Thomas Rodin, was indicted for a Misdemeanour, in Assaulting a Person unknown, with an intent to commit the unnatural and detestable Sin of Sodomy.
Henry Clayton deposed, that he and the prisoner lodged in one Room, at Peter Wright 's a Shoemaker, at the 3 Shoes in Long Alley in Moorfields ; that sometime in March last, but what day he could not remember, a stranger accidentally came thither to Lodge;
at night this Evidence went to bed, and the prisoner and stranger between 10 and 11 came up, it was a Moonlight night: the stranger was drunk, and the prisoner acted with him as in Cohabiting with a Woman, and said he receiv'd more pleasure in lying with a Man, than with the finest Woman in the World;
being askt why he did not prosecute sooner, he answer'd that he ow'd his Landlady Wright 12 or 13 £. and was afraid to say any thing till he had clear'd that Account; after which he indicted his Landlady at Hick's Hall for a Bawd, which she moved with a Certiorari, and then he prefer'd the Bill against the prisoner.
The prisoner in his defence, call'd Elizabeth Wright, who deposed, that Clayton was a scandalous Villain, and that the prisoner was a poor honest ignorant industrious Fellow, and by reason of his business commonly went to Bed by 5 or 6 a Clock, and never sat up so late as Clayton said it was when he came up with the stranger,
and that Clayton had spitefully charged the prisoner with this Fact, because the prisoner had Indicted Angelica Lathom, who kept Company with Clayton, and had several Husbands beside; that the prisoner had a Wife, and they had lived together above a 12 Month at her House.
The Jury acquitted him.
