Societal attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over time and place, from expecting all males to engage in same-sex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing it under penalty of death. The following individuals received the death penalty for it.

Executed individuals

Belgium

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left"

|-

! Name !! Date !! Notes

|-

| John de Wettre || 8 September 1292 || A "maker of small knives" condemned at Ghent and burned at the pillory next to St. Peter's.

|-

|Unknown

|1307

|Woman, burned in Ghent.

|-

|Kalle van der Roemporten

|1364

|Elderly woman, burned in Ghent.

|-

|Jan van Aersdone

|-

|Lijsbette Pijlysers

| rowspan="5" |1374

| rowspan="5" |Women from Vrasene, burned in Ghent.

|-

|Pierre Poirer

|1334

|Burned in Dorche.

|-

|Isaach Salamó

|1403

|Jew, burned in Perpignan.

|-

|Gilles de Nevers

|1457

|"Host of the golden head", burned in Lille.

|-

|Two unknowns

|12 July 1459

|A man in his fifties and a young tambourine player, burned in Lille.

|-

|Eighteen unknowns

|24 December 1474

|Lombard soldiers, executed in Burgundy.

|-

|Jerome

| rowspan="2" |1506

| rowspan="2" |A bottlemaker and Jerome, burned in Strasbourg.

|-

|Unknown

|1535

|A woman from Fontaines who dressed as a man and married a maid of Foy; burned, case reported by Henri Estienne.

|-

| Dominique Phinot || 1556 || Composer of the Renaissance, executed in Lyon.

|-

|Unknown

|1557

|Pronotary of Montault, sentenced to be burned.

|-

|Ruffin "Defrozieres" Fortias

|22 December 1598

|Hanged and body burned in Issoudun. Sentenced by bailiwick on 28 November.

|-

|Unknown

|7 March 1654

|Italian priest accused of sodomy, one of three tortured prisoners. He, "having confessed by all rigorosity (sic) of his pains, was condemned to be first hanged, and afterwards burnt - a sentence carried out the next day" in Paris.

|-

|Emery Ange Dugaton

|-

|Antoine Bouquet

|26 August 1671

|Sentenced to burn alive.

|-

|Bernard Mocmanesse

|-

|Benjamin Deschauffours

|1726

|Procurer, burned on Place de Grève in Paris. Accused of killing a kidnapped boy.

|-

|Two unknowns

|1745

|Former associates of the bandit Raffiat, who was broken on the wheel in 1742. They were pierced in their tongues, hanged and burned; they were also charged with blasphemy.

|-

| Jean Diot || rowspan=2 | 6 July 1750 || rowspan=2 | Strangled and burned in Paris; last executions for sodomy in France.

|-

| Bruno Lenoir

|-

|Jean-Baptiste Marchal

|3 October 1757

|Parish priest of Ludres, condemned to be burned by the sovereign court of Lorraine; made an edifying speech to his parishioners speech before he was executed, and organized pilgrimages were made to the execution site afterwards.

|}

Germany

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left"

|-

! Name !! Date !! Notes

|-

|Heinrich Schreiber

|1378

|Convicted by a Munich civil court, probably executed.

|-

|Bernhard/Berlin Wagner

|-

|Michel Will

|-

|Franz von Alsten

|1536 or 1537

|Decapitated in Munster.

|-

|Hans Weber

|-

|Hans Wolff Marti

|11 March 1596

|Marti, a tradesman, citizen of Wehr, had committed sodomy in various places and times, including first with a bargeman at Ibss, with another partner at Brauningen, and with a peasant at Miltenburck. Beheaded with the sword "as a favour" before his body was burned.

|-

|Martin Schultze

|-

| Catharina Margaretha Linck || 1721 || Prussian cross-dressing lesbian executed for sodomy in Halberstadt; her execution was the last for lesbian sexual activity in Europe.

|-

|Ephraim Ostermann

|31 January 1729

|Baker, age 30. Arrested for two sexual acts with his apprentice, Martin Köhler, who allegedly died of "unnatural loss of semen". Admitted under torture to similar acts on 20 other men. Beheaded in Potsdam under the court of Friedrich Wilhelm I.

|}

After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the persecution of homosexuals in Germany became a priority of the Nazi police state. Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals; ten thousands of which were sentenced by courts. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and between 5,000 and 6,000 were imprisoned in concentration camps. The death rate of these prisoners has been estimated at 60 percent, a higher rate than those of other prisoner groups. A smaller number of men were sentenced to death or killed at Nazi euthanasia centres. After the war, homosexuals were initially not counted as victims of Nazism because homosexuality continued to be illegal in Nazi Germany's successor states.

Ireland

{| class="wikitable"

|+

!Name

!Date

!Notes

|-

|John Atherton

| rowspan="2" |1640

| rowspan="2" |Bishop of Waterford and Lismore and his tithe proctor, hanged in Waterford. They were convicted under a law Atherton had voiced support for.

|-

|John Childe

|}

Italy

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left"

|-

! Name !! Date !! Notes

|-

|Niger de Pulis

|1287

|Burned in Parma.

|-

|Adenolfo IV

|13 July 1293

|Count of Acerra, impaled in Perugia by Charles II of Anjou.

|-

|Agostino di Ercole

|1348

|Likely executed in Florence. He did not believe his crime was serious and felt that if he was worthy of death, "then many others were to be considered worthy of death".

|-

|Nicoleto Marmagna

| rowspan="2" |3 October 1357

| rowspan="2" |Boatman and his servant, burned in Venice by the Lords of Night. Marmagna was married to Braganza's sister.

|-

|Nanni di Firenze

|27 July 1401

|Likely burned in Venice.

|-

|Nani Silvestri

|20 December 1401

|Merchant, likely burned in Venice.

|-

|Fifteen or sixteen unknowns

|-

|Domenico di Giovanni

|29 July 1420

|Decapitated in Florence.

|-

|Alvisio

|1421

|Burned in Piazza del Mercato, Bologna.

|-

|Stefano da Prato

|-

|Francesco Mancini

| rowspan="2" |1 December 1423

| rowspan="2" |Sicilian university law professor and his servant, beheaded in Piazza del Comune, Bologna.

|-

|Antonio Micileto

|-

|Antonio d'Ugolino

|9 May 1443

|From S. Michele di Mugello, hanged and burned in Florence. Buried in the temple.

|-

|Mafeo Barbaro

| rowspan="2" |1464

| rowspan="2" |Beheaded and burned in Venice. Their younger (puer) companions, Giovanni Basadona and Giovanni Filippo Priuli, were both exiled for 8 years.

|-

|Francesco Toniuti

|-

|Francesco Cercato

|1480

|Hanged between the columns of a square in Venice.

|-

|Marco Baffo

|1485

|Hanged in Venice.

|-

|Unknown

|1490s

|17-year-old hanged in Ferrara.

|-

|Geronimo

|15 March 1504

|Burned in the public square of Vastato, Genoa.

|-

|Giovanni di Piero Masini

|25 August 1514

|Baker's boy, hanged and burned in the courtyard of the Bargello.

|-

|Unknown

|1541

|Executed in Bologna.

|-

| Francesco Calcagno

|23 December 1550|| Franciscan friar (laicized and expelled), executed in Venice.

|-

|Antonio di Giovanni Bandoni

|24 October 1551

|Hanged and burned (or quartered) in Florence.

|-

|Grazia di Negroponte

|15 June 1553

|Turkish footman; strangled and burned in Pratello, Florence. Converted to Christianity nine months prior. Buried in the temple.

|-

|Gabriele Thomaein

|17 February 1559

|German from Augsburg, burned in Rome with 3 heretics.

|-

|Baptistam Bariliarum

|11 October 1561

|Decapitated on a high platform between two columns and burned in Venice.

|-

|Paseto Portador

|12 December 1562

|Decapitated on a high platform between two columns in Piazza di San Marco, Venice, and burned; also convicted of homicide.

|-

|Ambrogio di Croce

|8 April 1566

|Hanged and burned in Milan.

|-

|Unknown

|July 1566

|Young man burned on a bridge in Rome.

|-

|Giuseppe D'Angelo

|18 December 1566

|From Monte di Trapani (Erice), hanged and burned in Palermo.

|-

|Cornelio Mantovani

|1567

|Policeman, burned in Bologna.

|-

|Valerio

|1570

|Hanged in Bologna. Surname not reported.

|-

|Cosimo la Piccola

|23 June 1570

|Strangled and burned in Palermo.

