The secret gay history of the Royal Society

Almost everyone has heard of the Royal Society, the UK’s national scientific organization. Founded in 1660, it continues on to this very day. What most people don’t know – it’s a well-kept secret – is that the Royal Society happens to be the creation of some very clever 17th century gays.

Bizarrely, the Royal Society thinks this is ‘inappropriate’ to recognize this, let alone discuss it. But without the input of these gays, the Royal Society would have never been.

Our story begins early in the 17th century, when that famous gay, Sir Francis Bacon, rose to be Lord Chancellor, before falling from grace. James I was king of England then. As is well known, the married but very gay James I treated his favorite boys ‘like ladies’. There were drastic penalties for sodomy at the time, though these were seldom enacted, especially at this level of society.

Bacon was also a great philosopher of science. He attacked the old medieval forms of science taught at English universities, arguing for a system of ‘natural philosophy’, one having direct benefits for people.

Before he died in 1626, he wrote ‘A New Atlantis’, a utopian novella describing an ideal society run by a government-funded academy of science. These writings became the inspiration behind the formation of the Royal Society. Had there been no Francis Bacon, it is questionable whether there would have been a Royal Society.

Next, we move to the 1640s, and meet Dr John Wilkins. He was a gay preacher, a promoter of science who founded an important scientific club in London. In 1648 he moved to Oxford University to become warden of a college, and started a new scientific club, the Philosophical Society of Oxford. This performed an important scientific role – until return of Charles II.

Wilkins was a great inspirer of science, continuing the project of Bacon during these difficult times. In 1656, aged 42, he married the 62-year-old sister of Oliver Cromwell, for political reasons. Wilkins was clocked departing immediately the wedding was over, to visit some men.

He attended the famous meeting in London in November 1660, which saw the start of what became the Royal Society. Before he died in 1672, he played a vital role in the organization’s formation, sitting on its governing council, raising money and so on. Had there been no John Wilkins, there would have never been an Oxford Philosophical Society, let alone a Royal Society.

Gay Scotsman Sir Robert Moray, apart from Wilkins, is considered the man most responsible for creating the Royal Society. Though not strictly a man of science, he knew its value and did whatever he could to promote it.

Moray was born in 1608 and was for many years an unmarried soldier. He may have even attended some of the early scientific meetings in London organized by Wilkins. He tried to convince Charles I to dress in women’s clothes, to assist the king’s escape. This was rejected, and Charles I was eventually beheaded.

By 1650, Moray returned to Scotland. Here he was briefly married, however when his wife soon died, he did not wed again. Then, like now, some gay men – especially in politics married to assist their careers. Moray is recorded as being ‘a single man, an abhorrer of women’.

After spending time with the exiled Charles II, he returned to London late 1660, and was present at the November 1660 meeting. It was Moray who took the proposal to establish the Royal Society to Charles II. It was Moray who led negotiations that gained the Royal Society its royal patronage. Until his death in 1673, he was heavily involved in the running of the society. He was known as the ‘soul’ of the Royal Society.

Next we meet Robert Boyle. He was gay, and was the best of the early Royal Society’s scientists. Born into great wealth in Ireland in 1627, he went to Eton, and later toured the Continent.

Around the age of 14, he was seduced in Florence. This experience drove Boyle into the life of a recluse obsessed with religion, science and alchemy. He moved to Oxford in the mid 1650s to join John Wilkins and his Oxford Philosophical Society.

Boyle performed a great many experiments, and wrote a number of highly influential books on the results. He lived in Oxford until 1668, then moved to London to live with his sister on a permanent basis. He regularly attended society meetings, wrote scientific texts, and performed experiments.

In 1680 he was elected Royal Society president, but opted out saying he did not agree with taking the two Anglican religious oaths. Boyle died a week after his sister in 1691.

Gay Sir Isaac Newton was, and arguably is, the Royal Society’s greatest ever member. He was its president from 1703 to 1727. Before all this, his mother sent him to Cambridge, without money, forcing him to perform menial services for other students.

He ended up spending some 20 years there as an academic, contentedly sharing a room with another man, practicing science, alchemy and religion. Following the success of his master work ‘Principia Mathematica’ he came to live in London.

Here he suffered a period of acute mental illness due to his break up with a young mathematician. Boyle aside, Newton is the only single gay man to have held the position of president of the Royal Society. The monarchy only resumed its patronage of the organization after Newton died, when he was replaced by Sir Hans Sloane, a married man. This unofficial ‘married only’ status for the top position still persists at the Royal Society, despite there being no legal basis for it.

The reality is, the most notable scientific organization in Britain’s history was formed by gays. Since this time, there have been many, many other gay ‘Fellows’.

To argue, as the Royal Society does, that its own gay roots are not an ‘appropriate subject’ is nonsense. Surely it’s about time the vast contribution to science made by gays starts to be acknowledged.

26 March 2013 – Mark Govier/GSN