Regarding Pratt and Smith, the last couple of sodomites to be hanged in Britain’

Janes, Dominic

Abstract

The law in Georgian England was not always effective in preventing forms of public awareness of same-sex relationships that included elements of sympathy on the part of observers. I will argue that the move during the nineteenth century away from hanging and the pillory toward penal incarceration can be understood in relation to official attitudes to the public visibility of those found guilty of “unnatural offences.” Changing modes of punishment can be seen as part of an attempt to restrict popular awareness of same-sex desire as a matter of the emotions as well as of the genitals, of couples as well as coupling. Because English law has long been intent on criminalizing sodomitical acts it has been slow to address homosexual persons. One of the significant effects of this was to focus attention on the image of two individuals committing a sexual offence with each other, rather than on them as a couple. To take one example, this is what appears in a print which may be by Isaac Robert Cruikshank; “The arse bishop Josilin g [sic] a soldier-or-do as I say not as I do,” which was published in London in July 1822 (see Figure 4.1)....

Citation

Janes, D. Regarding Pratt and Smith, the last couple of sodomites to be hanged in Britain’. In From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International Perspectives since 1789 (43–57). (1). Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350023932.ch-004

• Online Publication Date: Jul 26, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 8, 2023
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Pages: 43–57
• Edition: 1
• Book Title: From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International Perspectives since 1789
• ISBN: 9781350023925; 9781350023901; 9781350023918; 9781350023932
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350023932.ch-004
• Publisher URL: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph-detail?docid=b-9781350023932&pdfid=9781350023932.ch-004.pdf&tocid=b-9781350023932-chapter4
• Related Public URLs: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350023932
• Additional Information: ‘Regarding Pratt and Smith, the last couple of sodomites to be hanged in Britain’, in eds Sean Brady and Mark Seymour, From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International Perspectives since 1789 (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), pp. 43-56 [ISBN 9781350023925].