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‘A natural passion?’ The 1810 reflections of a Yorkshire farmer on homosexuality*


 In a newly discovered passage from an 1810 diary, Yorkshire tenant farmer Matthew Tomlinson considers the notion that homosexual desire is a natural, divinely ordained human tendency, discernible from adolescence and undeserving of capital punishment. Although ultimately inconclusive, his reflections offer tantalizing evidence that historical attitudes towards same-sex love in early nineteenth-century British society could be more diverse and sympathetic than previously assumed. This article contextualizes Tomlinson’s comments by considering his broader views on religion and sexuality alongside other contemporary or near-contemporary iterations of the argument that same-sex attraction is innate and blameless.