I listened to this gripping and appalling "Book of the Week" on Radio 4.
The only judge who comes out of this with any credit was the magistrate, Hensleigh Wedgwood, who had committed the three men to trial (he had no option under the law), who subsequently wrote to the Home Secretary, Lord John Russell, arguing for the commutation of the death sentences, stating:
"It is the only crime where there is no injury done to any individual and in consequence it requires a very small expense to commit it in so private a manner and to take such precautions as shall render conviction impossible. It is also the only capital crime that is committed by rich men but owing to the circumstances I have mentioned they are never convicted."
Although Wedgwood was a deeply religious man he did not concur with the then prevailing view of society that sodomy committed between humans should be a capital offence.
"It is the only crime where there is no injury done to any individual and in consequence it requires a very small expense to commit it in so private a manner and to take such precautions as shall render conviction impossible. It is also the only capital crime that is committed by rich men but owing to the circumstances I have mentioned they are never convicted."
Although Wedgwood was a deeply religious man he did not concur with the then prevailing view of society that sodomy committed between humans should be a capital offence.
James and John: Book of the Week
Read by Simon Russell Beale. Historian and MP Chris Bryant’s book takes us to the early 19th Century, when despite great political and social change and reform, British attitudes to homosexuality were more antagonistic than ever, and in 1835 two consenting adults, James Pratt and John Smith, became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy. They were working class men whose poverty and lack of privacy led directly to their discovery and arrest and, despite a desperate campaign to save them, resulted in one of the great legal injustices of the time.
Episode 1 - The Move to London
Simon Russell Beale reads historian and MP Chris Bryant’s story of James Pratt and John Smith, two consenting adults who became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy
Episode 2 - An Assignation
Today, amidst pervasive antipathy towards homosexuality, James and John meet.
Episode 3 - The Offence
It’s 1835, and, trapped by poverty and lack of privacy, James Pratt and John Smith have borrowed a rented room and risked everything.
Episode 4 - The Trial
The moment they were caught together James Pratt and John Smith’s lives changed. They were immediately arrested, and now, in Newgate, the bleakest of prisons, they await trial.
Episode 5 - The Final Pleas
There was little chance of reprieve, but one last desperate hope remained. James's wife, Elizabeth, began collecting names for a petition, in the hope of appealing to the King.
Read by Simon Russell Beale. Historian and MP Chris Bryant’s book takes us to the early 19th Century, when despite great political and social change and reform, British attitudes to homosexuality were more antagonistic than ever, and in 1835 two consenting adults, James Pratt and John Smith, became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy. They were working class men whose poverty and lack of privacy led directly to their discovery and arrest and, despite a desperate campaign to save them, resulted in one of the great legal injustices of the time.
Episode 1 - The Move to London
Simon Russell Beale reads historian and MP Chris Bryant’s story of James Pratt and John Smith, two consenting adults who became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy
Episode 2 - An Assignation
Today, amidst pervasive antipathy towards homosexuality, James and John meet.
Episode 3 - The Offence
It’s 1835, and, trapped by poverty and lack of privacy, James Pratt and John Smith have borrowed a rented room and risked everything.
Episode 4 - The Trial
The moment they were caught together James Pratt and John Smith’s lives changed. They were immediately arrested, and now, in Newgate, the bleakest of prisons, they await trial.
Episode 5 - The Final Pleas
There was little chance of reprieve, but one last desperate hope remained. James's wife, Elizabeth, began collecting names for a petition, in the hope of appealing to the King.
From award-winning historian and Sunday Times bestselling author Chris Bryant MP, James and John tells the story of what it meant to be gay in early 19th-century Britain through the lens of a landmark trial.
They had nothing to expect from the mercy of the crown; their doom was sealed; no plea could be urged in extenuation of their crime, and they well knew that for them there was no hope in this world.
When Charles Dickens wrote these tragic lines he was penning fact, not fiction. He had visited the condemned cells at the infamous prison at Newgate, where seventeen men who had been sentenced to death were awaiting news of their pleas for mercy. Two men stood out: James Pratt and John Smith, who had been convicted of homosexuality. Theirs was 'an unnatural offence', a crime so unmentionable it was never named. That was why they alone despaired and, as the turnkey told Dickens, why they alone were 'dead men'.
They had nothing to expect from the mercy of the crown; their doom was sealed; no plea could be urged in extenuation of their crime, and they well knew that for them there was no hope in this world.
When Charles Dickens wrote these tragic lines he was penning fact, not fiction. He had visited the condemned cells at the infamous prison at Newgate, where seventeen men who had been sentenced to death were awaiting news of their pleas for mercy. Two men stood out: James Pratt and John Smith, who had been convicted of homosexuality. Theirs was 'an unnatural offence', a crime so unmentionable it was never named. That was why they alone despaired and, as the turnkey told Dickens, why they alone were 'dead men'.
The 1830s ushered in great change in Britain. In a few short years the government swept away slavery, rotten boroughs, child labour, bribery and corruption in elections, the ban on trades unions and civil marriage. They also curtailed the 'bloody code' that treated 200 petty crimes as capital offences. Some thought the death penalty itself was wrong. There had not been a hanging at Newgate for two years; hundreds were reprieved. Yet when the King met with his 'hanging' Cabinet, they decided to reprieve all bar James and John. When the two men were led to the gallows, the crowd hissed and shouted.
In this masterful work of history, Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history – but whose story has been lost, until now.
In this masterful work of history, Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history – but whose story has been lost, until now.
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