The Gentleman's Magazine reported in 1766 that the "two women had lived together for six and thirty years, as man and wife, and kept a public house, without ever being suspected." James How had married his wife in 1730, they became affluent and James served as a parish official (though his effeminacy was remarked upon). Image: passing through the dockside hamlet of Poplar, in the mid-18th century, and stopping off for refreshment at The White Horse, may have been surprised to learn that the publican was a "female husband". The female husband of Poplar This post now marks the spot where Poplar's White Horse pub once stood. Damer ignored these attacks but they did affect the way that she and her long-term partner Mary Berry (who lived nearby at Strawberry Hill) organised their 40 year long relationship. In 1794 another satirical pamphlet repeated the accusation, this time in a public print. The diarist Hester Thrale quoted an epigram that was doing the rounds in society circles in 1790:Ĭomes near – Aye very near – to Damn her. A decade later, Damer's friendship with the actress Elizabeth Farren brought renewed gossip and abuse. One 18th-century diarist described her as being "a Lady much suspected of liking her own Sex in a criminal Way." A pamphlet published in 1778, 'A Sapphick Epistle, from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and Most Beautiful Mrs' D****', suggesting she was a 'Tommy' may also have been an attack on Walpole. The successful sculptor Anne Damer - a cousin and close friend of Horace Walpole (who left her a life interest in Strawberry Hill in 1787) - suffered a number of public and private attacks on her as a lesbian. Women who loved women were often prey to gossip in late 18th century London. 1798 caricature of Anne Seymour Damer chiseling the posterior of a large Apollo. Women who loved women "The Damerian Apollo".
It's thought that D'Eon was Britain's first openly-transvestite man. After moving between England and France, living as a woman, d’Eon returned to London in 1785 and made money through fencing tournaments. Crowds would gather if d'Eon was recognised, until d'Eon no longer felt safe on the London streets. Indeed, there was constant wagering about D'Eon's sex. Public domain.įrom the 1770s there were rumours that the Chevalier D'Eon, a French soldier, diplomat and spy, was a woman. Britain's first openly-transvestite man Thomas Stewart's portrait of Chevalier d'Eon, which can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery.