The BECKFORD SCANDAL The BECKFORD SCANDAL When William Beckford left England in In Beckford’s lifetime the only way to From childhood, William Beckford was 1785 he entered a period of exile that escape the threat of arrest was to escape groomed by his mother to be the son would last a decade. Having been one of the country. Exile from England, and who would elevate his wealthy family the most celebrated members of 18th more importantly from his home at into the peerage. When William was just century society, for the rest of his life he Fonthill in Wiltshire, had a powerful nine years old his father died, leaving him would be a social outcast. The reason for impact on the rest of Beckford’s life. His – the only legitimate child and heir – the this exile was the exposure of his time spent in exile influenced everything richest person in England. Although relationship with William ‘Kitty’ from the evolution of Fonthill Abbey and Beckford was privileged to have some of Courtenay, the heir to Powderham Castle its landscape in the 1790s, to the creation the best tutors in the country, he was in Devon. For Beckford, the exposure of of his retreat from society in Bath at educated at home, and his younger years this homosexual relationship threatened Lansdown Tower (more commonly were shaped by his mother and her plans not just social exile, but the risk of known as Beckford’s Tower). for his future. imprisonment and execution. Certain sexual acts between men had been At seventeen, Beckford embarked on his defined as criminal and punishable by first trip abroad. He visited Geneva with death since 1558, when Elizabeth I his tutor, and during this time he became reinstated Henry VIII’s 1553 Buggery infatuated with an unnamed youth. The Act. During Beckford’s youth the high following year Mrs Beckford, concerned profile case of Captain Robert Jones in about her son’s behaviour, travelled to 1772 had resulted in England’s first Switzerland to escort him home. public debate about homosexuality. Sir William and the first Lady Hamilton in their villa in Naples. By David Allen, 1770. Courtesy of Compton Verney. In the summer of 1779, at the age of impending coming of age and the weight In the summer of 1780, Beckford In Lady Hamilton, Beckford found a nineteen, Beckford took a tour of of responsibility it would bring. His embarked on his Grand Tour of the confidant, someone who could offer him England visiting the country estates of his longing for the freedom and innocence Continent. During his time in Venice, he comfort and guidance through a soon-to-be peers. In Devon Beckford of youth is preserved in a letter, where he became involved with the son of a turbulent time. Knowing Beckford’s visited Powderham Castle, the seat of wrote “How firmly I am resolved to stay a wealthy Venetian family, the Cornaros. personality and aware of his Venetian Viscount Courtenay who was a distant child forever.” When the time came to leave Venice, affair, Lady Hamilton urged him to be relation of the Beckford family. It was at Beckford was unhappily aware of the careful what he shared in letters and to Powderham that Beckford met the heir to However, Kitty wasn’t the only person to situation the expression of his sexuality temper his strong emotions. the title and estate, William ‘Kitty’ find himself fascinated with Beckford could place him in. In the autumn of the Courtenay, the only son out of the that year. Viscount Courtenay’s same year, Beckford travelled to Naples Viscount’s thirteen children. unmarried sister, Charlotte, became to spend time with his cousin Sir William infatuated with Beckford, and it was also Hamilton and his wife, Lady Catherine. Beckford found himself growing close to around this time that Beckford met Kitty, and Beckford’s biographers have Louisa, the wife of his cousin Peter noted that his early relationship with Kitty Beckford. Louisa became so hopelessly was one centred around shared dreams, taken with Beckford that she was willing ideas, and an innocence of youth, rather to help arrange his other affairs in an than an explicitly sexual attraction. attempt to retain his affection. Beckford was acutely aware of his Once again, Beckford embarked on a Although it was not initially a love match, succession of travels throughout Europe. Beckford and his wife had a deep During this time he wrote a series of commitment rooted in respect and letters intended to form his second book, fondness for each other – something Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and which was soon to be tested. Incidents. The letters conveyed his profound appreciation for art, nature, In the spring of 1784, Beckford became and architecture and made no attempt to Member of Parliament for Wells, bringing mask how deeply his emotions ran. In him one step closer to the peerage. 1783, Beckford’s family suppressed the However, later that year Beckford found publication of the book for its uninhibited himself at Powderham Castle once again. text which focused heavily on Beckford’s personal feelings. This time Beckford was caught in a compromising situation with Kitty, Beckford had sensed that his coming of supposedly following an argument they age party and subsequent travels would had over a letter in Kitty’s possession. be his last days of youth and freedom Letters between Beckford and Kitty were before the life that his mother had intercepted by Kitty’s uncle, Lord planned would be forced upon him, and Loughborough, and their affair was he was correct. By November 1782, eventually deliberately leaked to the Beckford had returned to England. The press. The story masked the names of William Beckford by George Romney, William ‘Kitty’ Courtenay by George Romney, courtesy of Upton House. courtesy of The Nemours Foundation. following May, he married Lady Margaret those involved, but gave enough Gordon, temporarily dispelling any suggestions for readers to understand to In 1781, Beckford turned 21. To escorted by their acknowledged lovers. rumours of homosexual scandal. whom it referred. celebrate his birthday, a wildly lavish In the days immediately following his party was thrown at Fonthill in the birthday celebrations, Beckford claims to mansion built by his father. Scandal soon have written his Gothic novel, Vathek. erupted around the celebrations, but for To commemorate this coming of age, a once they did not directly involve full-length portrait of Beckford was Beckford. Louisa Beckford and a friend, painted by George Romney. A similar both married, had attended the party portrait of Kitty was also commissioned without their husbands and instead were from the artist. The scandal surrounding Beckford and Kitty was enough to deny Beckford any hope of the peerage which was to have been bestowed on him in less than a month’s time. Homosexuality was still punishable by death in Britain and although Beckford wasn’t issued with a warrant for arrest, his high profile and the general public’s intolerance of homosexuality made for a looming threat.

