Author: Church, John
Biography:
CHURCH, John (1803-60: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 9 Dec. 1803 in Westminster, London, and baptised as John William Church along with two other siblings on 30 Apr. 1813 at St. Mary, Lambeth, the second child of six children of Rev. John Church and his wife Keziah Elliott, who had married at St. Mary’s in the Strand, Westminster, in 1801. His father was openly gay and officiated in various molly or marrying houses in Soho and Marylebone before a church living was found for him in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Charges of sodomy were soon levelled against him and in 1808 he fled to Birmingham but around 1810 returned to London, settling first at Chapel Court, Borough, and then at the Surrey Tabernacle (known as the Obelisk Tabernacle), Borough. He was convicted of sodomy in 1817 and served over two years in Newington gaol. (For a full account of his life, see the references below.) As J. Church, jun., John William Church signed the dedication of The Fall of Jerusalem; A Poem (1823) from Tabernacle House, with his father taking four copies and members of the Bloodworth family two. He married Caroline Bloodworth (1802-86) on 8 May 1827 at St. Mary Newington, Lambeth. They went on to to have at least three children. In 1851 they were living in Lark Hill Lane, Clapham, with him giving his occupation as “Dramatic Author,” although no further publications have been traced; his death certificate later recorded him as the "proprietor of a laundry." In the Census his wife is identified as a “Clear Starcher.” He died at Clapham on 3 Nov. 1860 and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, leaving an estate of under £300. His wife, Caroline, also died there in 1886, leaving an estate of almost £2000. (ancestry.co.uk 31 May 2023; findmypast.co.uk 31 May 2023; The Infamous Life of John Church, the St. George’s Fields Preacher [1817]; John Church [the elder], The Foundling; or, The Child of Providence [1823]; Rictor Norton, “Rev. John Church, England’s First Gay Minister,” Gay History and Literature, rictornorton.co.uk/church.htm) AA
Other Names:
- John Church, Jr.