Warning: this blog and accompanying document contain references to sexual acts and to acts of sexual violence.
February is LGBT+ History Month. In this blog we explore how you can use Quarter Sessions records to learn more about LGBT+ history.
Male homosexuality was illegal in England and Wales until the 1967 Sexual Offences Act decriminalised sexual acts between two consenting males over the age of 21 conducted in private. In 1994 the age of consent was lowered to 18 for gay men. Male homosexuality was decriminalised in Scotland in 1980. Until 1861 sex between men was a crime punishable by death. Same sex relationships between women have never been illegal in the United Kingdom.
Stories of queer relationships in archive collections are difficult to uncover. The National Archives’ Research Guide How To Look For Records of Sexual Identity And Gender (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/) provides useful source suggestions regarding records that they hold. One of the issues researchers face is around vocabulary. Because relationships were secretive it is very difficult to pick out references to gay relationships from catalogue descriptions. The National Archives Guide includes a useful section around possible search terms.
Male homosexuality was considered such a serious offence that criminal cases were heard at the Assize Courts. These courts were held in the main county towns and were presided over by visiting judges from the higher London courts. The Assize Courts heard capital cases – cases punishable by death. Records of the Assize Courts are held at The National Archives and are not easily accessible remotely. Within the Northumberland Quarter Sessions records Northumberland Archives holds a series of Calendars of Prisoners, 1875-1971 (ref: Q/S/CP). The Calendars record brief details of cases held at the Quarter Sessions Courts (local courts that heard less serious cases) and also details of Assize Courts cases. Local and national newspapers recorded Assize Court cases so another possible source is the British Newspaper Archive (available to view online for a fee at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk). Northumberland Library users can access the British Newspaper Archives in Northumberland Libraries and in our searchrooms.
As a small research exercise we looked through volume 3 of the Calendar of Prisoners to see how many trials we were able to find. The volume covers the period March 1888 to November 1894 and we were able to discover four trials. Two cases were heard at the Summer Assizes of 1891. In the first John Reed, a 59-year-old forgeman, and Thomas Simpson, a 37-year-old miner, were found guilty of “attempting to commit the act of sodomy”. John Reed was sentenced to 15 months hard labour and Thomas Simpson to 18 months hard labour.
The second case was heard at the same court sitting. Thomas Cullen, a 30-year-old sailor, was found guilty of “attempting to commit sodomy” and sentenced to 5 years penal servitude. The third case was heard at the Autumn Assizes where Frederick Henry Grieg, a 37-year-old sailor and John Dixon, a 17-year-old sailor, were found guilty of committing an act of gross indecency and sentenced to four calendar months hard labour and two calendar months hard labour respectively. Lastly, at the Autumn Assizes of 1893, Thomas Lough, a 16-year-old tailor, and Robert Hume, aged 15, were found guilty of unlawfully committing an act of gross indecency with each other and were asked to find one surety (or bond) in the sum of £10 to be of good behaviour and to come up for judgement when called upon.
It is interesting (and harrowing) to compare the crimes recorded in the Calendars shown here. The other cases tried by the Assize court were all violent attacks by one person on another: murder/manslaughter and rape. In contrast, what seem to be consensual acts where no-one is hurt are defined as “against the order of nature”.
The Calendars provide only the basic information about each case and to discover more background it would be necessary to look at the case papers held by The National Archives. This series of records have been weeded so not all survive. The variance is sentencing in the above cases is interesting and access to the papers may provide insight into this. We were able to find brief newspaper accounts of the first three cases using The British Newspaper Archive website. In each case the report provided some further details about the case.
The section at the bottom of this illustration follows across a double page in the calendar. John Reed received the same sentence (“the like”) as the prisoner above him on the calendar who was found guilty of raping a woman. Both prisoners received 15 months imprisonment with hard labour.
