Part 1
Transcribed from the 1813 J. Cook edition by David Price, email [email protected]
[Picture: Public domain book cover]
THE PHŒNIX OF SODOM, OR THE _Vere Street Coterie_.
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BEING AN EXHIBITION OF THE GAMBOLS PRACTISED BY THE Ancient Lechers OF _Sodom and Gomorrah_, EMBELLISHED AND IMPROVED WITH THE MODERN REFINEMENTS IN Sodomitical Practices,
BY THE MEMBERS OF THE _Vere Street Coterie_, _of detestable memory_.
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SOLD BY J. COOK, AT AND TO BE HAD OF ALL THE BOOKSELLERS.
1813.
HOLLOWAY, PRINTER, ARTILLERY LANE, TOOLEY STREET.
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THE VERE STREET COTERIE, OR _The Phœnix of Sodom_.
I THINK it a duty I owe both the reader and myself, to account for my acquaintance with any part of the disgraceful transactions disclosed in the annexed pages.
Some months ago, when I was contemplating the most odious characters on the list of Attorneys, to compose the Fifth Number of my Strictures on the Practice of those voracious vultures, it came to my knowledge that an Attorney named Wooley (with that alacrity with which crows fly to carrion) had repaired to the different prisons, where those wretches apprehended in Vere Street were committed, and, under pretence of assisting the offenders obtaining their liberty, and enabling them to escape justice, stripped them of every guinea they possessed, and, indeed, of every article that would produce one at a pawnbroker’s. I therefore sent to Newgate, to learn from Cook, the landlord of the house, whether my information was correct; who sent his wife to me, and related a long history of the means and fallacious pretences by which he obtained above thirty pounds from her, for the purpose of _bringing her husband through_; that being the phrase of those fellows, who hang about prisons, to tutor their new clients:—(_I have made use of the expression_ TUTOR, _because there are degrees of iniquity_, _that the most atrocious offenders accustomed to a long residence in the cells of Newgate have yet to learn of a certain description of attorneys_;) in fine, after he had exhausted every stratagem that his colleague the devil and himself could devise to get money, and finding no more could be extracted from nakedness, he became wholly negligent of his client; and in order to get rid of Cook’s importunities, told him he must have fifty pounds more, or he could not get him liberated. On the woman prostrating (as the truth was) that almost every article of wearing apparel had been disposed of to raise the money he already had received, he very friendly suggested to her, that a woman of her appearance might easily raise money _by putting off One Pound Bank Notes that he could procure for her at Ten Shillings each_! the woman could answer only with a groan—“I am in trouble enough already!” and declined the mode he proposed, to procure liberty for her husband, and a halter for herself!—Here the material part of the negociation ended, and Cook was left by this virtuous one, et cetera, without the least assistance at his trial, not even a guinea for council, or the expence of a single sheet of paper. In this dreadful situation, I call it a dreadful situation, for whatever crimes a man be charged with, he is certainly entitled to the benefit of a defence; especially when he paid so amply for it: and though ultimately he was convicted, and sentenced to the Pillory, I would ask, if, under all these circumstances, his virtuous attorney ought not to have been sentenced to a gibbet?—However, it does not appear to me, that had Wooley done all that he was able, he could have saved Cook from his fate; for affidavit men could be of no service: however, as in my next Number of Strictures I have a very long chapter to bestow on the sympathetic feelings, and matchless integrity of this man, in an hundred other instances equally enormous; I shall for the present drop the subject, having afforded my readers a trifling shred, or splinter, of his great stock of virtue.
It will be necessary here to correct a false opinion that is gone abroad respecting the nature of Cook’s offence.—It is generally believed, that he was convicted of Sodomy: but the fact is, that he was neither convicted, or even indicted for that offence, but for keeping a house of resort, or rendezvous for such detestable wretches to meet at.—I have thought it proper, nay just, to make this distinction, to lessen in some measure the horror that the public in general have felt against him.
My original inquiry into the conduct of Wooley was, merely to punish him for his shameful conduct as an Attorney, by making an application to the Court of King’s Bench for restoration of the money he robbed Cook of; and to shew the Court and public of what pernicious materials some attorneys are composed:—therefore, if Wooley thinks it any degradation to be acquainted with Cook, he must remember, it was his own infamy that brought it on; and I shall never be ashamed to advocate the cause of the oppressed, or terrified at the task of reprobating the oppressor. It has been observed by an elegant writer, that “the man who allows the oppression shares the crime;” and I certainly shall shew that Cook has endured a scene of oppression that the laws of this country never did, and I never will sanction, for the purpose of screening opulent infamy; the crime of the man is no justification of the brutality with which he was treated—a brutality repugnant to the feelings of every man possessing the generous bravery of Englishmen, who are ever merciful. Cowards only are cruel; and the man who would put a rat to death by wanton torture is at best but an eminent ruffian! but more upon this subject when I have gone through the offensive part of my task, which is some slender description of the enormities committed in various parts of the town by these Sodomitical miscreants.
