Out of Their Trees 3

Will Young (b.1979) – Part 1

Having watched every UK episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” I find it remarkable that 2 of England’s most popular gay entertainers, Stephen Fry and Julian Clary, have Germanic ancestry. But my own research has uncovered another gay entertainer with Germanic blood – singer Will Young.

Last night Will Young performed here in Nottingham on his latest national tour. His ancestry is one of the most varied and fascinating that I have researched. It could easily fill 2 episodes of “WDYTUR?” It’ll be difficult to squash it all into one blog entry so I’ll split it into 2. I’ll begin with his German roots.

Way back in the mid-18^th century an impoverished German aristocrat, Friedrich von Geyer, emigrated to Boston, New England. There he met and married a colonist, Susannah Ingraham. She is descended from several early settler families of America going back to about 1630.

Charlotte von Geyer, Friedrich’s daughter, married Joseph Marryat in Boston in 1789. Joseph’s father Thomas was a real eccentric. After following his own father into the Presbyterian ministry in Sussex Thomas suddenly dropped his congregation and family for the life of a travelling doctor, going around Europe, America and Ireland. His eccentric treatments included giving paper boiled in milk to dysentery patients.

Dr. Marryat’s son Joseph was an English merchant who had business interests in New York and the Caribbean. As a colonial agent he was also responsible for the supply of African slaves to plantation owners. It is probably no surprise to learn that Joseph Marryat actively petitioned against the abolition of slavery.

The Marryats settled in England after the Norman Conquest but never lost their connection with France. In the 16^th century they fought with the French Protestant Huguenots against the Catholic French monarchy. They escaped the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572 by hiding in the English ambassador’s home. In 1590 they fought in the Battle of Ivry which defeated the Catholic faction. For their part in this victory the Marryats were granted an addition to their coat of arms of a French fleur-de-lys.

In 1790 Joseph Marryat’s son Charles married Caroline Short, a lady of solid West Country ancestry. The Short family had lived in Devon for several hundred years, but Caroline’s mother’s family have lived in Cornwall for considerably many more. Among her most ancient ancestors were the Polwhele family. They had been in Cornwall since Saxon times.

John Polwhele was MP in 1640, and through his wife Anne Will Young is descended from King Edward III. It also gives Will a descent from a Catholic Cardinal. Henry Beaufort (grandson of Edward III) was appointed Bishop of Lincoln in 1398, Winchester in 1405, and cardinal in 1426. His illegitimate daughter married Sir Edward Stradling and it’s from this couple that Will Young inherits his English royal blood and a direct line to that well-known “queen” of England, Edward II.

Another religious link appears in the Short family - Caroline’s brother was the first Anglican Bishop of Adelaide. But that’s not the only Aussie connection, because Augusta, the daughter of Caroline and her husband Charles Marryat, lifted the family status up a notch in 1848 by marrying Sir Henry Young who in the following year became a colonial governor, first of South Australia, then of Tasmania (his father was Sir Aretas Young, Governor of Prince Edward Island, Canada). Their standing in the colony is reflected in the fact that Port Augusta in South Australia was named after Will Young’s ancestor Lady Augusta (Marryat) Young. Will Young is Sir Henry’s great-great-great-grandson.

Will’s grandmother Mrs. Patricia Young has real ale in her blood (not literally, of course). Her mother was a member of the Brakspear brewing family. It may be a name familiar to some (I was raised as a teetotal Rechabite, so wouldn’t have a clue). But perhaps the surname rings another bell. I’ve already mentioned a Presbyterian minister, a Catholic cardinal and an Anglican archbishop in Will’s family. Through the Brakspear’s Will may even be related to Nicholas Brakespear who, as Adrian IV, was the only Englishman to become Pope in 1154.