  • Battista, an Albanian boatman.
  • de Vélez, a Catalan.
  • Herrera, from Toledo.
  • de Alfar, from Seville.
  • de Robles, from Madrid.
  • Pinto, from Viana do Alentejo.
  • de Paz, from Toledo.
  • de Martín, from Vitória.

The intended wedding was between de Martín and a Portuguese monk, Brother Giuseppe, and the group congregated at Basilica di San Giovanni a Porta Latina near Pinto's residence on 20 July 1578 as planned; however, Giuseppe fell ill and could not come, and the group spent the day together regardless but were arrested that afternoon. The group had 27 total members, but only 11 were present.

Within the group, de Alfar and de Robles were known to be involved with each other, but de Robles was also involved with Battista and the two had a long-term relationship. Both had previously lived in Flanders in the 1560s, where they worked as a tavern keeper and shipbuilder respectively. Robles saved Battista from being burned after he was denounced twice, after which they fled the region. de Robles had married while in Flanders, and he asked the Confraternity of San Giovanni Decollato to send his wife there a letter.

|-

|G. Battista Inbrunetta

|26 April 1586

|Hanged and burned in Palermo.

|-

|Allegro Orsini

|-

|Antonio d'Assena

|24 March 1593

|Hanged and burned in Palermo.

|-

|Andria Badulato

|24 November 1593

|Hanged in Palermo.

|-

|Giacomo Biavati

|1614

|Porter, hanged and burned in Bologna.

|-

|Domenico "Meneghino" Facchino

|2 March 1615

|Hanged and burned in Milan.

|-

|Angiolo di Ottavio Cappelli

|-

|Giovanni Angelo Maggio

|19 August 1627

|Hanged and burned in Milan.

|-

|Alessandro Borromeo

|3 June 1668

|20-year-old Paduan noble, son of Girolamo Borromeo, beheaded and burned in Venice by the Council of Ten. Described as "scandalous" and "without Christian law" for seducing his friends.

|-

|Unknown

|29 March 1710

|Hanged and beheaded in Milan. Voluntarily confessed to having passive and continued relations with his master, along with "treasonous homicide" and robbery; head displayed at Boschi di Longhignana.

|-

|Antonio Fontana

|15 September 1724

|From Verona, beheaded and burned in Venice. Also convicted of sacrilegious theft.

|-

|Pellegrino Torri

|1727

|Hanged in Bologna; his eyes and nose were also cut off to render his body unrecognizable.

|-

|Unknown

|12 September 1736

|28-year-old barber of the boat in S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini, hanged on the bridge of Sant'Angelo, Rome.

|-

|Giuseppe del già Domenico Rossi

|21 October 1747

|Hanged and burned in Florence. More than 100 bardassoes fled to Sicily on a galley the following night.

|}

Netherlands

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left"

|-

! Name !! Date !! Notes

|-

|Jan van Uutkerke

| rowspan="2" |January 1442

| rowspan="2" |Knight who served in the Burgundian army and as a diplomat to Liège and Cologne. He was arrested in Bruges in December 1441 and tried before the Great Council, who found him guilty alongside two accomplices. van Uutkerke was beheaded as a "grace" before his body was burned in Saeftinghe Castle. Previously served five years as the president of the Council of Flanders. Accused by attorney general Bengaert Saey, whom he had accused of manslaughter in 1447; removed from office on 20 June 1448 and convicted in 1449. Beheaded rather than burnt for admitting his guilt.

|-

|Philips Saey

|1495

|Burgundian official, son of the aforementioned Bengaert Saey, burned in the woods outside of The Hague. Former steward of the forester of Holland, he challenged the Grand Council for dismissing him in 1478 and later sued Jan III van Montfort in 1490 over "unpaid annunities and bonds."

|-

|Bento de Sal

|-

|Jan van Cleef

| rowspan="3" |1644

| rowspan="3" |A soldier, a Batavia burgher, and a Council of the Indies member, strangled and burned at the orders of Anthony van Diemen.

