London — The “Buggery Act” (1533), formally titled An Acte for the punishment of the vice of Buggerie, was England’s first civil sodomy law, enacted during Henry VIII’s reign and piloted by Thomas Cromwell. It criminalized “buggery“—interpreted by courts as anal penetration and bestiality—making it punishable by death, shifting such offenses from ecclesiastical to secular jurisdiction.
Repealed under Queen Mary I in 1553, it was reinstated by Elizabeth I in 1562 and remained in force until replaced by the Offences Against the Person Act (1828), with the death penalty for buggery persisting until 1861.
Determining the exact number of gay men executed under the Buggery Act 1533 is challenging due to incomplete historical records, inconsistent enforcement, and the broad application of the law.
Historical evidence suggests that executions specifically for homosexual acts under the Buggery Act were relatively rare in the 16th and 17th centuries and often tied to broader political or criminal accusations.
The first recorded execution occurred on July 28, 1540, when Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford, was beheaded on Tower Hill alongside Thomas Cromwell. Hungerford faced charges of treason, witchcraft, and buggery with his servants, though the buggery accusation may have been added to humiliate him or bolster the case. This remains the only well-documented Tudor-era execution explicitly linked to the Act’s sodomy provisions, and some historians argue it was politically motivated rather than a straightforward prosecution of homosexuality.
From the Act’s inception in 1533 through the 17th century, prosecutions for sodomy alone were sparse—fewer than a dozen are recorded up to 1660, possibly due to limited surviving records or lax enforcement. The law’s vagueness and the requirement for clear evidence (e.g., two witnesses) made convictions difficult unless paired with other crimes. For instance, Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, was executed in 1631 for sodomy and assisting rape, but his case involved multiple charges and noble privilege, not solely homosexual acts.
Executions increased in the 18th and early 19th centuries as societal attitudes hardened and legal records became more detailed. Between 1806 and 1835, approximately 404 men were sentenced to death for sodomy in England, with at least 56 executed, according to estimates derived from court records and newspaper accounts.
The last two men hanged for sodomy were James Pratt and John Smith, executed on November 27, 1835, outside Newgate Prison in London, convicted of buggery after being caught in a Southwark lodging. This marked the end of executions under the law, though the death penalty remained legally possible until 1861, when it was replaced with imprisonment under the Offences Against the Person Act (1861).
No comprehensive tally exists for the total number of gay men killed over the Act’s 300-year span (1533–1835). The term “buggery” encompassed acts beyond male homosexuality, including bestiality and, initially, heterosexual sodomy, complicating statistics.
Many prosecutions targeted behavior rather than identity, and “gay men” as a modern category didn’t exist in Elizabethan or later legal contexts—records focus on acts, not orientation. Estimates suggest a minimum of 60–70 executions specifically for male sodomy across three centuries, with the true number likely higher but obscured by lost records, unreported cases, or convictions masked as “attempted buggery” or other offenses.
Speculation about hundreds or thousands of deaths often arises from the law’s long duration and harsh penalty, but evidence doesn’t support such figures. Enforcement varied widely: the 16th century saw minimal use, the 17th century sporadic cases, and the 18th–19th centuries a sharper rise amid growing moral panic and urban “molly house” raids.
Still, the Act’s primary historical impact may lie less in executions and more in its role as a tool of fear, political leverage (e.g., against monasteries during the Dissolution), and colonial exportation of anti-sodomy laws.
Although precise figures elude us, at least 56 men were executed for sodomy between 1806 and 1835, with earlier cases like Hungerford and Tuchet adding to a conservative estimate of 60–70 over the Act’s enforcement. The actual toll could be modestly higher, but claims of mass executions lack substantiation from surviving records.
England’s First Sodomy Law Saw Hundreds Sentenced to Death (March 10, 2025)
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