Vere Street Coterie

Along with Oscar Wilde's imprisonment for a similar offence, this episode was one of the major events in gay history in England during the 19th century.

The White Swan on Vere Street in London was established as a molly house in early 1810 by two men, James Cook and Yardley (full name unknown).

The crowds who turned out to witness the scene were violent and unruly, throwing various objects (including rotten fish, dead cats, "cannonballs" made of mud, and vegetables) at the convicted men.

Vere Street Coterie is also known in connection with alleged same-sex marriages there, performed by Reverend John Church.

The history of the White Swan and the Vere Street Coterie were related by the lawyer Robert Holloway in The Phoenix of Sodom in 1813.