We’ve seen Will’s colonial ancestry in Australia and New England. Through the Brakspears he also has colonial ancestry in India through the marriage in Delhi in 1805 of Dr. Henry Young (a different Young family) to Elizabeth Oliver. Their daughter Ann was born in Calcutta and the family returned to England shortly afterwards. Through the Olivers Will Young is descended from most of the great Scottish dynasties – Hamilton, Douglas, Drummond, Campbell, and the Royal Stewarts themselves. Will’s most recent royal ancestor is King James IV Stewart of Scotland (1473-1513). This gives Will a line of Celtic ancestors way back into the Dark Ages.

I mentioned above that John Polwhele’s wife Ann was descended from King Edward III. What I didn’t mention was the name of her family, an old family going back to the Norman Conquest – the Baskervilles.

I’ll continue the search for Will Young’s ancestry on his next birthday, 20^th January 2012, when we’ll discover his family links to the Hound of the Baskervilles, the gay origins of Robin Hood, and even Old King Cole!

Hallow Day Holiday

Yesterday was Hallowe’en. As I mentioned it is an old festival centred around the old New Year. Spirits of the dead were said to roam the earth and skies, but they were not evil spirits or zombies that people are keen to drag into the celebrations. Christianity latched onto the idea and said “if this is the day spirits of the dead roam, then that must mean Christian dead do too.” From this they came up with the idea of All Saints (or All Hallows) Day on 1^st November, when Christians remember the saints and martyrs of the early Church. November 2^nd is All Souls Day when the rest of the Christian dead are remembered.

Most festivals of remembrance of the dead take place at this time of year. But its wrong to think that they all originate in the same ancient pagan rite. After all, Armistice Day is 11^th November, well within the time limit when such festivals were celebrated, so is that too an ancient pagan festival? In many centuries from now it might be believed to be so if its true origins are forgotten like other ancient festivals.

Over the centuries Christians began to believe that spirits of the dead who went to heaven stayed there and only evil spirits and demons roamed on Hallowe’en and began to “demonise” the whole festival. Around the world today, though, there are many festivals which don’t have a dark shadow over the celebrations. Think about Japan. They have shrines to their ancestors.

In the 21^st century more people are trying to discover their own ancestors, not because they want to worship them but because they want to find out more about their family. It is the best way to reveal the hidden stories of people who would otherwise be consigned to history’s recycle bin. After all, why should only the armed forces or victims of tragedy be remembered and no-one else? Do you need to be famous before anyone notices you?

That’s one reason for the research I and other lgbt historians do. We search for those people in the past who have contributed to our history but who are in danger of being lost forever. That’s what all historians do, family historians in particular.

My gay friends know of my love for genealogy. I’ve researched the ancestries of some of them. There’s lots of amazing stories to be found. Take the ancestors of a friend who ran a gay men’s social group I go to. His great-grandparents were bigamists, another ancestor owned a pub with a secret passageway going to the local church so bell-ringers could slip down there during services, and another ended up in the workhouse because he was put out of work by textile machinery invented by his own grandfather.

One surprise I got once was when I researched the ancestry of my last partner, Mark, with whom I worked at Nottingham Castle a few years ago. I knew I was descended from King Edward II, who visited Nottingham Castle quite a lot and made his boyfriend, Piers Gaveston, Constable of the castle. Research into my partner revealed he was descended from Piers Gaveston. Fate, I thought, must have brought us together in the very place our ancestors lived. Unfortunately, I’m also descended from Roger Mortimer who murdered Edward II, and from the Earl of Warwick who murdered Piers Gaveston. So fate cancelled itself out! Pity. It would have been a perfect marketing ploy for the castle – two descendants of Edward II and Piers Gaveston “reunited” in the 20^th century (actually, we were partners AFTER we both left the castle, but it’s a cool idea).

Every now and again the government says they want to create a new Bank Holiday, usually mentioning October as a possible month. I suggest we have a “People’s Bank Holiday” on the last weekend in October or first in November to celebrate all those who have lived before us, whether we’re related to them or not. With Hallowe’en on one side and Remembrance Sunday on the other I think it’s the perfect time to regain the original idea behind the festival and celebrate the lives of our ancestors.

