Vere Street Coterie [SEP] start time
Vere Street Coterie
The Vere Street Coterie were a group of men arrested at a molly house in Vere Street, London in 1810 for sodomy and attempted sodomy. Eight men were eventually convicted. Two of them were hanged (as per the then still extant sodomy laws promulgated by Henry VIII in 1534) and six were pilloried for this offence. Along with Oscar Wilde's imprisonment for a similar offence, this episode was one of the major events in gay history in England during the 19th century.
The White Swan on
A man and a boy, John Hepburn (46) and Thomas White (16, a drummer boy), were convicted of the act of sodomy, despite not being present at the White Swan during the night of the raid. They were hanged at Newgate Prison on 7 March 1811.
Vere Street Coterie is also known in connection with alleged same sex marriages there, performed by Reverend John Church.
The history of the White Swan and the Vere Street Coterie were related by the lawyer Robert Holloway in "