18th century persecution of mollies in London and Amsterdam

[anteros_lmc]

Another fascinating, but sobering, entry from the completely wonderful VirtualDutch timeline of Anglo-Dutch relations:

"The first raids on the so-called molly clubs take place in London. The 'mollies' gathered in selected taverns of the capital's quieter back streets. It was there that male whores, both transvestites and young homosexual men, met their clients, mostly older upper bourgeois and noble gents. Ned Ward, one of the forefathers of tabloid journalism, gave an account of scenes in his book 'The History of the London Clubs' (1709). The mollies, he wrote, 'fancy themselves women, imitating all the little vanities that custom has reconciled to the female sex, affecting to speak, walk, tattle, curtsy, cry, scold, and to mimic all manner of effeminacy'. Broadsheets published about them referred to them as both 'mollies' and 'woman-haters'.

The 1707 raids inspired a spate of popular publications and ballads. The 'Woman Hater's Lamentation' was a whimsical ditty of 14 verses celebrating the 1707 executions that followed the trials: "Nature they lay aside, To gratifie their lust; Women they hate beside, Therefore their Fate was just." The public image of the molly as a bachelor exclusively interested in sex with other men became well entrenched even though material presented in court shows that many were married and had children. In 1726, the police once again raided houses in London known as gathering places for sodomites. These raids were the most thorough of the 1700s, and about 20 of the houses were shut down.

The mollies were the first modern homosexuals. Even though the word homosexual wouldn't be coined for more than a hundred years, the people that 18th century Londoners called effeminate woman-haters were exactly those that 19th century doctors would diagnose as sexual degenerates, inverts and homosexuals.

The first scandal in the Netherlands did not take place until 1730 when it was learned that a widespread sodomitical network existed throughout the major cities of the Republic. In Utrecht, Zacharias Wilsma was arrested and charged with sodomy and when questioned, he told his interrogators about sodomitical contacts he had in the major Dutch cities, especially Amsterdam. Utrecht officials sent Wilsma there to help Amsterdam officials eliminate the sodomitical scourge from their city. In May 1730, Wilsma testified against four men in an Amsterdam court. All four were executed the next month. One of those four revealed the names of 40 other sodomites in his confession and an anti-sodomite hysteria enveloped Amsterdam.

Like the mollies in England, the subculture was effeminate. Dutch sodomites used feminine nicknames and terms of endearment. One commentator, the novelist Justus van Effen, described sodomites as 'hermaphrodites in their minds'. One month after the trials and executions, the government produced the Edict of 1730 which reiterated the existing anti-sodomy laws. It stated that the penalty for sodomy was death, although the method of execution was left to individual judges. Some convicts were drowned, some hung, but most were strangled, the method usually used to execute female criminals. A series of executions followed the Wilsma case and many sodomites left the republic. Holland's sodomitical networks were effectively destroyed in the pogrom between 1730 and 1737."

Comments

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for posting. I'm actually surprised the Dutch executed people in the 18thc for 'sodomy', which goes to show how much 'the Dutch are uber liberal' has taken hold in the popular conscience.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It really is quite sobering isn't it? The fact that many of those condemned were strangled "the method usually used to execute female criminals" seems particularly horrifying.

I think Burg also mentions the ballad "The Woman Haters Lamentation" in Boys At Sea.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_likimeya/]

”Women they hate beside, Therefore their Fate was just”
Ha! That shows quite well the hypocrisy of it all. In their own way, many heterosexual men of that time hated women much more than the average homosexual... Or looked down on them at the very least. But it is only a crime if it is convenient, of course.

Readings things like that always makes me feel pretty good about our own times, so... thank you. ;)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Hypocrisy indeed! I've looked out the text of The Woman Hater's Lamentation and will post it shortly.

We've certainly come a long way in terms of tolerating, accepting and embracing different sexualities but there's still some way to go. See mylodon's recent post on the persecution of homosexuals in Uganda

Glad you took a positive message from this though :)

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

The accusation of women hating is like the modern thing of saying homosexuals are a threat to the family, when it's the adulterers and the like which are much more of a threat. Does that make any sense? Am not terribly compos mentis today.

Thanks for posting this.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Indeed. That makes perfect sense. Sadly it's the same prejudice and intolerance in a different guise.