The kiss of death and cabal of dons: Blackmail and grooming in georgian Oxford

Journal of Historical Sociology

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 368-396

  Rousseau, George ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 57649242694     PISSN: 09521909     EISSN: 14676443     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2008.00342.x     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. Netta Goldsmith, The Worst of Crimes: Homosexuality and the Law in Eighteenth Century London (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), p. 195.
2. Ibid, p. 196.
3. Angus McLaren, Sexual Blackmail: A Modern History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 20.
4. Goldsmith (n. 1), chap. 4.
5. Henry Fielding, An Enquiry into the causes of the late increase of robbers . . . (London, 1751). Walpole's trial was heard on 5 July 1751 in the King's Bench just as the Oxford case broke; see Goldsmith (n. 1), passim
6. and Randolph Trumbach, Sodomy Trials: Seven Documents (New York: Garland), 1986).
7. It is a difficult matter to substantiate but the court cases confirm it; see Goldsmith (n. 1), McLaren (n. 3), Randolph Trumbach, "Blackmail for Sodomy in 18th-century London," Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 33.1 (2007): 23-39,
8. and George Rousseau (ed.), Children and Sexuality: The Greeks to the Great War (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), passim.
9. The point is Goldsmith's (n. 1), p. 92.
10. A sensational exception has been studied by W. G. Naphy and occurred in Calvinist Geneva during the Reformation: see William G. Naphy, "Under-Age Sexual Activity in Reformation Geneva," in Rousseau (n. 6), pp. 108-140.
11. See W. R. Ward, Georgian Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), p. 187 and Note N, p. 282.
12. A large primary literature exists in 1750-52 accusing the universities of having become hotbeds of masturbation and homosexual debauchery. For example, the anonymous author of Free Thoughts on University Education (London, 1750) comments on p. 22 that Oxford and Cambridge need to be rescued "from the supine Indolence, which terminates in Degeneracy and Sensuality."
13. See Philip Carter, "Mollies, Fops and Men of Feeling: aspects of male effeminacy and masculinity in Britain, c. 1700-1780," D. Phil. Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995.
14. See Kent Gerard and Gert Hekma (eds.), The Pursuit of Sodomy: Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe (New York: Haworth Press, 1989), pp. 207-310.
15. For the sexual implications of these developments see Randolph Trumbach, Sex and the Gender Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
16. Dudley Ryder and William Matthews, The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (London: Methuen, 1939), entry for 1 December 1, 1715, p. 143.
17. John Pointer, the Chaplain at Merton College, had long been suspected of sodomitical inclinations but when accusations were made in 1732 the Warden, to his credit, stood behind him without pressing charges. Thomas Herne, the controversialist, supported Ryder's view and complained that sodomy is so now so common in England that it is no longer "looked upon by many as a sin;" cited in Midgley (n. 52), p. 88.
18. The fullest account is by Rousseau (n. 6), chap. 5, pp. 142-71.
19. Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxoniensis 1715-1886, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1888).
20. Ibid, entry under "Charles Slingsby Duncombe."
21. See note 22 below.
22. Selwyn grew up to become one of the "Medmenham Monks", a clandestine libertine club performing exotic rites in private, which lent credibility to the charge that their rites included sodomy. Olim (n. 22) further claimed that Thomas Thache, a fellow at Corpus Christi College, was expelled for committing sodomitical acts in the 1740s. Corpus archivist Julian Reid confirms that his name suddenly disappears from all college minutes in February 1751.
23. See Smollett's nearly libelous satires Advice (1746) and Reproof (1747).
24. For the case's full details see Goldsmith (n. 1), pp. 92-195.
25. See James Raven, The Business of Books: booksellers and the English book trade, 1450-1850 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 130-56.
26. The court case held over the publication in 1748-49 of John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure make evident that the courts aimed to crack down on printers as one means of stemming this tide. See David Foxon, Libertine literature in England, 1660-1745: with an appendix on the publication of John Cleland's Memoirs of a woman of pleasure, commonly called Fanny Hill (London: The Book Collector, 1964).