|-

|Adriaen Spoor

| rowspan="2" |2 December 1727

| rowspan="2" |Dutch sailors from St. Maertensdyck and Ghent, aged 23 and 18 respectively, on the Zeewijk which wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos on 9 June. While on the islands, they were caught in "the abominable and god-forsaken deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah." They were subsequently marooned on separate rocky islands nearby.

|-

|Pieter Engels

|-

|Two unknowns

|13 May 1728

|Two slaves, drowned together on the Cape of Good Hope; names not recorded.

|-

|Jan Backer

| rowspan="7" |12 June 1730

| rowspan="2" |hanged and burned in the Hague. Backer was a house servant hiring middleman.

|-

|Johannes Keep

|-

|Maurits van Eeden

| rowspan="2" |House servant and Johannes Keep's servant, age 18, drowned in a barrel in Amsterdam. or 18, from Nieuhooven, strangled and burnt; no response.

|-

|Hendrick Berents

|-

|Asinga Immes

|-

|Eysse Jans

|-

|Gosen Hendrix

|-

|Jan Wygers

|-

|Jan Harms Brakel

|-

|Mindelt Jansz Rol

|-

|Jan Jacobs den Donderen

|-

|Jan Egberts

|-

|Peter Cornelisz

|-

|Hendrik Cornelisz

|-

|Hindrik Leuwes

|-

|Jan Idses

|-

|Jan Jansz

|-

|Cornelis Jansz

|-

|Gerrit Harms

|-

|Tamme Jansz

|-

|Thomas Iacobs

|-

|Jan van der Lelie

|Hanged and thrown into the sea in the Hague.

|}

Poland

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left"

|-

! Name !! Date !! Notes

|-

|Wojciech Skwarski

|1561

|Burned in Kazimierz. Born in Poznań, they was assigned male at birth. They briefly became a monk sometime around 1550 and had relationships with two women while in the monastery. After leaving the monastery, city aldermen ordered Wojciech to live as a woman. They married twice but continued to have numerous female lovers. They engaged in various businesses, such as renting rooms, procuring, beer brewing, and embroidery. They were sentenced to death (and presumably executed) for having sex with women while presenting as one themselves.

|-

| Marcin Gołek || rowspan="2" | 9 November 1633 || rowspan="2" | Master baker and his apprentice, burned in Sieradz. Both accused the other of initiating the relationship.

|-

| Wojciech ze Sromotki

|}

Portugal

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+

!Name

!Date

!Notes

|-

|Joana Fernandes

|1551

|Likely burned in Lisbon. Her partner, Branca Freire, claimed Fernandes seduced her and was a "bad woman" (maa mulher), as well as a witch and sorceress. Freire was sentenced to exile (later reduced to a fine) and Fernandes "appears to have been burnt."

|-

|Unknown

|1595-1610

|Brother of the Sultan of Hormuz, burned in Goa at the orders of Archbishop Aleixo de Meneses despite being "a Muslim candidate for conversion and political asylum."

|-

|Domingos Rois da Rocha

| rowspan="3" |28 November 1621

| rowspan="3" |25-year-old mulatto slave and dancer, mulatto alms collector, and 50-year-old priest and curate of São Paulo known as "Punhetário", burned in a Lisbon auto-da-fé at the Rossio. Rois da Rocha, son of the partially Jewish-descended Francisco da Rocha and his slave Joana Elza, was a member of the Dança dos Fanchonos group led by 30-year-old mulatto Antonio Rodrigues. He was "known as a good Christian, always carrying a rosary and giving alms to the poor," but was condemned for dancing in women's clothes and being "a passive recipient of affection from several men."

|-

|Luiz Alves

|-

|Bartolomeu de Góis

|-

|Two unknowns

|1647

|Old Christians, burned for sodomy and religious visions in a Lisbon auto-da-fé.

|-

|Martim Leite Pereira

|9 July 1662

|50-year-old nobleman and Knight of the Order of Christ, burned in a Coimbra auto-da-fé with six others. Widower of Anácia de Melo, son of New Christian João Dias Leite, and the father of a 26-year-old daughter; he admitted to sodomizing nine men and 14 women, including a violent encounter with a 13-year-old girl named Maria at a fair after which her mother found her bleeding and semi-conscious.

|-

|Catalina de Baena

|-

|Six unknowns

|1495

|Italians, seen hanged upside down "with their genitals around their necks" by a German traveler in Almería.

