 June 1784
"The nefarious offender of this royal jail", burned in Mexico City and his body reduced to ashes in the accustomed site.[108]
German-Swiss aristocrat, burned by Rudolph I in Basel. Unknown if politically motivated.[5]
Friedrich
1399
Cook, burned in Basel; his partner, Friedrich Schregelin, was banished.[7]
Hermann von Hohenlandberg
1431
Burgher and noble, accused of robbing travelers outside of Zurich in 1419; executed for multiple relationships with male adolescents.[7] Reportedly offered a 14-year-old "clothes" for accompanying him.[26]
Two unknowns
1444
Bishop of Geneva's personal chef, a Greek, and his Genevan partner, both hanged;[92] first executions in Geneva for sodomy.[13]
Two unknowns
1464
Sexton of a pilgrimage church and a boy, both burned in Einsiedeln.[7]
Pastry chef in Fribourg, returned from France with an ear and his penis missing for attempted sodomy in Sisteron; confessed to relations with men, including a cleric, in Lausanne and Fribourg.[7]
Burned in Zurich;[7] arrested for theft, found to have had relations with several men of superior age and economic status. First seduced by a notary in the Savoy court of Geneva, he blamed the welsch (French, Savoyards, etc.) of introducing "such viciousness" to Germans.[110]
Broken on the wheel in Lucerne.[7] Case brought before council of Lucerne after it was discovered he had been given a jacket for having sex with a man under a bridge in Rome. Confessed to sex with "human and animals, women and men, boys and adult men, Italians and Germans, laypeople and clerics" while serving as papal guard in Rome. Rewarded lavishly with "three double jackets" for prostituting himself to a monk in a stable. Nusser also acted as a priest, having "sermonized and heard confession."[26]
Hans Propstli
1525
Decapitated and burned; first execution in Solothurn,[7] blamed the welsch.[111]
Hans Fritschi
1530
Monastery laborer from Pfungen, decapitated in Schaffhausen.[7] Tried alongside Hans Räs for "unchristian and heretical (sodomitical) acts". They had met while working in Rheinau monastery two years prior. Fritschi asked to be decapitated instead of burned, a mercy the court granted. Fritschi was likely 15 to 25, Räs probably the same or slightly older. Räs also gave Fritschi a new pair of pants for Christmas. Räs, the instigator, may have been fugitive after the trial.[26]
Three Turkish galley slaves and two French Catholics from a captured Savoy fort, burned together by Genevan forces. The slaves first admitted to the act, and implicated the Catholics when questioned.[5]
Guillaume Brancard/Branlard
1561
Drowned in Geneva.[113] His partner, Ramel, was given a reduced sentence due to his age. Branlard had never had a relationship with a woman per court records.[112]
Itinerant plague worker accused of molesting a woman she was sharing a bed with, Morel had admitted to fornication with a male 5 years earlier. She initially used this to deny the charge but later retracted this, and subsequently admitted her guilt under torture, and admitted to having relations with both men and women (she had never taken money for sex). She was subsequently drowned.[92][115]
Two Europeans (Chaffrey, age 20, from Dauphine; Chappuis, age 15, Genevan) and 3 Muslim converts to Calvinism (Mohamet, age 35, from Martara; Assan, age 20, from Turkey; and Arnaud, age 34, from Rumania) executed following trial for group homosexuality in Geneva. A 3rd European was acquitted.[115]
Genevan citizen and his partner, a local peasant. Brelat, a cowherd, openly boasted about their relationship due to Dufour's high social standing, but Brelat claimed Dufour was guilty of buggery (but not a bugger itself) after a violent fistfight.[112] Both were subsequently drowned.[92][117]
Pierre Brelat
Jephat Scheurmann
1609
Possibly executed in Lucerne;[7] claimed to have been "seduced" as a young man "in foreign countries" by an apprentice from Fribourg.[110]
Official burned in Geneva. Arrested for treason and homicide, confessed under torture.[92]
Three unknowns
1610
3 partners of Pierre Canal, including a gatekeeper, all drowned.[13]
Jean de la Rue
1617
Age 80, arrested for making a pass in an inn. Openly admitted to having had relations with many people in Geneva and elsewhere "for pleasure, for grain, and for poverty".[112] Burned[115] after this single interrogation.[112]
The details of the accusation are often not given in contemporary sources, with euphemisms such as "unnatural offence" used. However, such terms were also used to describe bestiality, non-consensual acts, and crimes against minors. Due to this, sources discussing and listing capital offences for homosexuality, including the table below, may inadvertently include men executed for such offences.
Name
Date
Notes
Peter Chambers
5 October 1609
Catholic seminarian who converted to Protestantism, hanged in Exeter. He was convicted of sodomy with one of his choirboys at the Exeter assizes; he lived in Exeter Cathedral "to teach the singing boys" under Matthew Sutcliffe's sponsorship. Chambers protested at his execution that in Italy he was able to suppress his urges as a Catholic, but quickly relapsed in Protestantism.[119][120]
2nd Earl of Castlehaven, executed for sodomy with his male servants and procuring the rape of his wife.
