Sodomy on The Earl Temple

Joost Schouten was one of the most capable employees of the Dutch East India Company during the seventeenth-century and so it probably surprised a number of his contemporaries when, on Monday 11 July 1644 in Batavia (now known as Jakarta) he was strangled to death and his body burnt. Schouten had readily confessed to crimes of engaging in homosexual relations while on board a ship called the Franeker, which was travelling from Aceh to Malacca in 1641. The punishment for sodomy was extraordinarily severe because participants were perceived to be committing a crime against the laws of nature and the word of God. Schouten’s swift downfall (he was convicted two days before his execution) is one of the many reasons why he remains an interesting figure for historians to study.

Adam Matthews’ recently launched Factory Records contains another equally fascinating case of sodomy in eighteenth-century Batavia. On the 13th February 1762 John Smith, Chief Mate (a rank below Captain) of an English East India Company ship called the Earl Temple, was accused by John Pettifer of committing a ‘beastly act of sodomy’ upon him. In a letter to the Deputy Governor of Fort Marlborough, which was transcribed in a diary by an employee of the East India Company, Pettifer details the ways in which Smith allegedly tried to abuse his power as Chief Mate after offering his cabin as a place that Pettifer could write his journal:

^{Pettifer’s letter regarding John Smith’s conduct, 13 February 1762 (British Library IOR/G/35/71). © The British Library Board. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To see this document in the collection click the image.}

Smith vociferously denied the claims of Pettifer and willingly disembarked the Earl Temple to ‘vindicate his character’; a completely different reaction to that of Schouten. Smith was committed to house confinement until he could be sent back to England to face trial because there was ‘no proper prison’ in Batavia.

Despite the disparate approaches that each man took towards the accusation, the similarities between each case are intriguing. For example, on the 1st April 1762 this report had been received at the Fort:

^{The report of Smith’s escape from confinement, 1 April 1762 (British Library IOR/G/35/71). © The British Library Board. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To see this document in the collection click the image.}

Although falling short of Smith’s success as detailed above, a daring prison-break for Joost Schouten was also planned by his close relatives and friends. The governor-general threatened to execute Schouten’s family members if the prison-break was successful. We also learn that Smith allegedly bribed Pettifer with money, which is akin to Schouten who tried to bribe his accuser with presents and gold ducats.

After Smith’s escape from house confinement, there is no mention of him in the rest of the diary. However, an entry in a different diary for the two years after 1762 mentions this:

^{The fate of John Smith, Chief Mate of the Earl Temple, 22 September 1764 (British Library IOR/G/35/72). © The British Library Board. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To see this document in the collection click the image.}

It seems Smith was found by the authorities but, frustratingly, no indication is given about the cause of his death. Whether or not Smith was found guilty of sodomy is also a lingering question, but it seems doubtful because his trial was to be held in England. The swiftness of Schouten’s execution compared to the relative laxness in which the authorities dealt with Smith may also be attributed to Smith taking the perceived masculine sexual role, whereas Schouten took the “womanly” role. In any case, it does not seem that Smith was able to clear his name or that he suffered the fate of Schouten, whose execution and its ramifications reverberated throughout the Dutch East India Company just over a hundred years before the accusation against Smith.

East India Company, Module 1: Trade, Governance and Empire and Module 2: Factory Records for South Asia and South-East Asia are available now to purchase. Module 3: Factory Records for China, Japan and the Middle East will publish in 2019. For more information, including free trial access and price enquiries, please email us at info@amdigital.co.uk.