Documents from the Sodomy Trial of Nicholas Sension, May 1677

This is the first complete published transcription of the documents that survive from the sodomy trial of Nicholas Sension in 1677. Sension’s trial has long fascinated historians of sexuality, but until now only extracts from the original documents have been available in print and online. The transcription below is literal; a version using modernized spelling, capitalization, and punctuation is included in this issue under “Class Acts.” That parallel edition, which is intended primarily for use in undergraduate courses, includes an editorial introduction and footnotes that provide, among other things, information about the individuals named in the documents below. The documents are arranged here in the order by which they are classified in the archives, which is for the most part miscellaneous. In the parallel edition they are reordered thematically and chronologically.