Jeremy Bentham writes a paper entitled “Offences Against Oneself” arguing that consensual sexual acts between two adults in the privacy of a home should not be illegal.
August 2: John “Mad Jack” Byron — the father of George Gordon Byron — dies in France.
1798
At ten years old, George Gordon Byron inherits the title of Lord Byron and becomes a member of the landed gentry.
1800
The Publick Universal Friend is taken to court for blasphemy, but the courts rule that blasphemy is not against the law in the United States due to separation of church and state.
Lord Byron leaves England for the “Grand Tour” of Europe. While on this journey, he claims to have slept with more than 200 men.
James Barry begins living as a man, and enrolls at the University of Edinburgh.
1810
July 8: The White Swan is raided by the Bow Street Runners. 27 men are arrested.
September 27: The Vere Street Coterie stands in the stocks and is brutalized by an angry mob of onlookers.
1811
Denmark decriminalizes homosexuality when it adopts Napoleon’s legal code.
Lord Byron returns to England and learns that his former lover John Edleston has died. He attempts to resume his relationship with Claridge, but discovers he has become boring.
March11: John Newball Hepburn and Thomas White, of the Vere Street Coterie, are hung at Newgate Prison.
1812
Lord Byron becomes famous after the first two cantos of “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” are published. He begins an affair with Lady Caroline Lamb.
James Barry graduates the University of Edinburgh and immediately enrolls in classes at United Hospitals of Guy’s and St. Thomas’.
1813
Lady Caroline Lamb returns to England from Ireland and very publicly tries to win back the affections of Lord Byron.
The Phoenix of Sodom is published about the White Swan raid.
July 2: James Barry passes examinations at the Royal College of Surgeons.
July 6: James Barry is commissioned as a hospital assistant in the British army.