A Queer Hallowe'en

Strolling through the shops this month I realised that Hallowe’en is growing in size very year. And just like Christmas it lasts longer as well.

Of course it all goes back to pagan times and the celebration of the New Year. They didn’t have the luxury of a regular, precise calendar like ours. They used the stars, the sun and moon to set dates, so events weren’t always on the same date each year – just like our Easter.

The most popular costumes I saw in the shops were of witches, demons, ghosts and vampires. Whilst the first three have been around for centuries, vampires are relatively new in the west. Surprisingly, it was the 19^th century Romantic poets who established the vampire image we recognise today. Based on eastern European legends, poets like Coleridge, Shelley and Nottinghamshire’s own polysexual poet Lord Byron gave the blood-sucking demon its more human and sexual overtones which sells TV shows today.

The word vampire first appeared in 1734, taken from a French word, which in turn was adapted from the Slavonic word for a witch.

Dracula, the most famous vampire of them all, was created by Bram Stoker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde’s family, and a man who struggled with his own sexuality. Dracula was influenced by “The Vampyre” by Dr. John Polidori which in turn was influenced by one of the greatest literary “brain-storming” sessions in history.

One stormy night in 1816, in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, a group of friends gathered to drink and take drugs. Present were Shelley, his wife Mary, Byron and Polidori. As the storm raged outside they read ghost stories to each other. Then Byron challenged the group to come up with the scariest ghost story of them all. It was Mary Shelley who eventually won the contest with her story of Frankenstein.

Byron wrote down a short vampire tale of his own which he never got round to turning into a full novel, but it inspired Polidori to write “The Vampyre”.

The traditional vampire is a demon who possesses corpses and can change into animals, usually a wolf. The classic image of a vampire doesn’t come from legend or Bram Stoker. The suave charming Dracula character was created by actor Bela Lugosi on stage in 1927, and the bat comes from thousands of miles away and had nothing to do with vampires at all until a distant cousin of my grandmother, Charles Darwin, saw blood-sucking bats in South America. Darwin knew of the popularity of vampires in literature and gave them the name Vampire Bat. Since then, people get the idea (for no reason whatsoever) that vampires turn into bats – they don’t! Bram Stoker’s Dracula didn’t. Perhaps that’s why people are so scared of bats these days.

Just think – if Darwin had seen blood-sucking gerbils in South America instead of bats people would be  dressing up as gerbils for Hallowee’en instead!

Extraordinary Lives 4

Col. George Middleton (1735-1815)

Earlier this month I told you the extraordinary life of Peter Sewally, an African-American cross-dresser convicted of theft. A generation earlier another African-American became notable, but in a different way. His name was George Middleton who lived with his partner Louis Clapion (or Glapion) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Both were free black Americans at the time of the American Revolution. Clapion was originally from the French Caribbean and was probably half-white. He moved to Boston to work as a hairdresser. George Middleton was probably born and raised in Boston. When the American colonists began to fight the British Middleton joined one of only 2 newly-formed all black regiments, the Bucks of America. This regiment defended Boston citizens and merchants from attack from British Redcoats. According to some sources George Middleton was commander of the Bucks with the rank of colonel, an honorary rank he kept for the rest of his life. After independence the new American state governor recognised the Bucks’ role in the defence of Boston by presenting them with their military flag (pictured).

George Middleton then became one of the first to settle in the Beacon Hill area of Boston where a small African-American community began to settle. Middleton built and lived in a new house with his partner Louis Clapion. This house still stands and is one of the oldest in Boston and a major feature in Boston’s Black Heritage Trail.

Clapion ran his hairdressing business from the house until his death in 1813 when it was carried on by his wife. Both men were married. Men in same-sex relationships often married in those days. The notion that a gay man doesn’t marry a woman is a modern idea.