27. Three primary sources enable its reconstruction: George Wilmot, A serious inquiry into some late proceedings in vindication of the honour, credit, and reputation of the University of Ox-d, relative to an offence of a certain member of the same [W. Lewis] (Oxford: Goddard, 1751);
28. William Lewis, An Answer [by W. Lewis] to the Serious inquiry into some proceedings relating to the university of Ox - d [by G.Wilmot] (Oxford, 1751);
29. Anonymous, A letter to M.D. [William Lewis], occasioned by his Answer to the serious inquiry heretofore of [Christ Church] college in the University of O-d [signed Olim Oxoniensis] (London, 1752). These are referred to from here forward as Wilmot (1751), Lewis (1751), and Olim (1752). The Bodleian Library in Oxford contains multiple copies of all three, for some of the works as many as a dozen copies, especially in its Gough Collection of Pamphlets (referred to as Gough). Some copies contain marginalia that has been taken into account where appropriate. Gough 127 is the most useful for my purpose because it contains plentiful annotations and marginalia. Oxford college archives have also been crucial and I am indebted to the following archivists and scholars for making their collections and knowledge available to me: Judith Curthoys (Christ Church College); Robin Darwall-Smith (Magdalen College); Julian Reid (Corpus Christi College); Anna Sander (Balliol College); Dr Katherine Watson combed the Oxfordshire Record Office (henceforth ORO) to make certain nothing had been over-looked in their criminal files; genealogist Dr. Geoffrey Mann, an expert on the Rouse family genealogy, reconstructed William Rouse's life so far as possible; classicist Alfonso Moreno, Magdalen College Oxford, verified the Latin translations.
30. See the New Dictionary of National Biography (2006), entry under "William Lewis". The two Lewises continue to be confused to the present time, the dates of one often given for the other.
31. A year earlier J. Pointer Merton had commented in this way on the cavernous chapels; see his Oxoniensis Academia: or, the Antiquities and Curiosities of the University of Oxford (London, 1749), p. 123.
32. At nineteen Rouse left Magdalen, possibly to marry; if he did marry he would have had to depart. Then, sometime in 1758, he shipped out "on the Good Ship Walpole", perhaps having been indentured, and made a Will (PROB 11/842). The ship carried emigrants to North America where William was probably headed. I owe this information to Dr. Geoffrey Mann, the most expert student of the Rouse family in Oxfordshire I have found.
33. See notes 42 and 51 below.
34. Lewis (1751), p. 4. By "trick" he means the covert way the ladies disguised their advertising sheets. Prostitutes of the time, especially from nearby Abingdon, routinely preyed on Oxford's bachelor dons but the topic has been too impolite to discuss historically and, furthermore, lacks documentation.
35. William Cowper (1666-1709), The anatomy of humane bodies with figures drawn after the [sic] life by some of the best masters in Europe (Oxford and London, 1698). Cowper was the most distinguished anatomical illustrator of the human body of his generation. His images set out in oversized quarto volumes included display of the reproductive organs and were frequently reprinted in the first half of the eighteenth century. Govard Bidloo (1649-1713), King William III's personal physician, was Holland's leading anatomical illustrator; he accused Cowper of plagiarizing his drawings and publishing them, hence their identification in the Wellcome Library plates shown here as "by Bidloo". Lewis (1751) does not indicate whether the book was already open to these two plates or whether Rouse browsed through the book and fixated himself on them.
36. See Lewis (1751), p. 4.
37. Matins were sung so early in the morning that it is impossible to think Rouse commuted home to faraway Bicester on a horse; for long months he would not have seen his parents unless they came to Oxford.
38. Urinating in public by males was common practice in the eighteenth century even if it was later outlawed in Victorian England; legally it was considered a misdemeanor but was almost never enforced except among sodomites, another double standard of the epoch.