|-

|Twelve unknowns

|1506

|Dozen men, burned in Seville.

|-

|Salvador Vidal

|1541

|Rural priest, "relaxed" (handed over to be executed) to the secular arm by Saragossa tribunal.

|-

|Three unknowns

|1572

|Foreigners, burned in a Saragossa auto-da-fé with 9 Aragonese peasants convicted of bestiality along with their animals (mules and donkeys.) The size of the group made gathering enough wood for the executions difficult.

|-

|Miguel Salvador de Morales

| rowspan="2" |25 June 1574

| rowspan="2" |Morales, a Trinitarian friar, and Tafolla had known each other since childhood, even sleeping in the same room. Tafolla had just returned from traveling in Italy and went to Morales's monastery in Valencia, where they were caught, and both were subsequently burned.

|-

|Unknown

|1581

|Neapolitan, burned for a "habit of Italy" in Seville.

|-

|Unknown

|1584

|Slave, executed in Saragossa. His partner, a Morisco teen, who had been publicly punished for heresy at an auto-da-fé just before they were caught, was sentenced to the galleys.

|-

|Salvador Martín

|-

|Alonso Sánchez

|-

|Five unknowns

|-

|Muyuca or Machuco

|1585

|African, probably a freed slave, burned in Seville as a alcahuete (procurer). Described as "very well known for the dealings he had with good-looking gentlemen."

|-

|Domingo López

|-

|Unknown

|1604

|60-year-old street vendor of Triana, burned in Seville; described as "fat, deaf, and blind."

|-

|Jose Estravagante

| rowspan="2" |1607

| rowspan="2" |Galley prisoners, 31 and 20, respectively; Teixidor had been convicted of sodomy and Estravagente of another crime. Fellow prisoners denounced they were having an affair and they were subsequently burned in Valencia by the Inquisition.

|-

|Andres von Tschafel

|1519

|Broken on the wheel and burned in Lucerne.

|-

|Hans Fritschi

|1530

|Monastery laborer from Pfungen, decapitated in Schaffhausen.

|-

|Five unknowns

|1560

|Three Turkish galley slaves and two French Catholics from a captured Savoy fort, burned together by Genevan forces. The slaves first admitted to the act, and implicated the Catholics when questioned. His partner, Ramel, was given a reduced sentence due to his age. Branlard had never had a relationship with a woman per court records.

|-

|Rudolf Bachmann

| rowspan="2" |1567

| rowspan="2" |Decapitated and burned in Zurich. Frei and Bachmann had shared a bed while Bachmann's wife was in confinement.

|-

|Wilhelm von Muhlhausen

|1579

|Burned in Zurich.

|-

|Two unknowns

|1590

|French soldier, age 25, and his valet, also French, age 18; both burned in Geneva.

|-

|Pierre Brelat

|-

|Jephat Scheurmann

|1609

|Possibly executed in Lucerne;

|-

|Three unknowns

|1610

|3 partners of Pierre Canal, including a gatekeeper, all drowned in Geneva.

|-

|Mervyn Tuchet

|1631

|2nd Earl of Castlehaven, executed for sodomy with his male servants and procuring the rape of his wife.

|-

|William Plaine

|1646

|Founder of Guilford, Connecticut, executed in New Haven. Plaine, despite being married, had committed sodomy with "two persons in England" and had "corrupted a great part of the youth of Guilford" (reason for execution unknown).

|-

|Francis Dilly

|4 February 1679

|Non-white sailor on Jersey, executed as chief ringleader of a 4-man sodomite group at Port Royal. Other three members spared as they were white, "white men being scarce among us."

|-

|Unknown

|September 1684

|Young man, hanged in Portsmouth; name not recorded.

|-

|Oliver Jackson

|22 August 1724

|Hanged in the Kingston Hill Gallows in Kingston-Upon Thames.

|-

|William Griffin

| rowspan="3" |9 May 1726

| rowspan="3" |Griffin and Lawrence were 43 and Wright was 32. They were all convicted of sodomy after Thomas Newton, a 30 year old man they all had sexual relations with, gave over information about them to the authorities in exchange for immunity. Griffin, Lawrence and Wright were all hanged at Tyburn.