George Middleton went on to become a leading civil rights leader. He formed the African Benevolent Society in 1796 which gave financial relief to black Americans in Boston, and helped to form the first school for black children.

Rather surprisingly, Middleton was a freemason. One of his friends and fellow civil rights campaigners called Prince Hall formed the African Lodge of Freemasons, and Middleton was closely involved in its formation. He also served as Grand Master of the lodge in 1809. The Prince Hall African Lodge is still in existence.

I’ll leave the summing up of George Middleton’s life with the words of Kevin Trimell Jones, founder and curator of the Black LGBT Archivists Society of Philadelphia:

“Middleton lived a life that was dedicated to service of others and the fight for civil rights. Though questions still surround his sexual orientation, it is clear Middleton maintained close relationships and associations with men … Given his stature as a leader and his selfless contributions to the entire Boston community during the American Revolution, he stands out as a heroic figure for racial and queer communities.”

Star-Gayzing 2

SCORPIO

Today the sun enters the zodiac sign of Scorpio. Actually it enters Scorpio for only one week from 23^rd November – but horoscopes are fiction not fact.

When I began my research into “Star Gayzing” I came across a reference in “The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality” (edited by Wayne R. Dynes, 1990) which said that “a neo Babylonian text of c.500 BC says that ‘love of a man for a man’ is governed by the constellation Scorpio.” No matter how much I’ve looked I can’t find any other supporting reference.

The Babylonians believed that when the sun set it entered a tunnel into the underworld and came out at the other end each morning. The entrances to this tunnel were guarded by scorpion-men. When Scorpio rose in the night sky the Babylonians saw this as a sign that the sun would spend more time in the underworld.

Plants begin to die, the nights get longer, the days get colder, and ancient civilisations in general celebrated the “end of all things” at this time of the year. That’s why the ancients chose it as their year’s end and why they put so much emphasis on the dead (see my coming entry on Hallowe’en).

The only lgbt connection I can make with Scorpio comes with this idea of the descent into the underworld. The legendary King Gilgamesh travels to the mouth of the tunnel hoping to be allowed into the underworld in search of immortality. The scorpion-men, knowing Gilgamesh is a favourite of the sun god, let him pass.

Gilgamesh was a promiscuous ruler, having his wicked way with anyone he wished. So the goddess of creation created a wild man called Enkidu out of clay. Enkidu’s purpose was to show Gilgamesh the true meaning of love. It worked. After the obligatory fight when they first meet (a common folk motif in heroes, Robin Hood and Little John is another example), Gilgamesh and Enkidu became friends and companions on many adventures. The surviving version of the Epic makes many puns and references to the intimate sexual nature of their relationship. Perhaps they are the very first “gay” heroes, the Epic dating from the time of the fictional movie heroes Conan and the Scorpion King, and predating the Ancient Greek heroes such as Hercules by 1,000 years.

When Gilgamesh turns down an amorous approach from the goddess of love the gods punish him by killing Enkidu. This is why Gilgamesh travelled to the underworld in search of immortality.

Perhaps the Epic of Gilgamesh and his journey to the underworld was especially commemorated at this time of year in Babylonia, when Scorpio rises and the way to the underworld is revealed. Perhaps that is why the later Babylonians equated the constellation with the “love of a man for a man” – Gilgamesh’s love for Enkidu led to his journey.

Out in Africa

Historians usually mention Edward Gibbon writing in “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” in 1781 that Africa has no indigenous homosexual culture. This was generally accepted by later writers. So much so that it spread across the emerging colonial Africa and into the minds of modern westernised African politics. Some African leaders claim that homosexuality is a “white man’s disease”. This is bigotry borne out of ignorance. Anthropologists have yet to find a culture that doesn’t have some form of lgbt sub-culture.

Because most of African heritage was not written down as much as in, say Europe, much of what is known comes from tradition and current practice.

