Thomas Chamberlain, of St. Mary Magdalen, was indicted for a Misdemeanor in assaulting Peter Carefoot, on the 9th of March last, with an Intent to commit that heinous and detestable Sin of Sodomy with the said Peterful Carefoot, who thus depos'd,
I coming a Stranger out of the Country in March last, had Commendations to the Landlord who keeps the Guy Earl of Warwick in Milk-street, to which Place I came, and there immediately fell in Company with the Prisoner at the Bar; I had then a Letter which was to be delivered in Burleigh-Street in the Strand; to which Place the Prisoner offered his Service to conduct me as I was a Stranger in Town;
I accepted of his Offer, and after that he asked me to walk in the Park, and he would shew me the Curiosities of that Place, to which I consented; we walked there till dark, and then sitting down upon a Bench the Prisoner began to kiss me, and put his Hands in my Breeches, saying, he could tell whether I had been playing the Rogue with the Girls in the Country;
after this he prevailed with me to go home with him to the Guy Earl of Warwick in Milk-street, where he was a Lodger; when he was in Bed he began to kiss me again; and in Such Sort as is Scarce decent to express, and threw himself upon my Body in a Beastly Manner.
Mr. Rowe (who keeps the Guy Earl of Warwick) depos'd,
That the Prisoner had been a Lodger in his House for some Time, and behaved himself very much like a Gentleman, that he kept his Room, to himself, and would never consent to let any other Gentleman lay with him though he had been often importuned to do it by this Deponent, who had sometimes Customers who would have been glad to have lain with the Prisoner, but he would not suffer it.
The Prosecutor being asked why he did not lay these Things to the Prisoner's Charge sooner, the Fact being committed in March last, and he not making it known till August, said, That he being unacquainted with the Ways of the Town, and being a Stranger to the Law on Such Occasions, he said nothing of it till he heard the Prisoner was taken up for an Offence of the like Nature:
When he told the Landlord of the Guy Earl of Warwick, of the IndecenciesIndecencies the Prisoner had offered to him; who acquainted some of the Gentlemen with it that belong to the Reformation of Manners.
Upon the whole, the Court examining into those Niceties which are not proper to be mentioned in a publick, Paper, found that he was guilty of Actions that are in their Nature both immodest and filthy, though they did not amount to that grand Action of Inhumanity call'd Sodomy;
upon which the Jury found him guilty of the Assault.
[Punishments: fine; imprisonment]