|-

|Gabriel Lawrence

|-

|Thomas Wright

|-

| James Hunt || rowspan=2 | 25 August 1743 || rowspan=2 | Hunt was a barge builder aged 37 and Collins was 57, a former weaver and soldier. They were accused of sodomy together in a toilet at Pepper Alley in Southwark, near London Bridge, which they each denied though their accounts differed. Their trial was at Surrey assizes 4 August and they were hanged at Kennington Common.

|-

| Thomas Collins

|-

|Richard Arnold

| rowspan="2" |15 September 1753

| rowspan="2" |Arnold was around 60 and the landlord of the Lamb and Flag and Critchard was a footman aged around 20. They were convicted 31 August 1753 of felony and buggery for an act witnessed in the Swan Inn, Broad Street, Bristol. They were hanged together at St. Michael's Hill; they declined to implicate anyone else and Arnold was reported to have kissed Critchard's hand before the cart was pulled from under them.

|-

|William Critchard

|-

| Joseph Wright || rowspan=2 | 15 August 1755 || rowspan=2 | Trial at Coventry assizes. Hanged on Whitley Common. Wright admitted that he had been guilty of sodomy, but never with Grimes, while Grimes said that he had never committed any such offence. Wright was also found guilty of killing Mr. Warner of Winhall.

|-

| Thomas Grimes

|-

| Richard Whatley || 23 March 1776 || Trial at Hampshire assizes 5 March. Whatley, aged 41 and also known as Richard Churchill, was convicted of sodomy against Benjamin Dupre, a coachman employed by Lovell Stanhope. He admitted that he had attempted the offence (which took place at Avington), but had not actually committed it.

|-

| Benjamin Loveday || rowspan=2 | 12 October 1781 || rowspan=2 | Trial at Bristol assizes. Hanged on St Michael's Hill. Loveday worked as a waiter before keeping a public house on Tower Street, Bristol while Burke was a midshipman, and they were accused of sexual activity together that they denied. Loveday was also accused by James Morgan. Joseph Giles and James Lane were also accused with Loveday, but were only sentenced for misdemeanours, and William Ward was acquitted. Loveday may have been running a molly house.

|-

| John Burke

|-

| John Lad or Ladd (one source says Thomas) || 17 August 1787 || Trial at Devon assizes 30 July. Hanged at Heavitree gallows near Exeter. Crispin, aged 45, was a potter from Pilton who had been living in a workhouse for seven years. His co-accused Hugh Gribble was reprieved owing to mental incapacity. Crispin acknowledged his guilt but showed no remorse.

|-

| John Southwell || rowspan=2 | 3 April 1790 || rowspan=2 | Trial at Suffolk assizes in Bury 17 March. Hanged at Rushmere Heath.

|-

| John Smith

|-

|Henry Allen

|1797

|Captain of the sloop Rattler, hanged for sodomy on the ships' yardarm "despite his rank and excellent social connections."

|-

| William Powell

|-

| Joseph Bird || 26 August 1803 || Trial at Warwickshire assizes, executed in Warwick. Bird was a Methodist, convicted on the testimony of John Privett. Privett withdrew his statement, only to then say this was because Bird's son bribed him.

|-

| Mathuselah Spalding aka Methuselah || 8 February 1804 || His trial was at the Old Bailey in November, where he was convicted of having "a venereal affair" with James Hankinson. He was hanged at Newgate. He was hanged with a forger, Ann Hurle - they were led out of Debtor's Door and rather than the New Drop they were hanged by a cart being driven from under them.

|-

| David Robertson || 13 August 1806 || Trial at the Old Bailey and executed at Newgate after attempting suicide. Robertson was 48 years old and said to keep a brothel at Charles Street, Covent Garden. He was convicted of an offence with 17-year-old George Foulston.

