THIS EVENT IS BEING HOSTED BY THE HISTORY AND FOLKLORE SOCIETY!
Writing Trans Gender Histories
‘came to her dressed in mans cloaths’: Writing trans gender histories and stories of queer desire in eighteenth century Ireland.
In this talk, Dr Leanne Calvert shares the story of an individual named David Campbel/Elizabeth McIlroy, who appears in the church court minute book of Templepatrick Presbyterian church, County Antrim, Ireland, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They came to the attention of the church court when their neighbour, a woman named Margaret McCal, complained that Elizabeth had ‘came to her Dressed in mans cloaths’, told her their name was David Campbell and ‘pretend[ed] courtship to her’. Margaret further complained that Elizabeth had made the details of their encounter public, and had told two men that ‘if she had been a man she could have been naughte’ with her. The Kirk Session initiated an investigation and cited Elizabeth and the two men to appear before them. Appearing the following month, Elizabeth challenged Margaret to ‘prove [that] she came to her in mans cloaths by way of courtship’. This Margaret could not do because the two men to whom Elizabeth had allegedly bragged of their intimacies claimed to know nothing of Elizabeth either dressing as a man, nor of the encounter with Margaret. After a period of deliberation, the Kirk Session ruled that there was ‘nothing worth time to debate upon’, and urged the pair to resolve their differences. At this point, Elizabeth said ‘sorry for what she hath don[e]’ and expressed sorrow for provoking God and the ‘injury’ done to Margaret. For this, they were ‘seriously rebuked’. The Kirk Session then encouraged Margaret to ‘forgive’ Elizabeth and for the pair to be reconciled – a direction to which they ‘both seemingly’ complied.
How do we understand individuals like David and Margaret in the past? Some might say this is a simple case of cross-dressing or an elaborate prank, designed to get one over on an unsuspecting neighbour. Others might determine that the case captures an elusive example of same-sex intimacy in the archive: that Elizabeth dressed as a man in order to pursue sexual gratification with Margaret. In this paper, Dr Calvert suggests that not only do these explanations fall short, but they also do an injustice to the story by rendering its transness invisible. Instead Dr Calvert argues that we can best understand David by situating them within a trans historical framework.
A Morning Frolic, or the Transmutation of the Sexes’Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.11245.