Recovering Gay History from the Old Bailey

Abstract

Trials for sodomitical offences at the Old Bailey provide evidence not only for a gay subculture and a collective gay identity in the 'molly houses' of eighteenth-century London, but also for a personal homosexual identity among 'sodomites' and 'indorsers' whose activity seems limited mainly to cruising grounds and bog-houses. This article argues that although homosexual prosecutions appear to focus primarily upon a sexual act, they can be used to understand an underlying sexual orientation. By exploring the impediments to recovering gay history from criminal records — the distortions caused by a narrow focus on strictly jurisprudential issues, such as the misrepresentation of consenting relations as 'criminal assault' or the legalistic discourse of 'sodomy', a narrow sexological focus on strictly sexual behaviour, such as 'active'/'passive' 'roles', and doctrinaire claims about 'the homosexual' not being 'constructed' until modern times — this article lays the foundation for a history of being gay in eighteenth-century London. It argues that a precise focus on the broader sociocultural content of trials, newspaper reports and satires can uncover a history of recognisably gay men.