|-

| James Stockton aka Samuel Stockton || rowspan=3 | 13 September 1806 || rowspan=3 | Known as the Remarkable Trials, twenty seven men aged 17 to 84 from in and around Warrington, Manchester, and Liverpool were arrested in May 1806 for sodomy and nine were tried by John Borron and Richard Gwillym at the Lancaster assizes. Harry Cocks notes that the arrests came amid concerns post-1789 about Jacobins and other men meeting in private. Men of different social classes, they met among other places on Mondays and Fridays at Hitchin's house in Great Sankey, Cheshire, and were said by the press to be Freemasons and call each other "brother". Holland was a rich pawnbroker and there were rumours that members of the gentry were involved with the group, even members of Parliament. Those hanged were convicted on the testimonies of John Knight and Thomas Taylor, members of the group who gave evidence to avoid being hanged themselves. Rix also testified that sodomy was widespread and considered normal in Warrington, Manchester, and Liverpool, describing casual encounters in the street, but the magistrate refused a deal, while Hitchin denied the charges. Stockton, Holland and Powell were hanged at Lancaster castle on 13 September, and Hitchin and Rix later that month after they were further interrogated to find other conspirators. Joshua Newsom and George Ellis were found guilty of lesser offences and the rest were acquitted. The magistrates attempted to investigate further, but were stopped by the Home Office.

|-

| Joseph Holland

|-

| John Powell

|-

| Isaac Hitchin || 31 March 1808 || Aged 45, he was accused of an offence against Thomas Douglas of Crayford and for attempted offences against others. His trial was at Kent Lent Assizes in Maidstone, and he was hanged on Penenden Heath. He had no family and the Kentish Gazette said he "appeared a perfect idiot".

|-

| Richard Neighbour || 24 November 1808 || Neighbour of Gresse Street, Rathbone Place, aged 26, was convicted of a crime against the body of Joshua Archer, aged 17 or 18, an apprentice to an engraver. Attempts were made to bribe Archer to leave the country. Neighbour was sentenced to hang at the Old Bailey in October 1808, but he poisoned himself with arsenic at Newgate the next month, less than a week before his execution was due.

|-

| James Bartlett || 4 April 1809 || Trial at Surrey Assizes, executed at Horsemonger Lane Gaol. He was buried at Limehouse and left £1,500 to his daughter.

|-

| Samuel Mounser || 31 August 1810 || Trial at the Chelmsford Summer Assizes, from Stanford-le-Hope

|-

| Thomas White || rowspan=2 | 7 March 1811 || rowspan=2| Ensign John Newball Hepburn, in his forties, and Drummer Thomas White, 16, tried at the Old Bailey and hanged in front of Newgate Prison, London

|-

| John Hepburn

|-

| David Thompson Myers || 4 May 1812 || Myers was a draper of Stamford, accused by Thomas Crow (or Crowe), an 18-year-old apprentice to a tailor, Mr. Horden of Stamford. Myers was acquitted in Lincolnshire due to Crow being suspected of lying, but he was then convicted at trial at Peterborough accused again by Crow of offences at Burghley Park. Myers was hanged at Fengate, Peterborough, the last man to be publicly executed in the city.

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| George Godfrey

|| 1 April 1813 || Godfrey was a butler in the house of Mr. Atkinson at Lee, who was indicted for "unnatural offences" with a footman, Henry Greenhurst, from May to December 1812. The latter was "unconscious of the heinous character of the offence" and told another servant, who informed Mr. Atkinson. Godfrey was hanged at Penenden Heath.

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| Henry Youens || rowspan=2 | 18 August 1814 || rowspan=2| Trial at the Kent Assizes in Maidstone, hanged at Penenden Heath. Ottaway, 33, and Youens, 21, were soldiers.

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| John Ottaway (spelled variously Ottoway, Otooway, Ottway, and Otway)

|-

| Abraham Adams || 26 July 1815 || Trial at the Old Bailey, hanged aged 51 at Newgate alongside Elizabeth Fenning

|-

|John Charles

| rowspan="4" |1 February 1816

| rowspan="4" |Sailors on HMS Africaine under captain Edward Rodney, hanged at Portsmouth at 11 AM. Two other men, John Parsons and Joseph Hubbard, were whipped, with Hubbard receiving less lashes than Parsons due to medical concerns. Many reports of sodomy surfaced onboard the ship during its four-year tour of the East Indies, with Westerman being named as a participant from the start. For the first incident, Westerman was demoted from captain's servant boy to ordinary crewman, with further demotion for a later incident. More incidents surfaced until the ship returned to England in 1815, and an investigation was ordered by the Royal Navy. The initial 23 suspects identified in December 1815 was reduced to just four (Westerman, Joseph Tall, Seraco, and Treake). The origins of the sodomy amongst the crew was determined to be Seraco and Treake, both Italians. Seraco was condemned with Charles (a prisoner), Treake was initially pardoned with Joseph Tall but re-condemned with Westerman.

