Forgetting the unthinkable: Cross-dressers and British society in the case of the Queen vs. Boulton and others

Gender and History

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 127-157

  Upchurch, Charles ^a  

^a RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 0007320809     PISSN: 09535233     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.00174     Document Type: Article

References (114)

1. From the trial transcripts of the 1871 Case of the Queen vs. Boulton and Others, Department of Public Prosecutions, Public Records Office, London. DPP4/6, vol. 1, pp. 36-7.
2. The accounts of the places that Boulton and Park visited are scattered throughout the arraignment depositions (KB6/3, Court of the King's Bench) and the trial transcripts (DPP4/6), both housed in the Public Records Office, London. For a concise summary, see the Attorney-General's opening speech in DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 13.
3. Most notably during the times when they appeared as 'powdered men' and openly flirted with more conventionally dressed men in areas such as the Burlington Arcade. This and other manifestations of their cross-dressing are described below.
4. For a full explanation of the molly houses of eighteenth-century London, see Randolph Trumbach, 'London's Sodomites: Homosexual Behaviour and Western Culture in the Eighteenth Century', Journal of Social History, 11 (1977), pp. 1-33, and Rictor Norton, Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England, 1700-1830 (Gay Men's Press, London, 1992).
5. For a full explanation of the molly houses of eighteenth-century London, see Randolph Trumbach, 'London's Sodomites: Homosexual Behaviour and Western Culture in the Eighteenth Century', Journal of Social History, 11 (1977), pp. 1-33, and Rictor Norton, Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England, 1700-1830 (Gay Men's Press, London, 1992).
6. Trumbach, 'London's Sodomites', pp. 4-5. There is substantial evidence in the documentation of the Boulton and Park case to indicate that the methods used to police cross-dressers and mary-annes changed significantly in the two generations that had passed since the early nineteenth century. Unfortunately, there is no secondary literature that systematically examines male cross-dressing and male prostitution in London over this period. Some indications of the changes in the behaviour of these men, and how that behaviour was regulated, will be addressed in the course of this article.
7. DPP4/6, vol. 1, pp. 12-13.
8. The goals of the Metropolitan Police were not the same or at times even compatible with those of the magistrate, the Solicitors of the Treasury, the London newspapers, and the numerous individuals who knew Boulton and Park and came forward to offer testimony both for and against them. How the conflicts between these groups led to the publication of unintended material in the middle-class newspapers is addressed below.
9. Most notably in the arraignment testimony of Amos Westrop Gibbons, given on the fifth day of the arraignment (see KB6/3, pp. 159-75). Gibbons was applauded for his testimony by the spectators in the court (The Times, 30 May 1870, p. 13)
10. Most notably in the arraignment testimony of Amos Westrop Gibbons, given on the fifth day of the arraignment (see KB6/3, pp. 159-75). Gibbons was applauded for his testimony by the spectators in the court (The Times, 30 May 1870, p. 13)
11. 9. James Thomas Paul, surgeon for the E Division of the Metropolitan Police, testified that on examining Boulton and Park on the night of their arrest he had found evidence of repeated acts of anal intercourse. He had been asked by police to carry out an examination to confirm Boulton's and Park's sex. He extended the scope of his examination on his own initiative, having recently read a medical text that indicated that acts of anal intercourse would leave physical marks on the body. (See KB6/3, pp. 78-88.) Paul was castigated by the defence and the Lord Chief Justice for carrying out this very uncommon procedure.
12. The Times, 31 May 1870, p. 9.
13. Pall Mall Gazette, 8 June 1870, pp. 1-2. The Pall Mall Gazette stated that 'it is impossible to doubt that the Government have at last laid their finger upon a serious and extensive conspiracy against public morals'.
14. James C. Scott, Domination ana the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990), p. 138.
15. Specifically, the testimony concerning the large parties for cross-dressing men and their admirers, or bals masqués, was omitted from the 1871 courtroom and trial reporting. In 1870, the newspaper coverage of the Alhambra theatre and Burlington Arcade evidence spoke of Boulton and Park being in the company of numerous other cross-dressing men and male prostitutes. Many of these references were not made in 1871, while those that were almost universally not reported in the newspapers. A great deal of medical evidence was presented in the courtroom in 1871, but its reporting was strictly limited in most newspapers. See below.