39. Lewis denied Rouse's version described in Lewis (1751), p. 8: "pudendum, & c. dicto W. R. palam exhibuerat [WR said he exposed his penis and genitals]; And again, that he bribed, sooth'd, hug'd, fondled with, treated, cajoled the Boy ..." Indecent exposure in public in 1750 was legally construed as misdemeanor and usually could not be tried as a felony; it could in the case of sodomites because all sodomitical behavior, whether in public or private, was considered criminal and, if proved, severely punishable.
40. Rouse probably did not return home to his parents: they were workers who knew little about such matters; even though these July dates fell outside term time they would have been incapable of helping their son much. Teachers and adult staff members were more likely to have advised him.
41. Lewis (1751), p. 8. Causa meiendi literally means "for the purpose of urinating", from the Latin verb meio.
42. Ibid, p. 8.
43. Males who kissed other males in Georgian England were considered mollies or sodomites; see Satan's Harvest Home (n. 79), p. 45-48,
44. chapter on kissing; but adult males often kissed adolescent boys for congratulation or salutation without anyone making much of it. For its cultural resonances then see Karen Harvey, The Kiss in History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005).
45. A forty year-old man is unlikely to have had a weak bladder leading to incontinence; if Lewis told the truth the likelier cause is the sudden urge to urinate without worrying about public offense, but this stretches his credibility to the limit. Yet an important part of the case rested on this comically pathetic detail.
46. This point is not inconsequential: in another case a century later involving children and the Magdalen Fellow John Addington Symonds, President Bulley kept private handwritten notes locked in his rooms that do not survive. While reconstructing the case I found allusions to them but not the manuscripts themselves; see Rousseau (n. 6), p. 195, n. 20.
47. Lewis (1751), pp. 28-29.
48. A limited search in the archives suggests they are not extant.
49. This document is not among the collections in the ORO and probably no longer exists; it was not written by Rouse but by those advising him.
50. Lewis was paid only three shillings and four pence for the first three weeks of Trinity Term 1751 rather than the usual thirteen shillings; see Christ Church Disbursement Books 1746-51, Christ Church Archives. Therefore he must have resigned only three weeks into the term and left the college by May.
51. Due process then existed in some but not all Oxford colleges, and at Christ Church the mechanism seems to have been less than perfect.
52. The President was Thomas Jenner, a lackluster head of house: the most famous event of his Presidency was that Edward Gibbon came up during this time. Jenner's papers do not survive, if there were any, and the College minutes at this time are summary. The Informator Choristarum, who conducts the choir and has pastoral charge of its singers, was William Hayes, a much more dynamic figure than Jenner but he seems not to have become involved in Rouse's affair. See also n. 25 for Rouse after Magdalen.
53. Wilmot came from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire and resigned in November 1747, three years before the Lewis case, according to Balliol's Archivist, Anna Sander. No record of a marriage has been found despite a considerable search.
54. Lewis (1751), p. vi.
55. Wilmot (1751), p. 25. Wilmofs treatise is described in n. 22.
56. Nothing further is known and the archives shed no light. Balliol's archivist confirms that his name disappears from the records after his resignation in 1747.
57. Wilmot (1751).
58. Wilmot (1751), pp. 24-25. This was the document allegedly sent to the Vice Chancellor and prepared by those assisting Rouse to make his formal grievance. It is not the deposition Rouse or his supporters, filed in court, if they did file anything. That deposition, if it ever existed, has disappeared and is not in the ORO. As this so-called "document" would have contained important evidence deciding Lewis's culpability it must be perfectly clear what exactly it was. It was not written by Rouse or dictated by him. It was not verified by interrogating Lewis or taking into account his version of the incidents. It was never filed in any count of law. It has never been cited anywhere except in Wilmot's highly partial tract. If it was deposited in any university archive after 1751 it has since disappeared.