Cook and his wife, elate with the prospect of procuring justice for the injury they had received from Wooley, considered me their friend, and disclosed all the circumstances that follow; and in answer to some inquiries that curiosity led me to make, I received a long written history of iniquities (which I shall partially relate) prefaced by the following paragraph.
“I do not plead any thing in extenuation of the offence for which I have been convicted and punished; I confess I merited all I met with; I own I participated in all the guilt except the final completion of it, which is abhorrent to my nature. I am, therefore, the more criminal, because I had no unnatural inclinations to gratify:—I was prompt by _Avarice_ only, and not by the indulgence of vicious propensities;—if I had, there would be witnesses enough against me, among the detestable crew I am about to expose.”
Cook, though an illiterate, man, possesses a strong mind, and an accurate memory. He states, that he unfortunately met a man named Yardley, at the King’s Arms, Round Court, in the Strand, who proposed taking a Public House, and making it a joint concern: he, by degrees, opened to Cook his plan, and told him he was acquainted with a great number of gentlemen, some hundreds, who would frequent a house that he kept; and who were so generous in payment, that he knew a man who kept a house of the same kind, who, in three years, got money enough to live upon and retired.
This picture of advantage caught Cook;—and he closed with the proposals, having about one hundred and fifty pounds in his pocket; and, in conjunction with this man, took the Swan in Vere-street, the fatal house in question; which was entered upon, and furnished in a style most appropriate for the purposes it was intended. Four beds were provided in one room:—another was fitted up for a ladies’ dressing-room, with a toilette, and every appendage of rouge, &c. &c.:—a third room was called the Chaple, where marriages took place, sometimes between _a female grenadier_, six feet high, and a petit maitre not more than half the altitude of his beloved wife! These marriages were solemnized with all the mockery of _bride maids_ and _bride men_; and the nuptials were frequently consumated by two, three, or four couple, in the same room, and in the sight of each other! incredible as this circumstance may appear, the reader may depend it is all provable:—the upper part of the house was appropriated to wretches who were constantly in waiting for casual customers; who practised all the allurements that are found in a brothel, by the more natural description of prostitutes; and the only difference consisting in that want of decency that subsists between the most profligate men and depraved women.—Men of rank, and respectable situations in life, might be seen wallowing either in or on the beds with wretches of the lowest description: but the perpetration of the abominable act, however offensive, was infinitely more tolerable than the shocking conversation that accompanied the perpetration; some of which, Cook has solemnly declared to me, was so odious, that he could not either write, or verbally relate. It seems many of these wretches are married; and frequently, when they are together, make their wives, who they call _Tommies_, topics of ridicule; and boast of having compelled them to act parts too shocking to think of;—an instance of which I must relate, because the history of the country furnished a precedent, that consigned a Peer of the realm, and his infamous associate, to the gallows: I allude to Lord Audley’s case, who was convicted of rape and sodomy at one time with his own wife.—The instance I shall relate was told at Vere-street by the husband, to many of the wretches, and the partner of his guilt, then present, who joined in the relation, as if it had been a meritorious act:—this ill-fated woman had been brought to that pitch of infamy, that she frequently endured it, as if it was no offence even to modesty! the dreadful fellow, who is the subject of the narration, is one of three miscreants living together in the same public office in the city, one of whom is known by the appellation of _Venus_.
It seems the greater part of these reptiles assume feigned names, though not very appropriate to their calling in life: for instance, Kitty Cambric is a Coal Merchant; Miss Selina, a Runner at a Police office; Black-eyed Leonora, a Drummer; Pretty Harriet, a Butcher; Lady Godina, a Waiter; the Duchess of Gloucester, a gentleman’s servant; Duchess of Devonshire, a Blacksmith; and Miss Sweet Lips, a Country Grocer. It is a generally received opinion, and a very natural one, that the prevalence of this passion has for its object effeminate delicate beings only: but this seems to be, by Cook’s account, a mistaken, notion; and the reverse is so palpable in many instances, that the Fanny Murry, Lucy Cooper, and Kitty Fisher, are now personified by an athletic _Bargeman_, an _Herculean Coal-heaver_, and a deaf tyre Smith: the latter of these monsters has two sons, both very handsome young men, whom he boasts are full as depraved as himself. These are merely part of the common stock belonging to the house; but the visitors were more numerous, and, if possible, more infamous, because more exalted in life: and _these ladies_, like the ladies of the petticoat order, have their favorite men; one of whom was White, a drummer of the guards, who, some short time since, was executed for a crime of the most detestable description with Hebden an Ensign. White, being an universal favorite, was very deep in the secrets of the fashionable part of the coterie; of which he made a most ample confession in writing, immediately previous to his execution; the truth of which he averred, even to his last moments; but it is impossible to give it literally, for the person who took it, in the presence of a magistrate, said that the recital made him so sick he could not proceed.
It seems that these odious practices are not confined to one, two, or three houses, either public or private; for there are many about town: one in the vicinity of the Strand; one in Blackman-street in the Borough; one near the Obelisk, St. George’s-fields; one in the neighbourhood of Bishopsgate-street, kept by a fellow known by the title of the Countess of Camomile; perhaps the title was derived from his ancient place of residence!—This wretch was sent to the cold bath of Newgate for two years, by way of quenching a flame that had been raised by the charms of an uncomplying boy. The old worn-out catamites are stationed in different lodgings, and maintained, for the purpose of entrapping servants out of place, and other distressed characters; and as distress is the most potent enemy to virtue, they too frequently succeed in the objects of their employers:—no expence is spared for clothes, public places, or pocket money, till the ends are obtained. Many of these breeches-clad bawds have chambers in the different Inns of Court, the Temple not excepted, where they carry on their practices with greater security from detection; which is somewhat extraordinary, when we consider that lawyers are not very partial to any description of monsters but their own!
There is now a wretch in Newgate, under sentence of three years, for this abominable crime, and that, too, for the third time!—this lump of excremental filth (known among the gang by the appellation of _Miss Fox_) has been a common hack ever since he was twelve years old, and is now about seven and twenty: it is said that he is at this hour the darling of a young man of rank, who audaciously introduced him to his family as a fellow-student at college; and, in one year, squandered seventeen hundred pounds upon this miscreant.
It is a melancholy consideration that there is not some mode of restraining this vice, either by castration, or some other cogent preventative, without waiting for the completion of the offence, which enacts the penalty of death:—the moment it is discovered that the purposes of our creation are defeated, and that nature revolts from the ordinances of GOD, existence is uselessly lavished upon a being, more unworthy animation than a mandrake. To eradicate this evil, should Divine Vengeance resist to another fire, let the people of England devoutly pray, that the flames may extend to the _Brimstonic part of Attornies_, whose crimes cry equally loud for sulphurous purification.
That the reader may form some idea of the uncontrolable rage of this dreadful passion, Cook states, that a person in a respectable house in the city, frequently came to his sink of filth and iniquity, and stayed several days and nights together; during which time he generally amused himself with eight, ten, and sometimes a dozen different boys and men!—There can be no doubt of the truth of this assertion, for an explanation took place before some of the parties connected with him in business, when Cook sent to the house for a bill that the wretch owed him. It is said that this animal is now in a mad-house; which, in my apprehension, is the natural consequence of transactions which can only be produced by a temporary insanity.
In contemplating this calamitous vice, a charitable disposition would lead us to believe that it is the effect of a dreadful malignant malady, that assumes such an irresistible dominion over the faculties, that neither religion, philosophy, or the fear of death, can resist. Before I could give credit to a twentieth part of the account transmitted to me, I waited till Cook was discharged from his imprisonment, and then interrogated him, with all the art and force of reason that I was master of, as to the truth of his relation, more especially the identity of the persons whose names he mentioned; stating to him, that even an insinuation of so foul an imputation against an innocent man, would inevitably consign him to an infinitely worse punishment than that he had already suffered: but his answers were such, as left me no excuse to doubt the truth; and notwithstanding my full conviction upon the subject, I have not ventured to fasten the odium upon any respectable character, leaving a disclosure of that nature to be extorted from the parties themselves in a Court of Justice:—nor would I have sullied the idea of manhood with this history of human depravity upon the bare assertion of any man, or any ten men, who were within the possibility of being induced by some purpose to fabricate such an abominable story; but the statement of Cook cannot be subject to any such misrepresentation, for it is matter of record:—thirty of the parties he describes to be the constant frequenters of the house were apprehended by the Police officers, and that on a Sunday evening; they were all examined by the Magistrates, and their guilt established, though in different degrees: and the dreadful shocking consequences of their conviction ended in the execution of a sentence so disgraceful to humanity, so contrary to the punishment awarded by the laws of England, that the foulest page in the history of savage ferocity must blush at the relation of that ruffianly scene of human degradation; a scene that never could have disgraced the streets of London but in the Sheriffalty of Mr. Matthew Wood; and never can happen again, until Sheriffs and Pillories are made of the same materials.
