Boulton and Park
Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park were Victorian cross-dressers. Both were homosexual men from upper-middle-class families, both enjoyed wearing women's clothes and both enjoyed taking part in theatrical performances—playing the women's roles when they did so. It is possible that they asked for money for sex, although there is some dispute over this. In the late 1860s they were joined on a theatrical tour by Lord Arthur Clinton, the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Newark. Also homosexual, he and Boulton entered into a relationship; Boulton called himself Clinton's wife, and had cards printed showing his name as Lady Arthur Clinton.
Boulton and Park were indiscreet when they cross-dressed in public, and came to the attention of the police. They were under police surveillance for a year before they were arrested in 1870, while in drag, after leaving a London theatre. When they appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court the morning after the arrest they were still clothed in the women's dresses from the previous evening; a crowd of several hundred people were there to see them. The two men were subjected to an intrusive physical examination from a police surgeon and held on remand for two months. They were charged with conspiracy to commit sodomy, a crime that carried a maximum prison sentence of life with hard labour. Just before the case started Clinton died, possibly of scarlet fever or suicide; it is also possible his death was faked and he fled abroad. The case came before the Court of the Queen's Bench the following year, Boulton and Park with three other men. All five were found not guilty after the prosecution failed to establish that they had anal sex. The judge, Sir Alexander Cockburn, the Lord Chief Justice, was highly critical of the police investigation and the treatment of the men by the police surgeon. Boulton and Park admitted to appearing in public dressed as women, which was "an offence against public morals and common decency". They were bound over for two years.
The case was reported in all the major newspapers, often in lurid terms. Several penny pamphlets were published focusing on the sensational aspect of the case. The events surrounding Boulton and Park are seen as key moments in the gay history of the UK. The arrest and trial have been interpreted differently over time, from innocent Victorian sentimentalism to a wilful ignoring of the men's sexuality by the courts to ensure they were not convicted. Recent examinations have been from the perspective of transgender history. The case was a factor that led to the introduction of the 1885 Labouchere Amendment which made male homosexual acts punishable by up to two years' hard labour. Boulton and Park both continued performing on stage after the trial, and both worked for a while in the US. Park died in 1881, probably of syphilis; Boulton died in 1904 from a brain tumour.
Background
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, male homosexual acts were illegal under English law and were punishable by imprisonment under section 61 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. The Act abolished the death penalty for sodomy which had been part of Henry VIII's Buggery Act 1533. Under the 1861 act, sodomy in the UK carried a life sentence in prison with hard labour. Cases involving homosexual activity were rarely brought to trial, however, and those that were had a lower conviction rate than other crimes—there was a 28 per cent conviction rate for sodomy against a 77 per cent rate for all other offences. The sociologist Ari Adut observes that most suspects were either caught having sex in public or were targets of a politically motivated prosecution. Many suspects were allowed to leave the country before trial.The concept of homosexuality was known to but not understood by the authorities in the 1870s. The historian and sociologist Jeffrey Weeks considers that the idea of homosexuality was "extremely undeveloped both in the Metropolitan Police and in high medical and legal circles, suggesting the absence of any clear notion of a homosexual category or of any social awareness of what a homosexual identity might consist". Such ignorance by the medical profession was seen as proof that homosexual activity was not undertaken in Britain, in contrast to the knowledge gained by French and German doctors. For British medico-jurisprudent works, such as Alfred Swaine Taylor's 1846 work A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, the act of sodomy was linked to bestiality, and described as "the unnatural connection of a man with a man or with an animal. The evidence required to establish it is the same as in rape, and therefore penetration alone is sufficient to constitute it".
While the authorities were ignorant of the extent of homosexuality in Britain, some parts of the West End of London—including the Burlington Arcade, just off Piccadilly—were associated with homosexuality and male prostitution. According to the historian Matt Cook, this "confirm the association of homosexual behaviour with fashion, effeminacy and monetary transaction". This burgeoning homosexual culture was aligned with effeminacy and cross-dressing, according to the literary scholar Joseph Bristow, in his work "Remapping the Sites of Modern Gay History". Public opinion—and the opinion of the authorities—was never against those men caught up in homosexual scandals, according to Adut. As examples he cites those associated with the 1889 Cleveland Street scandal, who remained in positions in society, except one, who left the country; similarly, when Boulton and Park were cleared of the main charges against them, they continued acting in Britain and abroad.