16. Examiner, 20 May 1871, p. 504.
17. Currently there are three works on the Boulton and Park case that make use of the trial transcripts and the arraignment depositions housed in the London Public Records Office: Neil Bartlett, Who Was that Man? A Present for Oscar Wilde (Serpent's Tail, London, 1988); William Cohen, Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1996) ; and Alan Sinfield, The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde, and the Queer Movement (Columbia University Press, New York, 1994). All three works discuss the trial in considerable detail, and come to similar conclusions about the desire of British society to deny widespread sodomy in London through the acquittal of Boulton and Park. Each of these works is strong in its own area, yet none of them take the Boulton and Park case as the primary focus of their narrative, and all concentrate on the 1871 trial. The discrepancies between the arraignment and the trial are not discussed in any of these works. It is my contention that what the state and the press chose to omit from the 1871 trial coverage is in fact the key to understanding the cultural significance of the case, and it therefore must be at the centre of analysis. Innumerable other works drawing only on the newspaper accounts of the trial have also been published, although they rarely move beyond the sensationalism of the 1871 newspaper reporting.
18. Currently there are three works on the Boulton and Park case that make use of the trial transcripts and the arraignment depositions housed in the London Public Records Office: Neil Bartlett, Who Was that Man? A Present for Oscar Wilde (Serpent's Tail, London, 1988); William Cohen, Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1996) ; and Alan Sinfield, The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde, and the Queer Movement (Columbia University Press, New York, 1994). All three works discuss the trial in considerable detail, and come to similar conclusions about the desire of British society to deny widespread sodomy in London through the acquittal of Boulton and Park. Each of these works is strong in its own area, yet none of them take the Boulton and Park case as the primary focus of their narrative, and all concentrate on the 1871 trial. The discrepancies between the arraignment and the trial are not discussed in any of these works. It is my contention that what the state and the press chose to omit from the 1871 trial coverage is in fact the key to understanding the cultural significance of the case, and it therefore must be at the centre of analysis. Innumerable other works drawing only on the newspaper accounts of the trial have also been published, although they rarely move beyond the sensationalism of the 1871 newspaper reporting.
19. Currently there are three works on the Boulton and Park case that make use of the trial transcripts and the arraignment depositions housed in the London Public Records Office: Neil Bartlett, Who Was that Man? A Present for Oscar Wilde (Serpent's Tail, London, 1988); William Cohen, Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1996) ; and Alan Sinfield, The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde, and the Queer Movement (Columbia University Press, New York, 1994). All three works discuss the trial in considerable detail, and come to similar conclusions about the desire of British society to deny widespread sodomy in London through the acquittal of Boulton and Park. Each of these works is strong in its own area, yet none of them take the Boulton and Park case as the primary focus of their narrative, and all concentrate on the 1871 trial. The discrepancies between the arraignment and the trial are not discussed in any of these works. It is my contention that what the state and the press chose to omit from the 1871 trial coverage is in fact the key to understanding the cultural significance of the case, and it therefore must be at the centre of analysis. Innumerable other works drawing only on the newspaper accounts of the trial have also been published, although they rarely move beyond the sensationalism of the 1871 newspaper reporting.
20. Park's father was Master of one of the Superior Courts of Law, while Boulton's father was employed with a shipping firm (see DPP4/6, vol. 1, pp. 4-5). Aldiough it was noted at several points in the trial that Boulton, Park, and the majority of the men involved in the case were well-educated, no mention is made of where they received their schooling.
21. Their masculine names were listed in the theatre programmes for these performances (see The Times, 13 May 1871, p. 12).