|-

|Raphael Seraco

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|Raphael Treake

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|John Westerman

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| George Siggins || 21 August 1817 || Trial at Kent Assizes in Maidstone for a crime in Chatham, executed on Penenden Heath

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| Joseph Charlton || 14 April 1819 || A watchmaker aged 26 who was tried at the Guildhall, Newcastle and hanged at Morpeth. His funeral was attended by 2000 people.

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| John Markham || 29 December 1819 || A pauper aged 26 who was an inmate at St. Giles's workhouse, his hanging was heard by John Cam Hobhouse, who was being held at Newgate. Hobhouse noted in his diary, "Tis dreadful hanging a man for this practice".

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| Thomas Foster || 3 May 1820 || Trial at Kent Assizes and hanged at Penenden Heath. Convicted of an offence with John Whyneard (charged as an accomplice, but not hanged) at the Isle of Sheppey.

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| John Holland || rowspan=2 | 25 November 1822 || rowspan=2| Aged 42 and 32 respectively, tried at the Old Bailey and executed at Newgate.

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| William King || rowspan=3 | 21 March 1823 || rowspan=3 | Respectively a gentleman and half-pay officer aged 35, a valet to the Duke of Newcastle aged 36, and a cabinet maker aged 35, they were tried at Lincoln Assizes by Mr. Justice Park and convicted on the evidence of a 19-year-old apprentice draper named Henry Hackett. A love letter from Hackett to Candler had been addressed to the Duke to save on postage: the Duke received and read the letter and had Hackett confronted, upon which he also implicated Doughty and Arden, who had associated with each other in Grantham in summer 1822. They were part of a group of up to 36 men led by Arden, who went on hunger strike in jail. The convicted men were hanged at Lincoln Castle.

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| Benjamin Candler

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| John Doughty

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| Charles Clutton || 13 August 1824 || Aged 25, he was charged in June 1824 with Charles Paul, aged 17, for an offence at Weedon Bec barracks in May 1823 - they were both privates in the 53rd regiment. He was sentenced by Mr. Justice Holroyd and hanged at the New Drop, Northamptonshire

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| Joseph Bennett || rowspan=2| 20 April 1825 || rowspan=2| Aged about 30 and from Witney and aged 22 and from Radstock, respectively, they were hanged at Ilchester Gaol in Somerset

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| George Maggs

|-

|Captain Henry Nicholl (also reported as Nichol and Nicholls)||12 August 1833||A 50-year-old veteran of the Peninsular War, Nicholl was hanged at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Southwark, London. He was renounced by his prominent family, and his body was handed over to a hospital for dissection as they refused to accept it for burial.

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| George Cropper || 26 December 1833 || A 26-year-old soldier, he was convicted of an offence at Deptford with a fellow soldier, Charles Pike, who was aged 18, but Pike was acquitted. Cropper was hanged at New Sessions House in Maidstone, the same day as a rapist.

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| John Spershott (also reported as John Sparshott and John Sparsholt) || 22 August 1835 || A labourer aged 19, he was convicted of an offence with 8-year-old George Howard (who was not charged) at Mid Lavant and hanged at Horsham, Surrey, alongside a burglar. "Spershott's hanging was perhaps the last occasion at which was performed the folk ritual of the hangman passing the dead man's hands over the neck and bosoms of young women as a cure for glandular enlargements."

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| John Smith || rowspan=2 | 27 November 1835 || rowspan=2 | The last two men to be hanged for homosexuality in England

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| James Pratt

|}

See also

  • Capital punishment for homosexuality
  • Criminalization of homosexuality in majority-Muslim countries
  • Homosexuality in society
  • List of executed people
  • Violence against LGBT people

Notes

References

  • Claude Courouve, Procès de sodomie en France, (1307-1783). (In French)
  • Stefano Bolognini & Giovanni Dall'Orto, List of executions for sodomy in Italy (1293-1782) (in Italian), "WikiPink".