Cross-dressing was not illegal in the 1870s; it was associated with the theatre, particularly pantomime; there was no association in the minds of the general public between cross-dressing and homosexuality. When arrests were made for cross-dressing, it was under the charge of occasioning a breach of the peace. There had been cases of cross-dressing heard in the courts in the second half of the 19th century: in 1858 two men, one 60 years old and one 35, were arrested at an unlicensed dancing room. The 60-year-old was dressed as a Dresden shepherdess, the 35-year-old in modern female dress; they were arrested on the grounds they had acted "for the purpose of exciting others to commit an unnatural offence". The same year a landlady reported her lodger for behaving indecently in the parlour window while dressed in women's clothing.
Early lives
Thomas Ernest Boulton
Thomas Ernest Boulton—commonly known as Ernest—was born on 18 December 1847 at Kings Road, Tottenham, Middlesex ; he was the older of two boys who survived past infancy. His parents were Thomas Alfred Boulton, a wine merchant, and his wife, Mary Ann. The Boultons had three other sons who died of tuberculosis in infancy; Ernest was a sickly baby who his parents thought also had the condition. During childhood he also developed a fistula in his rectum which needed surgery.Neil McKenna, who wrote a biography of Boulton and Park, described Boulton as "pretty with his blue-violet eyes, large as saucers in his pale face, and his dark hair cascading in baby curls"; McKenna notes that as a child, Boulton was often mistaken for a baby girl. From the time he was six Boulton began dressing up and acting as a girl, often as a parlourmaid. He once dressed up and served his unknowing grandmother at the dinner table. When he left the room, she commented to Boulton's mother "I wonder, having sons, that you have so flippant a girl about you".
As Boulton grew up he continued cross-dressing, a practice about which his parents were indulgent. When he was about eighteen his father discussed a potential career in the professions, but Boulton said he wanted to work in the theatre. His father got his way, and in 1866 Boulton began work as a clerk at the Islington branch of the London and County Bank. He did not like the work, and his attendance was often sporadic; he resigned from the position soon after his employers had written to Boulton's father to question whether his son was suitable for the bank. Boulton was homosexual and was known to his friends as Stella, although sometimes also by Miss Ernestine Edwards. In 1867 he was arrested with his friend Martin Cumming in the Haymarket—a known venue for prostitution—when they were wearing dresses and soliciting men for sex; no charges were brought. He was arrested again a few weeks later for the same offence, this time with a man called Campbell, a transvestite male prostitute who went under the sobriquet Lady Jane Grey. The two appeared at Marlborough Street Magistrates Court where they were fined.
Frederick William Park
Frederick William Park was the third son and twelfth child of Alexander Atherton Park, the Master of the Court of Common Pleas—one of the superior courts of Westminster—and his wife, Mary. He was baptised on 5 January 1847 at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon. Park's mother died before his third birthday. He grew up in the family home at Wimpole Street, central London, where he was educated at home by his sisters and a governess.Park's eldest brother, Atherton, was killed while serving with the 24th Bombay Native Infantry in Jhansi, India, while Park was still young. His other brother, Harry, was arrested at about the age of 16—when Park was 11 or 12—for homosexual activity. Harry's Italian boyfriend had attempted to blackmail him over their affair, and when Harry refused to pay, reported him to the police. He vehemently denied the accusations at a magistrates' court and the case was dismissed. Harry was open with his younger brother about his homosexuality and, McKenna suggests, had probably guessed that Park was also gay. Harry called his brother "Fan" or "Fanny" from a young age. On 1 April 1862, two or three years after the court appearance, Harry was arrested for indecent assault on a police officer in Weymouth Mews. In court again, bail of £600 was set. Harry was sentenced to a year's hard labour, and was then sent to Scotland by his father to avoid further scandal. Park's father decided the best profession for Frederick was within the law, and arranged for him to be articled with a solicitor in Chelmsford, Essex.
Park was a regular cross-dresser and went under several names when in women's attire, including Fanny Winifred Park, Mrs Mable Foster, Mrs Jane, Mabel Foley and Fanny Graham.