22. While it cannot be stated conclusively that Boulton and Clinton engaged in sexual relations, the intimate tone of the letters that passed between them and the recognition by Boulton's and Clinton's friends of the exclusive nature of their relationship all point to this conclusion. At the arraignment, state prosecutors attempted to prove that the two men engaged in sexual acts through the testimony of servants and landlords from a house where they had shared apartments. See the testimony of Anne Simpson (KB6/4, pp. 129-33) and Maria Duffin (KB6/4, pp. 134-10).
23. While it cannot be stated conclusively that Boulton and Clinton engaged in sexual relations, the intimate tone of the letters that passed between them and the recognition by Boulton's and Clinton's friends of the exclusive nature of their relationship all point to this conclusion. At the arraignment, state prosecutors attempted to prove that the two men engaged in sexual acts through the testimony of servants and landlords from a house where they had shared apartments. See the testimony of Anne Simpson (KB6/4, pp. 129-33) and Maria Duffin (KB6/4, pp. 134-10).
24. The process by which the theatre became an acceptable entertainment for the middle class was well under way by the later 1860s. Whereas before the mid nineteenth century the theatrical arts had been seen as disreputable and of little social value, by the 1880s they and all the arts were increasingly viewed as a repository for certain life-enhancing human values increasingly threatened by the advance of modern industrial society. (See Michael Baker, The Rise of the Victorian Actor, Croom Helm, London, 1978, p. 22.)
25. In his opening statement, the Attorney-General observed that 'they had frequendy acted the part of women in amateur theatricals, and I need not tell you that to assume a woman's dress for that purpose is not offence whatever' (DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 10).
26. James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, pp. 178-9.
27. From the arraignment testimony of John Reeves, staff superintendent of the Alhambra theatre. The actual quote was 'their faces painted up, their necks powdered, and their shirt collars much lower than they are now, their waistcoats were very open' (KB6/3, p. 41).
28. Reeves testified at the arraignment that Boulton and Park were almost always accompanied by several other gentlemen, and stated that in total 'I have seen about twenty men at the Alhambra with their faces powdered and in company with the prisoners' (KB6/3, pp. 43, 46).
29. Reeves had contacted the police several times over the years in an effort to keep Boulton and Park out of his theatre, but his requests were not acted on. (KB6/3, p. 46).
30. For a full description of the attire of the nineteenth-century male prostitute, see Jeffrey Weeks, 'Inverts, Perverts, and Mary-Annes: Male Prostitution and the Regulation of Homosexuality in England in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries', Journal of Homosexuality, 6 (1980/81), pp. 113-34.
31. DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 232.
32. DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 226.
33. From the arraignment deposition of George Smith. Smith stated that he 'saw Boulton turn his head to two gentlemen who passed them, smile at them, and make a noise with his mouth, the same as a woman would for enticement'. Boulton and another cross-dresser named Martin Luther Gumming were dressed as mary-annes at the time. (KB6/3, p. 48).
34. KB6/3, pp. 49, 50. The information that we have concerning Boulton and Park indicates that they associated primarily with middle- and upper-class men. The Burlington Arcade seems to be one location where they cross over into spaces more often associated with working-class mollies and male prostitutes. Piccadilly, just removed from the Burlington Arcade, was at this time strongly associated with working-class male prostitution. It is significant that it was Boulton, the one man in the case with no discernible source of income, who was seen there 'perhaps one hundred times' while Park's visits were more rare. Boulton was also known to visit the arcade with a working-class male prostitute who was otherwise not a part of Boulton's and Park's circle of friends and associates.
35. KB6/3, p. 101.
36. From the arraignment testimony of Martha Stacey (KB6/3, p. 55).
37. The Times, 30 May 1870, p. 13, and Pall Mall Gazette, 30 May 1870, p. 8. On the issues of Boulton's and Clinton's sharing apartments, there are significant discrepancies between the 1870 arraignment testimony and what was said by the same witnesses at the 1871 trial. In such cases the 1870 testimony is privileged, being given one year closer to the actual events and before it was clear that sodomy would be the central issue of the case. Lord Arthur Clinton died in the year between the arraignment and the trial.
38. The Times, 30 May 1870, p. 13, and Pall Mall Gazette, 30 May 1870, p. 8. On the issues of Boulton's and Clinton's sharing apartments, there are significant discrepancies between the 1870 arraignment testimony and what was said by the same witnesses at the 1871 trial. In such cases the 1870 testimony is privileged, being given one year closer to the actual events and before it was clear that sodomy would be the central issue of the case. Lord Arthur Clinton died in the year between the arraignment and the trial.
39. As Kellow Chesney has noted, 'at the very hub of upper-class London, between the end of the Strand and the elegant Regent Street quadrant, close to Whitehall and the clubs of St. James's, lies a flourishing quarter openly dedicated to prostitution' (Kellow Chesney, The Victorian Underworld, Maurice Temple Smith, London, 1972, pp. 16, 307).
40. George Chauncey, 'From Sexual Inversion to Homosexuality: Medicine and the Changing Conceptualization of Female Deviance', Salmagundi, 58-9 (1982), pp. 114-46. Such attitudes constituted an ideal that middle-class families aspired to and was rarely realised in full.
41. Chauncey, 'From Sexual Inversion', p. 117. The imbalance in sexual desire within the middle-class Victorian couple was one of the primary factors contributing to the unprecedented scale of prostitution within central London in the nineteenth century.
42. This was despite the fact that police considered the regulation of prostitution to be one of their most onerous responsibilities. See Stefan Petrow, Policing Morals: The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office: 1870-1944 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994), pp. 151-2. See also Edward J. Bristow, Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700 (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1977), p. 56.
43. This was despite the fact that police considered the regulation of prostitution to be one of their most onerous responsibilities. See Stefan Petrow, Policing Morals: The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office: 1870-1944 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994), pp. 151-2. See also Edward J. Bristow, Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700 (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1977), p. 56.
44. Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 120.
45. Public Records Office, Metropolitan Police (PROMEPO) 7/31, PO 24 November 1869, p. 30, and Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 130.
46. Public Records Office, Metropolitan Police (PROMEPO) 7/31, PO 24 November 1869, p. 30, and Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 130.
47. Petrow, Policing Morals, pp. 39, 41.
48. Wilbur Miller, Cops and Bobbies: Police Authority in New York and London, 1830-1870 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1973), p. 112. See also Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 50.
49. Wilbur Miller, Cops and Bobbies: Police Authority in New York and London, 1830-1870 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1973), p. 112. See also Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 50.
50. Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 43, and Phillip Thurmond Smith, Policing Victorian London: Political Policing, Public Order, and the London Metropolitan Police (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1985).
51. Petrow, Policing Morals, p. 43, and Phillip Thurmond Smith, Policing Victorian London: Political Policing, Public Order, and the London Metropolitan Police (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1985).
52. Public Records Office: Home Office (PROHO) 63/23, Home Office: Annual Police Returns: 1858-1870.
53. As a way to circumvent this shortcoming, many male prostitutes were charged with mis-demeanour offences under the vagrancy laws. Among the many authors to discuss the 'lack of repugnance' to homosexual acts in 'less advanced civilization' was Havelock Ellis. Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. 2 (Random House, New York, 1910), p. 21.
54. James Curran and Jean Seaton, Power Without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain (Fontana, London, 1981), pp. 7-9.
55. DPP4/6, vol. 1, pp. 42-3.
56. Police had recently moved against female prostitutes encroaching on Hyde Park in the daylight and weekend hours (see Pall Mall Gazette, 16 April 1869). See also Chesney, Victorian Underworld, p. 319.
57. Police had recently moved against female prostitutes encroaching on Hyde Park in the daylight and weekend hours (see Pall Mall Gazette, 16 April 1869). See also Chesney, Victorian Underworld, p. 319.
58. Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and, Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980), pp. 7-8.
59. For example, The Times reported that 'Boulton wore a cherry-coloured evening silk dress trimmed with white lace; his arms were bare, and he had on bracelets. He wore a wig and plaited chignon. Park's costume consisted of a dark green satin dress, low necked, trimmed with black lace, of which material he also had a shawl round his shoulders. His hair was flaxen and in curls. He had on a pair of white kid gloves' (The Times, 30 April 1870, p. 11).
