ABSTRACT
In 1874, seaman Robert Simpson of HMS Invincible pleaded guilty to same-sex acts. The court trying Simpson also acquitted another sailor, Henry Keenor, who had been charged with being Simpson’s sex partner. The records of this brief trial survive because of irregularities in the court’s proceedings. The Admiralty sent them to its legal advisors for post-conviction review, and when those advisors found problems, officials preserved the records. 1 The review had flagged several causes for concern, including that the evidence against Simpson was insufficient to convict him on its own absent his confession and that the court had received additional evidence after his guilty plea. The court’s sentence of five years’ penal servitude was also a problem, as it fell below the minimum term for a conviction of this sort. Nonetheless, officials at the Admiralty agreed to let the sentence stand. Simpson was returned to England and sent to Pentonville Prison. The documents here are the official record of Simpson and Keenor’s trial.
