There Was No Hope in this World

  James Pratt and John Smith -executed at Newgate 1835 for  Sodomy

"their doom was sealed... they well knew that for them, there was no hope in this world."- Charles Dickens

       

   On 20th October 2019 I went to see local folk band Bird in the Belly perform live at The Ropetackle Centre,  Shoreham by Sea. The group were celebrating the release of their second album 'Neighbours and Sisters'. And this was the first time I heard their track '45 George Street'. Bird in the Belly are certainly very accomplished and admired in their field. Part of their appeal is that they track down little known songs or construct their own tracks, based on lesser known scenes from 'People's History', anything from beekeeping through to highwaymen. 

'45 George Street' is not typical of the band's music and concerns the wretched plight of James Pratt (30) and John Smith (40), the last two men to be hanged in Britain after being found guilty of committing an act of 'Sodomy', They were executed outside Newgate prison on 27th November 1835. A young Charles Dickens, described by his biographer Christopher Hibbert  as being "obsessed with prisons, prisoners, and imprisonment", visited Newgate a few days beforehand. James and John were amongst the prisoners he met. Dickens impressions are featured in 'Sketches by Boz',-a collection of his journalism- though the men are not named as such. Dickens detailed their plight with some compassion, and abstained from any moral judgement. There is no evidence to suggest that Dickens attended their execution, though witnessed other public hangings .*

To outline the case...William Bonhill (68) lodged at 45 George Street,Deptford, By all accounts, William let male friends use his room. This seemed to provoke the landlords George and Jane Berkshire. Assumed to be a married couple, perhaps brother and sister. John initially went up to William's room, which meant trooping through the shop that the Berkshires ran.  James then joined him.William stayed out drinking. This came to the attention of the Berkshires. George claimed to have gone up into to a neighbouring building to look into the window of William's room. He claimed that he saw John sitting on a chair and James sat on his lap. Jane and George took turns to look through the keyhole. Jane later maintained that James and John were having sexual intercourse on the floor.  George then burst into the room and the men ceased their activity. James and John were left in care of another tenant, George went to the police station William Bonhill  appeared at some point with a jug of ale. The men were arrested, William Bonhill was also apprehended for letting the men use the room . As we are to see the first two named were hanged, William was sentenced to 14 years transportation and died in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in New Norfolk Hospital, designed to treat the mentally ill, on 29th April 1841 NORTON/Last Men 

Ben Webb, from Bird in the Billy wrote some fine lyrics to '45 George Street'. Reproduced here with the kind permission of the band. 

"John and James at 45 George Street, 
Made love on the hard wooden floor 

And William's away to Van Diemen's Land

Because he played host to it all.

Did Johnny love James? And James love his Johnny?

Could you tell through the crack in the door? " 

"The grave will soon close over me, 

and my name entirely forgotten

But the ghost of our love 

Softly sleeps on George Street

Long after our bodies have rotten"

From looking at the Peter Tatchell Foundation website I learnt of a publication titled 'The Law To Take Its Course; The execution of James Pratt and John Smith 27th November 1835' by Father Frank Ryan OMI, which appeared to be a ' print on demand' book (2014).  Have not managed to trace Father Ryan to buy a copy  but have been able to read this work at the British Library. 

  And the charge of sodomy ? Well, the men plead 'not guilty' and if they were really committing a capital offence, wouldn't they be sharp enough to block the keyhole, wedge a chair against the door to stop it being opened? RYAN Could also be added  that once Mr Berkshire burst into the room and interrupted the men, he left one tenant to guard them whilst he fetched a police officer. If the two men had really been committing a capital offence, wouldn't they have just done a runner? 

Father Ryan also presents quite a complex argument to show that sodomy was never proven - by the law of the time, penetrative sex would have to be shown to have occurred. The men's clothes were examined for incriminating stains though of course the clothes of many Working Class people at the time would have revealed similar traces of bodily emissions simply due to the conditions they lived in. Both George and Jane Berkshire,when giving evidence, claimed to have seen one of the men with their trousers down and legs curled up and the other on top NORTON/trial , Jane claimed that they were moving but then of course we are back to the question of how much could Jane or George see when peering into the room. Also the questions put to both witnesses seemed to be very leading NORTON/trial.