60. KB6/3, pp. 5-6. The meaning of this letter to the prosecution becomes evident in the newspaper reporting, as the debate between the defence, the prosecution, and the magistrate over whether or not it should be read aloud in the courtroom was not preserved in the arraignment depositions (see The Times, 16 May 1870, p. 13)
61. KB6/3, pp. 5-6. The meaning of this letter to the prosecution becomes evident in the newspaper reporting, as the debate between the defence, the prosecution, and the magistrate over whether or not it should be read aloud in the courtroom was not preserved in the arraignment depositions (see The Times, 16 May 1870, p. 13)
62. 50. The Times, 30 May 1870, p. 13. This individual was Amos Westrop Gibbons, who testified that he had publicly cross-dressed numerous times for stage performances and charity events. He described a private party he had thrown for cross-dressing men and their admirers, and confirmed that he often threw such parties. That he was at least aware of what might be implied by male cross-dressing was indicated when he stated that women had been invited to his most recent bal masqué so that no one would become suspicious of the event. Gibbons was not called as a witness at the trial and his testimony was not referenced.
63. The Times, 30 May 1870, p. 13.
64. This other new evidence included a number of letters taken from the 13 Wakefield Street rooms where Boulton, Park, and other men involved in the case, stored their women's clothes.
65. A. K. Keith, The Constitution of England From Queen Victoria to George VI (Macmillan, London, 1940), p. 329.
66. The Examiner noted that 'Inquiries of a like nature are not unheard of in Criminal Courts, but they are conducted almost in secrecy and without drawing public attention or exciting public interest' (Examiner, 20 May 1870, p. 504).
67. Examiner, 20 May 1871, p. 504.
68. The Times, 16 May 1870, p. 13.
69. James Thomas Paul testified on the medical proof of sodomy (see KB6/3, pp. 78-88). Francis Kegan Cox spoke of the relationship between Boulton and Clinton (KB6/3, pp. 88-93). Marie Cavendish and Agnes Earl gave evidence on the bals masqués (KB6/3, pp. 93-8).
70. James Thomas Paul testified on the medical proof of sodomy (see KB6/3, pp. 78-88). Francis Kegan Cox spoke of the relationship between Boulton and Clinton (KB6/3, pp. 88-93). Marie Cavendish and Agnes Earl gave evidence on the bals masqués (KB6/3, pp. 93-8).
71. James Thomas Paul testified on the medical proof of sodomy (see KB6/3, pp. 78-88). Francis Kegan Cox spoke of the relationship between Boulton and Clinton (KB6/3, pp. 88-93). Marie Cavendish and Agnes Earl gave evidence on the bals masqués (KB6/3, pp. 93-8).
72. The Times, 21 May 1870, p. 11.
73. The Times, 16 May 1871, p. 9.
74. The Times, 31 May 1870, p. 11. Another editorialist expressed even deeper anxiety when he wrote that 'in another year or two "drag" might have become quite an institution, and open carriages might have displayed their disguised occupants without suspicion'
75. (The Times, 31 May 1870, p. 9).
76. The Times 31 May 1870, p. 11.
77. The editorialist was commenting on an earlier piece in The Times that had expressed a similar sentiment. (Pall Mall Gazette, 31 May 1870, p. 5).
78. For this observation, and for the most eloquent reminder to see the lives of Boulton and Park as separate from the scandal in which they have been preserved, I am most indebted to Neil Bartlett's Who Was that Man'?, pp. 131-5.
79. In the course of the arraignment and the trial almost everyone who was asked stated that they had heard or read about the case before appearing in court. In his opening statement at the trial, the Attorney-General remarked, 'gentlemen, the revelations in the police court, which it would be mere affectation to suppose you are entirely ignorant of …' (DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 2). In an unrelated story appearing in the Pall Mall Gazette, the Boulton and Park case was referred to as a metaphor for another 'sensational and disgusting case' (Pall Mall Gazette, 12 May 1871, p. 4). At least one popular limerick and one nineteenth-century pornographic novel, written ten years later, were loosely based on the events of the trial.
