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Jan 1, 1533
"Unnatural Vice" gets death penalty
Male : male sexual relationships were officially outlawed when, in 1533, Henry VIII's 'Buggery Act’ decreed that the punishment for sodomy was to be death by hanging. -
Records reveal
Even probate records can reveal forgotten truths about an
individual's gender. In 1630, John Hobson of Rydall was described as a hermaphrodite in his last will and testament. -
Excommunication
Reginald Graham and Richard Gedd(is) were excommunicated by an ecclesiastical court for not answering charges of fornication. During this period, and into the 19th century, manorial and ecclesiastical courts monitored social and moral misdemeanors, slanders and accusations. Could Lancashire Archives reveal more forgotten accusations of love and sex between men? -
Convicted of kissing
Records of Lancashire's LGBT history need not be confined to paper. One male prisoner carved this beautiful violin above the gatehouse of Lancaster Prison with the statement "Committed for kissing, April 15 1741’. The kissing was with another man…and "kissing" wasn't just kissing. -
Hanged at Lancaster
65 years later 5 men were hanged at Lancaster Castle for committing the "horrid, detestable and abominable crime called buggery". Whilst awaiting execution these men also left their mark, each carving initials into the walls of their cells (read their story). -
A symptom of insanity
In January, Andrew Robertson was admitted to Whittingham
Asylum as 'a person of unsound mind' for having delusions …
‘that he belongs to the opposite sex. A rich source of information lies within the admission certificates and patient records of men and women committed to Lancashire's asylums. These may reveal behaviours that today would be recognised as homosexual or transgender but in the past were deemed unnatural and a symptom of insanity. -
Lesbian lifestyles
The recently decoded 1908 diaries of suffragettes Mary Blaythwayt are claimed to show thatr key figures in the Votes for Women movement, including Annie kenny and Christabel Pankhurst, led lesbian lifestyles. -
Indecent and criminal relations
9 boys at the Liverpool Juvenile Reformatory were punished with up to 18 strokes for inciting, knowing or being involved in indecent and criminal relations.' The register was annotated with the comment: "The whole of this party had formed a gang for the practiceof indecency and criminal relations. This is the first known case of such practices in the history of the new school and had to be stamped out with firm measures" -
Lady becomes Lord
Suffragette, Selina Cooper's collection includes news cuttings following the Hon. Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill's change of sex.
