This talk draws on a variety of primary materials including correspondence, architectural plans, court documents, household accounts and material culture to examine the explicit connections between 'cotqueanary', what we would now understand as homosexuality, and domesticity, revealing the importance of the home as a site of rest and relaxation for nonconforming men. Alongside a discussion of queer marriage and queer parenting, this talk will also introduce the case of Ralph Dodds and William Simpson and investigate the possibility of queer sites around Edinburgh at the time.

This lecture is part of a series that offers an insight into everything that was traditionally kept behind closed doors. The Sextorical Lectures run on the last Friday of the month at Gladstone's Land and feature experts and academics talking about the history of sex, intimacy and other related topics.