80. In the course of the arraignment and the trial almost everyone who was asked stated that they had heard or read about the case before appearing in court. In his opening statement at the trial, the Attorney-General remarked, 'gentlemen, the revelations in the police court, which it would be mere affectation to suppose you are entirely ignorant of …' (DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 2). In an unrelated story appearing in the Pall Mall Gazette, the Boulton and Park case was referred to as a metaphor for another 'sensational and disgusting case' (Pall Mall Gazette, 12 May 1871, p. 4). At least one popular limerick and one nineteenth-century pornographic novel, written ten years later, were loosely based on the events of the trial.
81. Of the witnesses who, at the arraignment, had spoken about the drag balls in and around London none was present at the trial. These individuals were Amos Westrop Gibbons and Edward Nelson Haxel for the defence, and Maria Cavendish and Agnes Earl for the prosecution. No mention was made of these events at the trial. Also, witnesses speaking to Boulton's and Park's appearances at the theatres and shopping arcades were not lead to speculate about the total number of cross-dressers they had seen. Witnesses testifying to the events of the Burlington Arcade were for the most part discredited due to contradictions between their trial and arraignment testimony and also by accusations of bribery.
82. The medical testimony occupied most of the fourth day of the proceedings. In his closing remarks the Attorney-General admitted that because of their contradictory statements he did not expect the jury to base their decision on the conclusions of the physicians. (DPP4/6, vol. 6, p. 35).
83. Most significantly in relation to the events occurring in Edinburgh, from the time when Boulton visited Louis Charles Hurt and John Stafford Fiske in early 1870. Hurt and Fiske were added as defendants in the 1871 trial, along with Boulton and Park, but no significant new evidence pertaining to them was presented.
84. The Times, 16 May 1871, p. 11.
85. At the trial, the actions of Boulton and Park were continually referred to as childish behaviour, rather than feminine. This is consonant with Eve Sedgwick's observation that the bourgeois tended to equate the homosexual acts within their class with immaturity, implying that such behaviour could be outgrown. By contrast, the bourgeois classified aristocratic homosexuality as feminine, implying a permanent state. See Eve Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosexual Desire (Columbia University Press, New York, 1985), p. 5.
86. The Times, 7 June 1871, p. 10.
87. The Times, 16 May 1871, p. 9.
88. Examiner, 20 May 1871, p. 505.
89. The Secretary of State for the Home Department, or Home Secretary, made the request. (DPP4/6, vol. 1, p. 2).
90. Edwards, Law Offices of the Crown, p. 5.
91. The Times, 12 July 1870, p. 11.
92. Edwards, Law Offices of the Crown, p. 7. Once a grand jury had issued a bill of indictment for a felony trial, only the Attorney-General through the power of nolle prosequi could prevent that case from coming to court. Other special rights of the Attorney-General were: Ex Officio, the right to bring an individual to trial without going through the process of an indictment or presentment; the right to choose the court where he would argue any civil or criminal case; the right to demand a trial at bar, the right to the last word in any court case; the status of head of the English Bar, and an automatic knighthood for his service. (Edwards, Law Offices of the Crown, pp. 263-82)
93. Edwards, Law Offices of the Crown, p. 7. Once a grand jury had issued a bill of indictment for a felony trial, only the Attorney-General through the power of nolle prosequi could prevent that case from coming to court. Other special rights of the Attorney-General were: Ex Officio, the right to bring an individual to trial without going through the process of an indictment or presentment; the right to choose the court where he would argue any civil or criminal case; the right to demand a trial at bar, the right to the last word in any court case; the status of head of the English Bar, and an automatic knighthood for his service. (Edwards, Law Offices of the Crown, pp. 263-82)
94. Examiner, 20 May 1875, p. 504, and The Times, 16 May 1871, p. 11.
95. Examiner, 20 May 1875, p. 504, and The Times, 16 May 1871, p. 11.
96. The Times, 2 February 1871, p. 11.
97. DPP4/6, vol. 6, p. 126. The importance of this statement is underscored by the fact that it was widely quoted in the otherwise abbreviated 1871 trial coverage.
