Robert Thistlethwayte

Robert Thistlethwayte (baptized 16 December 1690 – c. January, 1744) was the third son of Francis Thistlethwayte (b. 1658) of Winterslow, Wiltshire.[1] He was a Warden of Wadham College, Oxford and clergyman in the Church of England.[2]

In 1737 Thistlethwaite fled to Boulogne after being accused of making homosexual advances towards a student, William French, whose tutor John Swinton was also accused of homosexual practices. Satirical poetry was written about these events.[3] The following limerick possibly also refers to Thistlethwayte.[4]

There once was a Warden of Wadham

Who approved of the folkways of Sodom,

For a man might, he said,

Have a very poor head

But be a fine Fellow, at bottom.

Allegations of homosexual behaviour, which was considered scandalous at that time, and the College's decision to take out fire insurance combined to prompt the following verse:

Well did the am'rous sone of Wadham

Insure their house 'gainst future flame;

They knew their crime, the crime of Sodom,

And judg'd their punishment the same.