Her Story

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Claire Pickering, Wakefield library, and The Diary -writer speaks in a Yorkshire accent

A Diary written by a Yorkshire farmer in front of More Than 200 years, is celebrated as the provision of values, evidence of tolerance remarkable thought towards homosexuality in the UK much earlier than in The Past .

a Historian at the University of Oxford were surprised to discover that Matthew Tomlinson's Diary of 1810 contains such a open-minded Views on same-sex attraction as a "Natural " human tendency.

The Diary challenges the preconceptions about what "show normal people" thoughts on homosexuality, there was a debate about whether someone really should be discriminated against, their sexuality.

"In this exciting new discovery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argues that homosexuality is innate and something that should not be Punished with death," says the Oxford researchers Eamonn O'keeffe.

The diaries were lived hand-written by Tomlinson in the farmhouse, where he worked

The Historian Tomlinson, the hand-written diaries, which have been stored in the Wakefield library had been studied since the 1950s.

The thousands of pages of the diaries have never been transcribed the researchers used interested in Tomlinson ' s eye-witness accounts of elections in Yorkshire and the Luddites smashing the machines.

But O'keeffe, came across what seemed to be, for the era of George Iii , a rather surprising series of arguments about same-sex Relationships .

Tomlinson asked, of what was a great sex scandal of The Day in which a respected naval surgeon had been found that Homo-sexual acts.

Historian Eamonn O'keeffe, says the diaries give a rare insight into the Views of "Ordinary People " in the early 1800s

A court-martial was ordered to be hanged him, But Tomlinson did not seem convinced of the decision, to ask whether what the Newspapers was as an "unnatural act" is really unnatural.

Tomlinson argues, from a religious perspective, that the punishment of someone, and how they came to was equivalent to say that there is something wrong with The Creator .

"It must appear strange that in fact the Almighty God should make a creature with such a Nature , or such a deficiency in the Natural ; and at the same time a decree, that, if, that, what he had formed, should always follow the dictates of Nature , with which he was formed, he should be Punished with death," he wrote on 14. January 1810 .

If there is a "propensity and tendency" for someone who is gay, from an early age, he wrote, "it must then, as a Natural , otherwise, a defect in Nature , and if, of course, or a defect in Nature ; it seems to be Punished in a cruel way, that the defect with the death".

The writer refers, to be informed by others, that homosexuality was discussing, obviously, from an early age - suggesting that Tomlinson and his social environment had talked about this case and something that was not unknown to them.

Around This Time , and also in West Yorkshire , a local landowner, Anne Lister , writing an encoded Diary about her lesbian Relationships - with your story-told in the TV series, Gentleman Jack . to know

But , what "normal people" thought, such behavior is always difficult - not least because the loudest of the rich and powerful are the votes received in the rule.

What has excited academics is the chance to eavesdrop on you, the host on a daily country, according to the thinking in his Diary

Tomlinson was appalled by the corruption in elections

"What is striking is that he's an ordinary guy, he is not a member of The Bohemian circles, or an intellectual," says O'keeffe, a graduate student in Oxford in the Department of history.

could have An acceptance of homosexuality, have been expressed privately in aristocratic or philosophical radical circles - But that has been discussed for a rural worker.

"It shows that the opinions of the people in The Past were not so monolithic as we might think," says O'keeffe, originally from Canada.

"although this was a time of persecution and intolerance against same-sex Relationships , here is an ordinary person, to swim against the stream and sees what he reads in the newspaper and questions these assumptions. "

Claire Pickering, a library manager in Wakefield, says the single-minded Tomlinson to speak The Words , which with a Yorkshire accent.

There are three volumes of the Tomlinson diaries at Wakefield library

He was A Man with a "hungry spirit," says you, someone who heard much of the opinion of the people before his own conclusions.

The Diary , presumably compiled after a hard day's work, was not His Way of being a writer and commentator, if otherwise, "that was his station in life," she says.

O'keeffe says, it shows the ideas were widespread "seeping through British society much earlier and further than we would expect" - with The Diary to work through the debates that Tomlinson had with his neighbors.

But these were yet far from modern, liberal Views , and O'keeffe, you can be very shrill "" - arguments.

to take into account If someone was gay by choice, But by Nature , Tomlinson was willing that they should be Punished - suggest castration as more moderate than the death penalty.

Tomlinson's former home was still in The 1930S (bottom left), But has since disappeared under housing and a Golf course

O'keeffe, says the discovery is evidence that this type of debate has enriched both "and complicated," what do we know about Public Opinion in this pre-Victorian era.

The Diary arouses international interest.

Prof Fara Dabhoiwala, of Princeton University in the USA, an expert in the history of attitudes to sexuality, describing it as "living proof" that "the historical setting of the same-sex behavior might be more sympathetic suspected to be the master".

Instead of seeing homosexuality as a "terrible perversion", Prof Dabholwala, says the record of a country showed in 1810 , was able to see it, as a "Natural , God-given human quality".

Rictor Norton, an expert in gay history, said there had been earlier arguments of the defense, the homosexuality as, of course, But these were more of a philosopher than a farmer.

"It is extraordinary to find a normal, casual observers, 1810 , seriously considering the possibility that sexuality is innate, and arguments for decriminalization," says Dr. Norton.

Who was the author of this Diary ?

Matthew Tomlinson was a widower in his 40s when he wrote his Diary in the years 1810 - A Man with a "medium" class, not a poor worker, But not rich enough to own land.

"I try to imagine how he would have looked like," says library manager Ms Pickering.

There are no images of Tomlinson, which is thought, lived between 1770 and 1850.

"Very dour," she suggests. And a "bit of a Hypochondriac ".

There are thousands of pages, hand-written journals, But some volumes are apparently lost

"I can imagine, if you kept him at his gate for a chat, he would talk about his gout and More Than Anything Else .

"I would like to have a conversation with him about what was Wakefield, in the time," she says.

no one knows how these private diaries, covering from 1806 to 1839, which ended in the Wakefield library, But they were the ones from the 1950s, and are probably part of an earlier collection of ancient books and local documents.

There are three surviving volumes, and at least eight more are still missing.

But they show in a vivid detail about life in Wakefield in the early 19Th Century .

Tomlinson, from his house to the Doghouse Farm, took The Life in the vicinity of Wakefield

In the case of elections, Tomlinson was appalled by the corruption, the rum drinkers will have to be done at home in wheelbarrows and the "ruffians hired".

And in Queen Victoria ' s coronation, he was skeptical of expensive ceremonies and celebrations, calling it all "humbug".

This was not a closed world. To be his social circle avid reader of books and Newspapers appeared, according to reports from revolutions abroad and riots and rebellions at home.

they saw the elephants marching through Wakefield in a circus parade, and military bands were the only candidates, hire The Most talented black musicians.

We know where he lived - Doghouse Farm, Lupset, because he carefully he wrote on The Front of his magazines.

The Farm , on The Edge of the owner's property, is now under a residential complex and a Golf course. All That survived of his diaries.

Tomlinson signed a series of observations about his home town of Wakefield

lgbt, wakefield

Source of news: bbc.com