Lady Margaret’s family gave her the opportunity to leave Beckford in the wake of the scandal, but she refused to leave her husband’s side. Instead, Beckford and his wife decided to retreat to Europe, and based themselves in The Beckford Children: Margaret Beckford, later Switzerland. In Vevey, Beckford’s wife Margaret Orde, and Susan Euphemia Beckford, later Duchess of Hamilton. By George Romney, ca.1789-91. Margaret died just twelve days after Courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections. giving birth to their second daughter, Susan Euphemia. She was only 23 years old. Lady Margaret’s death completely devastated Beckford and there is no evidence to show Beckford had any Beckford remained in Europe until 1795 Beckford with a retreat where he could subsequent romantic relationships before returning to Britain and the live surrounded by his own landscape with women. Fonthill estate. He constructed a barrier and be called on only by a select group wall around the estate within which the of visitors. building of Fonthill Abbey began in the summer of 1796, designed by the By 1819, building at Fonthill Abbey had architect James Wyatt. Beckford wanted finally been completed, however his new home to be completed as quickly Beckford’s architectural extravagance in as possible, and even paid for workers to its building had drained him of his have lamps so they could work through fortune. Fonthill Abbey and many of its the night. This hastiness led to the main contents were put up for auction in a tower collapsing twice during building, ticketed sale in 1822 that lasted over a but Beckford simply demanded it be month and garnered huge amounts of rebuilt again, and this time even grander public attention. in design. Fonthill Abbey provided In 1785, the same year Beckford went into exile abroad, Jeremy Bentham’s essay Offences Against One’s Self became the first publication in England to argue for the liberalisation of the laws prohibiting homosexual sex.

The last two men to be sentenced to death under a conviction for sodomy were James Pratt and John Smith, both consenting men in their thirties. Pratt and Smith were sentenced to a public hanging, which took place outside Newgate Prison in London in 1835. It wasn’t until 1861, seventeen years after Beckford’s death, that the death penalty for these offences was finally abolished in Great Britain.

Jeremy Bentham. Line engraving by W. H. Worthington after himself. In 1822, Beckford sold Fonthill Abbey top would not include the city of Bath. and made the move to Bath. After a brief Bath was still a popular destination and a stay on Great Pulteney Street, he social hub, hosting gambling evenings, purchased a series of houses in concerts and dances on a regular basis. Lansdown Crescent. It wasn’t long While Beckford is known to have before Beckford decided to embark on attended some select concerts and another architectural project, this time a events, his preference for spending time neoclassical tower at the top of a mile- in the Tower with his collection and the long strip of land behind Lansdown views suggests that he was still wary of Crescent which he had created through the society which had treated him so leasing and purchasing. poorly in the wake of his sexual orientation being publicised. Completed in 1827, Lansdown Tower provided Beckford with the opportunity William Beckford remained a social once again to retreat within a sweeping outcast for the rest if his life. He died on landscape. He deliberately chose to the 2nd of May, 1844, at Lansdown situate the Tower so that views from its Crescent in Bath. Written by Courtney Fleming and Dr. Amy Frost in 2017 to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act 1967 which decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales.

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Cover Image: William Beckford by John Hoppner courtesy of Saltford City Art Gallery.