Cook, under an idea that it would procure him a remission of the pillory, was desirous of disclosing the names of a great number of persons involved in the transactions: and a meeting took place, at the Secretary of State’s Office, upon the subject; but which produced no other effect, than an order to put Cook in the Pillory the next day, which was accordingly done; and, upon his return to Newgate, Suter, the head turnkey, said to him, “_Cook_, _it was not intended you should have come back alive_!”—There can be no doubt but that the Turnkey’s apprehensions were well founded.
It seems that Alderman Plomer, one of the Sheriffs who succeeded Messrs. Atkins and Wood, heard of the attempt made at the Secretary of States; and wishing to be satisfied of these facts, went to Cook in Newgate several times, and had him into the keeper’s parlour, where he conversed with him on the subject;—and on receiving a list of the names the Sheriff assured him that he had no hope of any remission of his sentence whatever, for he had offended persons too powerful to contend with; but that at the expiration of his imprisonment he would endeavour to do something for him; and befriend him;—but the Sheriff died before Cook’s time was out. Whatever my own opinion may be respecting the situation in life of the parties who opposed the remission of the sentence, or however well founded that opinion may be, I do not think myself safe in giving it publicity: I shall, therefore, only observe that it is an illustration of the old trite saying, _the truth is not at all times to be spoken_, nor indeed _in all places_!
Having stated sufficient to lay the foundation of an inquiry in a Court of Justice into the truth of Cook’s relation, I shall in this place only ask a few questions of the parties implicated; and that, too, without raising a pretence to prate about libels: in doing which it may be sufficient only to enlarge upon a sagacious and judicious remark of a worthy Magistrate, viz. How came a man of fortune and fashion to such a house?—I, therefore, shall repeat the question—What possible business could a man of rank, or respectable merchant, or clergyman, or any other man in the character of a gentleman, have, or what reasonable excuse can he make, for such frequent attendance at a low, dirty public house, in the filthy avenues of Clare Market—the common and exclusive resort of the persons I have described: and that, too, on a Sunday, which was the general, and grand day of rendezvous! and to render their excuse the more entangled and doubtful, some of the parties came a great distance, even so much as thirty miles, to join the festivity and elegant amusements of grenadiers, footmen, waiters, drummers, and all the Catamite brood, kneaded into human shape, _from the sweepings of Sodom_, _with the spawn of Gomorrah_.
It may naturally be supposed that this vice is more expensive than any other, and is the vortex that engulphs the property of men, whose acquaintance are astonished at the mode of their getting rid of their fortunes. I remember a man, who had a place of great emolument, a considerable sum of ready money, and thirty thousand pounds, the fortune of an ill-fated woman whom he married; all of which vanished, without a trace of its destination;—he was reduced to the necessity of continually raising small sums by the most unworthy means: but I am now satisfied of the means by which he squandered away his property.—I think he is dead, as I observe another gentleman filling his situation; his memory and his crimes shall never be disturbed by me: and there cannot be any doubt but that many men under the same circumstances are brought to beggary by similar pursuits.
The reader will recollect that I declared myself an advocate for the oppressed of every description; a declaration I shall elucidate in the close of these pages, and which will be found to originate in Cook’s anxiety to expose the parties implicated in the atrocious scenes related: and it must be lamented, that in this instance, as in all others where indigence has to combat with wealth, this man has raised a host of powerful enemies; for there is scarcely any description of men, but some individual is comprehended in the associates of this vice; even men in the sacerdotal garb have descended from the pulpit to the gully-hole of breathing infamy in Vere-street, and other places for similar vice: but I must spare myself and my readers the ungracious task of pursuing, in detail, circumstances that almost chill the blood to think of, and afflict me with the same sensation that a crimping knife on my side would create.—I will therefore briefly consider the origin and progress of this crime, which is so detestable, that the law of England blushes to name it; and in all legal process, treats it as a crime not fit to be named among Christians; a silence, which is also preserved by the edict of Constantius, and others. Indeed, the express law of GOD dooms the offender to death; and of the verity of this Divine declaration we have a signal instance, long before the Jewish dispensation, by the destruction of two cities by fire from heaven, so that this is a universal, and not a provincial or local precept; and our ancient laws seem implicitly to have followed this divine decree, by commanding such miscreants to be burnt to death; though Fleta says they should be buried alive:—both these punishments were inflicted by the ancient Goths.
Reading a foreign history, the locality of which I do not remember, I found the description of another punishment, called the _Embrace_;—which put an end to the criminal’s existence, by a machine constructed in the form of a beautiful woman, and so contrived, that the miserable victim was pressed to death by being folded in her arms. This crime, however detestable, has certainly spread itself, and tainted the whole face of the creation; and it is an erroneous notion entertained by the people of this country, that it is tolerated in Italy, and some parts of the continent; for the laws against it are pretty general in every country, though, perhaps, like ours, they relax in the necessary severity.