59. Lewis (1751), p. 29.
60. The manuscript Minute Books in Christ Church merely state that he is no longer being paid; see vol. for 1750-51.
61. Wilmot (1751) asserts (p. 22) that it had in the three cases mentioned above in notes 16-18 dealing with Thistlethwayte, Selwyn and Duncombe, but University archives do not support his contention and it may be that knowledge available to Wilmot has disappeared.
62. Lewis maintained that they were not parallel cases (Lewis, 1751, pp. 28-29). Historians of the University confirm Convocation's ambiguous pre-1750 past;
63. see L. S. Sutherland et al, The History of the University of Oxford: The Eighteenth Century, vol 6 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 200-21;
64. Graham Midgley, University Life in Eighteenth-Century Oxford (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 88-90.
65. Robin Darwall-Smith, A History of University College Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 266-67, 273-74;
66. see also Foster (n. 15), entry for Browne. I am indebted to Dr. Darwall-Smith, Archivist of Magdalen College Oxford, for presenting me with the materials about Denison's cause, which reeked such havoc and shed so much light on Wilmot's ulterior motives. Denison was near the heart of the cabal against Browne.
67. He may have retreated to a country curacy.
68. I have found no libraries where it is attributed to anyone else.
69. Lewis (1751), p. 3. Who else can have known which two plates in Cowper were lying open on his table?
70. Ibid, p. vii.
71. The copy of Lewis 1751 in Gough 129 in the Bodleian Library contains marginalia supporting these assertions, while Gough 108 instructs librarians "to catalogue [the book] under Lewis (Wm) MD".
72. Lewis (1751), p. 7.
73. Ibid, p. iv. The subsequent citations in this paragraph are from the same page.
74. This point is slippery: Lewis links them, as if his lifelong love of choral music would extend to the choristers producing it and exonerate him. Was he deluded? One does not know but wonders whether it was then understood that habitués of the choir colleges' Evensong, where the boys sang, were somehow "outing" themselves there.
75. Lewis (1751), p. v.
76. Ibid, p. 42.
77. Ibid, pp. 2-3.
78. Ibid, p. 11. This was Rouse's handwritten account.
79. Ibid, p. 24-25.
80. Ibid, p. 44.
81. Ibid, p. 39 for this and the next passage. Lewis's date and place of death remains unknown.
82. No author has ever been suggested nor can I hazard a guess. Several copies in the Bodleian and British Library contain marginalia.
83. I have not identified the newspaper source but Wilmot slipped this clipping into his treatise (Wilmot, 1751, p. 1) where it remains in Gough 127. Jackson's Oxford Journal, a weekly newspaper providing all sorts of university news, began to circulate both in Oxford and London in 1753, too late to be of use here. A systematic search for residue of these cases in its pages of the later 1750s might repay the effort.
84. Olim (1752), p. 15.
85. Ibid, 6.
86. An unusual example of the usage of paiderastta in eighteenth-century texts: the concept was then alive but rarely denoted by this Greek word literally meaning "education into the ways of Eros".
87. Olim (1752), pp. 10-11.
88. Ibid, p. 9.
89. This detail continues to be one of the most salient of Lewis's case. Adult males who had been apprehended for sodomitical acts in public routinely pleaded to have done nothing more than urinate but their alibis did not hold up in court; with children the matter was less straightforward and no cases exist from which to speculate about trends. Lewis's case is the only one I know involving an academic don who admits to having urinated in the presence of an adolescent boy.
90. Olim (1752), p. 13.
91. Ibid, p. 15.
92. It was published privately and sold all over England, from Yorkshire to Exeter.
93. This is what happened in the next three generations in Oxford; see Rousseau (n. 6), pp. 155-60.
94. See John McManners, All Souis and the Shipley Case (1808-1810) (Oxford: All Souls College, 2002);
95. Rousseau (n. 6), pp. 154-55.
96. Goldsmith (n. 1), p. 195.
97. The cases are reconstructed in Rousseau (n. 6), chap 6-7.
98. Robert Bernstein, "Guilty if Charged," New York Review of Books, 13 January 1994.