As the continent varies in ethnic make-up from north to south so does its lgbt heritage. The northern part of Africa has been heavily influenced by Islam and much of its lgbt heritage has become merged with native practices.

In many ways the attitudes to homosexuality in central and southern Africa echo that of the Ancient Greeks. Same-sex activity was acceptable in society as a means of initiation into adulthood. Some tribes went further than the Greeks in having “boy-brides”. They believe that sex with women sapped their virility, even their masculinity, and it is recorded that men I some Sudanese tribes spent more nights with young men than with their wives.

In South Africa, a modern country noted for its pioneering legislation on lgbt rights in Africa, some boy-brides  performed a ritual transvestic dance at the wedding feast in which they wore false wooden breasts which they  only removed when their “husbands” paid them to do so.

What we also see in Africa is something not seen in Ancient Greece – a major role in society for cross-dressing men who live as women, something akin to Indian culture. In the Congo the cross-dressing “bitesha” were considered a third gender.

African women also have a wide variety of same-sex activity spanning the continent. A lot of these are reminiscent of the western “Boston marriage”, where women pair up for companionship rather than for sexual activity. In Lesotho the women go a little further in a relationship they call “mummy-baby”. Again there is an echo of Ancient Greece in that the relationship, like the Greek athletes I mentioned a few weeks ago, was conducted by a same-sex couple of different generations, as the name “mummy-baby” suggests. Unlike the Greeks, however, the sexual nature of the mummy-baby relationship often ended on the marriage of the “baby” but the close friendship continued.

There seems to be very little evidence of female cross-dressing in traditional African cultures. Generally women remained within their gender stereotypes and their tribes and communities didn’t allow women to express masculinity.

Africa is a large continent. In the ever-developing world of gender studies all we can say is that we don’t know enough. But what research has always shown us is that the spectrum of sexuality in Africa is perhaps more complex than it is in western culture.

Spirit Day

One year ago today the first SPIRIT DAY was held. Although primarily a day originating in America, through Facebook it became a global commemoration.

Spirit Day is held to raise awareness of the homophobic, biphobic, transphobic and related bullying that is experienced by students at schools, colleges and online. It was given the name Spirit Day from the purple stripe on the original Rainbow Pride flag created in 1978. The flag’s creator, Gilbert Baker, defined the purple stripe as representing “spirit”. From this the suggestion made by Canadian student Brittany McMillan that people wear purple on Spirit Day spread via Facebook.

A spate of homophobic-bullying-related suicides among students across America was the catalyst for Brittany to begin her Facebook campaign. By 20^th October 2010, the day Brittany designated for Spirit Day, over 1½ million Facebook users had joined specially formed support groups.

The problem of bullying has got “nastier” since the creation of social networking sites, and some schools have been known to refuse to help victims of online bullying from classmates because it didn’t occur on school premises. Even worse, a school vice-president even put on his Facebook page that he wants all “fags” to commit suicide. He later apologised and resigned. But is that enough?

Only a few weeks ago another young teenage student, Jamey Rodemeyer, committed suicide because of bullying. The death is even more tragic considering Jamey had joined the “It Gets Better” project which aims to convince young victims that life “gets better” after bullying.

Tragedy often brings positive responses. It was Jamey’s death that prompted American actor Zachary Quinto (of “Heroes”, and the young Spock in “Star Trek”) to come out last week.

I don’t support the “It Gets Better” project because I’ve not experienced that it does, and Jamey’s death proves that the message is pointless. Campaigners should not be saying that things will GET better, but that they should BE better. Bullying continues after school. I experienced it myself when I left school and went to college in Worksop, and it also occurred in my 40s. And the tragic loss of a friend last month because of conflicts in his own family prove to me that we shouldn’t lull youngsters into believing “it gets better” as you get older. We should be more realistic.

I hope more people will observe Spirit Day. More importantly, I hope more school and colleges observe it.