98. Pall Mall Gazette, 8 May 1871, p. 8.
99. Examiner, 9 May 1871; Examiner quoted in the Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1871, p. 4.
100. Examiner, 9 May 1871; Examiner quoted in the Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1871, p. 4.
101. Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1871, p. 4.
102. The Pall Mall Gazette remarked that 'at every assizes cases involving more or less indecency are tried and disposed of without the public being any the worse for it. Three lines of report are found enough to state that a man was arraigned on such and such charge and sentenced to penal servitude for life' (Pall Mall Gazette, 31 May 1870, p. 5).
103. Other publications, such as Punch and the Illustrated London News, made no mention of the arraignment or the trial.
104. Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1871, p. 2.
105. The arraignment was held at the Bow Street police court. (Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1871, p. 2). It should be noted that the Pall Mall Gazette, in its abbreviated coverage, also noted that 'The evidence offered on the part of the Crown was upon the whole a reproduction of that before the police magistrate' (Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1871, p. 9).
106. The arraignment was held at the Bow Street police court. (Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1871, p. 2). It should be noted that the Pall Mall Gazette, in its abbreviated coverage, also noted that 'The evidence offered on the part of the Crown was upon the whole a reproduction of that before the police magistrate' (Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1871, p. 9).
107. The Gladstone Diaries note six meetings between J. T. Delane, editor of The Times, and Gladstone during his first parliamentary administration, one of which occurred on 19 July 1870. The timing of this meeting coincides with the shift in The Times coverage from favouring the prosecution to strongly supporting the defence, to the point of misrepresentation in some aspects of its 1871 trial reporting. See M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G. Matthew (eds), The Gladstone Diaries with Cabinet Minutes and Prime-Ministerial Correspondence (14 vols, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1968-94), vol. VII, January 1869-June 1871, ed. H. C. G. Matthew (1982), p. 101. The Examiner also referred to The Times in this period as 'the self deputed or self constituted organ and champion-and-chief of the Government of the day' (Examiner, 13 May 1871)
108. The Gladstone Diaries note six meetings between J. T. Delane, editor of The Times, and Gladstone during his first parliamentary administration, one of which occurred on 19 July 1870. The timing of this meeting coincides with the shift in The Times coverage from favouring the prosecution to strongly supporting the defence, to the point of misrepresentation in some aspects of its 1871 trial reporting. See M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G. Matthew (eds), The Gladstone Diaries with Cabinet Minutes and Prime-Ministerial Correspondence (14 vols, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1968-94), vol. VII, January 1869-June 1871, ed. H. C. G. Matthew (1982), p. 101. The Examiner also referred to The Times in this period as 'the self deputed or self constituted organ and champion-and-chief of the Government of the day' (Examiner, 13 May 1871)
109. DPP4/6, vol. 2, pp. 84-92.
110. Three other letters were also extensively quoted on 11 May 1871, but they pertained to Hurt's and Fiske's debate over whether or not to turn themselves in to the authorities while the 1870 arraignment was already under way and did not relate to the issues of the case. (The Times, 11 May 1871, p. 11).
111. The Times, 12 May 1871, p. 11.
112. The choice of this letter by The Times is intriguing, since it could also be interpreted as indicating that men accused of sodomy could marry well within the middle class and still be able to 'do pretty much as [they] pleased', which would seem to make the firm distinction between the respectable middle-class man and the sodomite more problematic rather than less.
113. Sarah Boulton stated in court that she would show off Ernest's talents to her friends and family. On one occasion some years before, she had fooled her own mother by having Ernest dress as a serving girl and wait on them both during a visit. Sarah's mother was unable to recognise her grandson until told of his identity. (Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper, 21 May 1871, p. 10).
114. From the testimony and cross-examination of Mary Anne Sarah Boulton. DPP4/6, vol. 4, pp. 1-54.