The charge of Gross Indecency was not yet on the statute books, though attempted sodomy was a criminal offence and risked a two year sentence. Another possible charge was Indecent Assault though not clear if such an offence could occur between two consenting parties UPCHURCH.

There is immediately  the problem of applying the 21st century LGB labels to the 1830's. Would John Smith or James Pratt ( who was married with four children ) want to be pressed into the ranks of homosexual martyrs ? A petition for clemency was  organised for James Pratt, which  even the Berkshires signed. The magistrate who committed the men for trial wrote to the Home Secretary  Lord John Russell to request that the death sentences should be commuted. However King William IV would not agree.

John Smith allegedly wrote a letter from Newgate Prison dated November 25th 1835 in which he stated 

 The awful period is nearly arrived when the offended laws of my country demand the forfeit of my life for the crime I have committed – a crime the most heinous & disgraceful. What possessed me, I am at a loss to conceive, nor can I attribute it to any thing but the baneful effects of liquor and bad company, which must have rendered me void of every feeling of decency.NORTON/last men 

 It is disputed that John Smith was literate  RYAN. However Dickens' account suggests that the men were relatively isolated from the rest of the prisoners though had one cellmate with them so not clear who would write on his behalf. 

They were the only executions to take place at Newgate in 1835. And the last hanging there for someone convicted of 'Sodomy' was in 1823. Besides John Smith and James Pratt, thirteen men were hanged at Newgate for Sodomy between 1800-1835 Capital Punishment UK  It is also worth remembering that during this era individuals were hanged for murder, rape, highway robbery, but also for theft,robbing a post office, and forgery-sometimes called utterance CAPITAL PUNISHMENT UK  .Sodomy was seemingly the only victimless crime that warranted such a harsh sentence apart from returning from transportation before the sentence was completed. 

What is intriguing about the case is trying to work out why those in authority were so keen to treat the matter as a capital offence and not use any prerogative to commute their sentence. William IV commuted other  death sentences but refused to intervene -insisting that the Law should take its course.  RYAN .

In 21st century most people in Britain would (hopefully) adopt the libertarian approach and accept that the State should not intervene in consenting adult sexual relations let alone considering such behaviour warranting a public hanging. But what about 1835? The answer may lay in the charge that James and John faced-to take the indictment against John Smith   

....."feloniously, wickedly, diabolically, and against the order of nature, had a venereal affair with one James Pratt, and did then and there, feloniously, wickedly, diabolically, and agains the order of nature, carnally know the said James Pratt, and with him the said James Pratt did then and there feloniously, wickedly, diabolically, and against the order of nature, commit and perpetrate the detestale, horrid, and abominable crime (among Christians not to be named) called buggery" NORTON/trial

Somehow 'sodomy' or 'buggery' was poised as being against the order of nature and diabolical. Such principles were above all other concerns such as the right of individual conscience to make decision about consenting sexual activity. 

Yet James Pratt and John Smith were the last men to be executed for Sodomy, though it took until 1861 for the death sentence for such offences to be repealed. 

Sources 

45 George Street   Link to Bird in the Belly track on Bandcamp  

Capital Punishment UK website Newgate Executions 1800-1835 

'The Last Men Executed for Sodomy in England 1835  from 'Homosexuality in the Nineteenth Century A Source Book' , Edited Rictor Norton. 

The Trial of James and John Smith from 'Homosexuality in the Nineteenth Century A Source Book' , Edited Rictor Norton. 

'Before Wilde:Sex Between men in Britain's Age of Reform'  Charles Upchurch. 

'Charles Dickens-The Making of a Literary Giant' , Christopher Hibbert, 1967 

Pratt and Smith The Last Men Hanged in England for Gay Sex - Peter Tatchell Foundation web article. 

Dickens Pratt and Smith  Related webpage from the Charles Dickens Museum. 

Though pleased to find such a range of source material, any errors or schoolboy howlers in this piece are my responsibility alone, and should not reflect on the works that I have cited. 

Michael Bully 

Brighton, 

2nd February 2023

Another blog by Michael Bully 

A Burnt Ship 17th century War & Literature 

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