The Story of England's First Drag Queen
About this episode
The episode explores the life of England's first drag queen, Princess Seraphina, and a notable court case involving her.
Born John Cooper, "Princess Seraphina" was one of the first English Drag Queens. Princess Seraphina was an 18th-century gentleman’s servant who openly embraced her feminine drag persona. But in May 1732, a man named Thomas Gordon robbed her of her clothes and money. The court case that followed was astounding. Today Anthony Delaney takes Kate Lister back to the riotous streets of 18th century London. Anthony's book Queer Georgians is out now in paperback. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe . You can take part in our listener survey here . All music from Epidemic Sounds. Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click here to place your vote! Thank you! https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/voting Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
People in this episode
Host: Kate Lister
Guest: Anthony Delaney
Topics covered
- drag queen history
- 18th century London
- true crime
- court cases
- LGBTQ+ history
Keywords
- drag queen
- Princess Seraphina
- Thomas Gordon
- court case
- 18th century
- LGBTQ+ history
- Anthony Delaney
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: History Hit
Books & works: Queer Georgians
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