William Plaine
1646
Founder of Guilford, Connecticut, executed in New Haven. Plaine, despite being married, had committed sodomy with "two persons in England" and had "corrupted a great part of the youth of Guilford" (reason for execution unknown).[121][122]
Francis Dilly
4 February 1679
Non-white sailor on the Jersey, executed as chief ringleader of a 4-man sodomite group at Port Royal. Other three members spared as they were white, "white men being scarce among us."[20][123]
Hunt was a barge builder aged 37 and Collins was 57, a former weaver and soldier. They were accused of sodomy together in a toilet at Pepper Alley in Southwark, near London Bridge, which they each denied though their accounts differed. Their trial was at Surrey assizes 4 August and they were hanged at Kennington Common.[124][125]
Thomas Collins
Richard Arnold
15 September 1753
Arnold was around 60 and the landlord of the Lamb and Flag and Critchard was a footman aged around 20. They were convicted 31 August 1753 of felony and buggery for an act witnessed in the Swan Inn, Broad Street, Bristol. They were hanged together at St. Michael's Hill; they declined to implicate anyone else and Arnold was reported to have kissed Critchard's hand before the cart was pulled from under them.[126][127][128][129]
Trial at Coventry assizes.[131] Hanged on Whitley Common. Wright admitted that he had been guilty of sodomy, but never with Grimes, while Grimes said that he had never committed any such offence. Wright was also found guilty of killing Mr. Warner of Winhall.[132]
Trial at Hampshire assizes 5 March. Whatley, aged 41 and also known as Richard Churchill, was convicted of sodomy against Benjamin Dupre, a coachman employed by Lovell Stanhope. He admitted that he had attempted the offence (which took place at Avington), but had not actually committed it.[134]
Benjamin Loveday
12 October 1781
Trial at Bristol assizes.[135] Hanged on St Michael's Hill. Loveday worked as a waiter before keeping a public house on Tower Street, Bristol while Burke was a midshipman, and they were accused of sexual activity together that they denied. Loveday was also accused by James Morgan. Joseph Giles and James Lane were also accused with Loveday, but were only sentenced for misdemeanours, and William Ward was acquitted. Loveday may have been running a molly house.[136][137]
John Burke
John Lad or Ladd[138] (one source says Thomas)[124]
10 April 1786
A Methodist preacher, he was tried at Surrey assizes on 22 March and taken from New Gaol to be hanged on Peckham Common.
Trial at Devon assizes 30 July. Hanged at Heavitree gallows near Exeter. Crispin, aged 45, was a potter from Pilton who had been living in a workhouse for seven years. His co-accused Hugh Gribble was reprieved owing to mental incapacity. Crispin acknowledged his guilt but showed no remorse.
John Southwell
3 April 1790
Trial at Suffolk assizes in Bury 17 March. Hanged at Rushmere Heath.[141][142]
John Smith
Henry Allen
1797
Captain of the sloop Rattler, hanged for sodomy on the ships' yardarm "despite his rank and excellent social connections."[23][143][144]
Powell was a pauper at Melford workhouse. His trial was at Suffolk assizes on 9 August. He was hanged at Bury St Edmunds at the age of 70, but he did not confess.[145][146]
Trial at Warwickshire assizes, executed in Warwick. Bird was a Methodist, convicted on the testimony of John Privett. Privett withdrew his statement, only to then say this was because Bird's son bribed him.
His trial was at the Old Bailey in November, where he was convicted of having "a venereal affair" with James Hankinson. He was hanged at Newgate. He was hanged with a forger, Ann Hurle - they were led out of Debtor's Door and rather than the New Drop they were hanged by a cart being driven from under them.
Trial at the Old Bailey and executed at Newgate after attempting suicide. Robertson was 48 years old and said to keep a brothel at Charles Street, Covent Garden. He was convicted of an offence with 17-year-old George Foulston.
Known as the Remarkable Trials, twenty seven men aged 17 to 84 from in and around Warrington, Manchester, and Liverpool were arrested in May 1806 for sodomy and nine were tried by John Borron and Richard Gwillym at the Lancaster assizes. Harry Cocks notes that the arrests came amid concerns post-1789 about Jacobins and other men meeting in private. Men of different social classes, they met among other places on Mondays and Fridays at Hitchin's house in Great Sankey, Cheshire, and were said by the press to be Freemasons and call each other "brother". Holland was a rich pawnbroker and there were rumours that members of the gentry were involved with the group, even members of Parliament. Those hanged were convicted on the testimonies of John Knight and Thomas Taylor, members of the group who gave evidence to avoid being hanged themselves. Rix also testified that sodomy was widespread and considered normal in Warrington, Manchester, and Liverpool, describing casual encounters in the street, but the magistrate refused a deal, while Hitchin denied the charges. Stockton, Holland and Powell were hanged at Lancaster castle on 13 September, and Hitchin and Rix later that month after they were further interrogated to find other conspirators. Joshua Newsom and George Ellis were found guilty of lesser offences and the rest were acquitted. The magistrates attempted to investigate further, but were stopped by the Home Office.
Aged 45, he was accused of an offence against Thomas Douglas of Crayford and for attempted offences against others. His trial was at Kent Lent Assizes in Maidstone, and he was hanged on Penenden Heath. He had no family and the Kentish Gazette said he "appeared a perfect idiot".
Neighbour of Gresse Street, Rathbone Place, aged 26, was convicted of a crime against the body of Joshua Archer, aged 17 or 18, an apprentice to an engraver. Attempts were made to bribe Archer to leave the country. Neighbour was sentenced to hang at the Old Bailey in October 1808, but he poisoned himself with arsenic at Newgate the next month, less than a week before his execution was due.
Ensign John Newball Hepburn, in his forties, and Drummer Thomas White, 16, tried at the Old Bailey and hanged in front of Newgate Prison, London[165][166]
Myers was a draper of Stamford, accused by Thomas Crow (or Crowe), an 18-year-old apprentice to a tailor, Mr. Horden of Stamford. Myers was acquitted in Lincolnshire due to Crow being suspected of lying, but he was then convicted at trial at Peterborough accused again by Crow of offences at Burghley Park. Myers was hanged at Fengate, Peterborough, the last man to be publicly executed in the city.
Godfrey was a butler in the house of Mr. Atkinson at Lee, who was indicted for "unnatural offences" with a footman, Henry Greenhurst, from May to December 1812. The latter was "unconscious of the heinous character of the offence" and told another servant, who informed Mr. Atkinson. Godfrey was hanged at Penenden Heath.
Trial at the Old Bailey, hanged aged 51 at Newgate alongside Elizabeth Fenning
John Charles
1 February 1816
Sailors on the HMS Africaine under captain Edward Rodney, hanged at Portsmouth at 11 AM. Two other men, John Parsons and Joseph Hubbard, were whipped, with Hubbard receiving less lashes than Parsons due to medical concerns. Many reports of sodomy surfaced onboard the ship during its four-year tour of the East Indies, with Westerman being named as a participant from the start. For the first incident, Westerman was demoted from captain's servant boy to ordinary crewman, with further demotion for a later incident. More incidents surfaced until the ship returned to England in 1815, and an investigation was ordered by the Royal Navy. The initial 23 suspects identified in December 1815 was reduced to just four (Westerman, Joseph Tall, Seraco, and Treake). The origins of the sodomy amongst the crew was determined to be Seraco and Treake, both Italians. Seraco was condemned with Charles (a prisoner), Treake was initially pardoned with Joseph Tall but re-condemned with Westerman.[177][178][179][180]
A pauper aged 26 who was an inmate at St. Giles's workhouse, his hanging was heard by John Cam Hobhouse, who was being held at Newgate. Hobhouse noted in his diary, "Tis dreadful hanging a man for this practice".
Trial at Kent Assizes and hanged at Penenden Heath. Convicted of an offence with John Whyneard (charged as an accomplice, but not hanged) at the Isle of Sheppey.
Respectively a gentleman and half-pay officer aged 35, a valet to the Duke of Newcastle aged 36, and a cabinet maker aged 35, they were tried at Lincoln Assizes by Mr. Justice Park and convicted on the evidence of a 19-year-old apprentice draper named Henry Hackett. A love letter from Hackett to Candler had been addressed to the Duke to save on postage: the Duke received and read the letter and had Hackett confronted, upon which he also implicated Doughty and Arden, who had associated with each other in Grantham in summer 1822. They were part of a group of up to 36 men led by Arden, who went on hunger strike in jail. The convicted men were hanged at Lincoln Castle.
Aged 25, he was charged in June 1824 with Charles Paul, aged 17, for an offence at Weedon Bec barracks in May 1823 - they were both privates in the 53rd regiment. He was sentenced by Mr. Justice Holroyd and hanged at the New Drop, Northamptonshire
Aged about 30 and from Witney and aged 22 and from Radstock, respectively, they were hanged at Ilchester Gaol in Somerset
George Maggs
Captain Henry Nicholl (also reported as Nichol and Nicholls)
12 August 1833
A 50-year-old veteran of the Peninsular War, Nicholl was hanged at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Southwark, London. He was renounced by his prominent family, and his body was handed over to a hospital for dissection as they refused to accept it for burial.[200][201]
A 26-year-old soldier, he was convicted of an offence at Deptford with a fellow soldier, Charles Pike, who was aged 18, but Pike was acquitted. Cropper was hanged at New Sessions House in Maidstone, the same day as a rapist.
John Spershott (also reported as John Sparshott and John Sparsholt)[204][205][206]
22 August 1835
A labourer aged 19, he was convicted of an offence with George Howard (who was not charged) at Mid Lavant and hanged at Horsham, Surrey, alongside a burglar. "Spershott's hanging was perhaps the last occasion at which was performed the folk ritual of the hangman passing the dead man's hands over the neck and bosoms of young women as a cure for glandular enlargements."
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^Also reported as William Critichett (alternative spelling given by Bristol Gaol delivery fiats), William Pritchard (newspaper reports, 1752) and William Crutchard (newspaper reports, 1753)
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^Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal, 17 March 1820
^Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal, 11 January 1820
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