This site is about William Courtenay who was born some 250 years ago on 30 July 1768.
Although he lived at a time when such acts were serious criminal offences in England, William seems to have made little if any effort to disguise or deny the fact that he chose to have sex with other men. His rank and wealth enabled him to escape the pillory, imprisonment or execution by hanging.
The son of a British nobleman, he was styled ‘the honorable William Courtenay’ until he became viscount Courtenay (‘lord Courtenay’) in 1788 and then the earl of Devon (‘lord Devon’) in 1831.
Nowadays William is remembered sometimes for three things: the music room at Powderham Castle which he commissioned James Wyatt to design, and his role in two separate scandals. He was also the model for two very different literary characters: Gulchenrouz in the oriental tale Vathek, and Lord Link in Stendhal’s novel Lucien Leuwen.
The first of the scandals came in 1784 when William was 16 years of age. British newspapers reported that he had been discovered having sex with William Beckford, author of Vathek and the owner of Fonthill in Wiltshire.
The second scandal followed in 1811 when he and William Fryer, a local labourer, were charged in Devon with buggery – in those days a felony which carried the death penalty. Both men had already left the area before a trial could begin and William lived the rest of his life in exile – at first in New York, then in France where he died in 1835.
This website was launched in May 2018. Alongside more about both scandals, there is material here about other areas of William’s life and times, and about his sisters, servants and associates too. Facts of life summarizes what we know about him.
If you want to receive updates as new Posts are published, please let me know through the Contact page. From time to time I add a new Page to the site and more often add new information to existing pages, or correct earlier errors.
I’ll be happy to provide information on sources, and will try to answer any questions. You can find plenty more material on the websites listed below.
David Whitfield
Most recent activity on site: 2026 April 14.
Links
Gay History and Literature: Writings by Rictor Norton
Cornerstone at Powderham Castle
Image
- William Blake: Albion rose, 1793. Wikimedia Comm
“Albion rose from where he labourd at the Mill with Slaves / Giving himself for the Nations he danc’d the dance of Eternal Death”.
Page history
- 2018 May 30: first published online
William Courtenay (1768-1835) 
Thank you for putting this all online. I have been interested in William Courtenay for years ever since reading a biography of Beckford. I was putting together my own personal list of what I had learned about him when I ran across your website, which fills in a lot of gaps I had never before known. Things come and go on the internet but I hope this resource stays up for a long time.
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Hello David,
I am exploring my ancestors and have been directed to Isabella Courtenay (5.3.1689-1728 or1735) father Col Francis Edward Courtenay MP (1651-1699) mother Mary Boevay.
She apparently married my relative William Eagles on the 2nd January 1716 at Deerhurst Gloucestershire but I can not confirm this.
I cant confirm where she sits in the Courtenay family as I can not her when I search her name and dates.
Any help greatly appreciated. Happy to share what information I do have,
Regards,
Sandra Cartwright (Eagles).
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Hello Sandra
Isabella’s generation is beyond the period of my research but I’ve been asked about this before, so checked my earlier response (see Sisters, at the foot of the page).
The Isabella Courtenay who was baptised on 7 March 1689 New Style (at Powderham in Devon) was the eleventh of Mary and Francis Courtenay’s twelve children. She died in the summer of 1726 and did not make a marriage.
Isabella made her will on 30 April 1726 and it was proved on 3 September 1726: ‘Mrs Isabella Courtenay late of the Parish of Bere Regis in the County of Dorsett Spinster deceased’.
I’m confident of this identification. She is definitely not the ‘Isabella wife of Wm. Eagles’ buried on 12 August 1728 at Deerhurst in Gloucestershire; nor is she the Isabella Eagles whose son William was baptised on 1 November 1707 at Castle Bromwich in Warwickshire.
On 23 April 1714 Mary Courtenay of Powderham-castle named her three unmarried daughters (Mary, Lucy, Isabella) as executrixes of her will which was proved by them on 19 May 1716.
In her will of 1726 Isabella named her sisters Lucy Courtenay and Mary Courtenay as executrixes, and it was proved by Lucy. (Lucy and Mary were still unmarried when their own wills were proved on 19 April and 1 June 1739.)
In their wills Isabella, Lucy and Mary all named another sister, Ann Walrond. Ann was the firstborn of the twelve siblings; she survived her sisters and brothers, dying as a widow in 1763 (will proved 18 June 1763).
These wills can all be downloaded free of charge from the National Archives, or viewed online at Ancestry.
The Deerhurst marriage shows in many family trees on Ancestry but I did not find a tree that included a record of this event. Do you know where the information came from?
with good wishes,
David
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Hello David,
Thank you so much for your reply. I do not know where the information came from for the marriage between William Eagles and Isabella Courtenay. Deerhurst does not look like it is near Powderham Castle (not from Australia anyway).
I have found a baptism for William Eagles – parents William and Isabella Eagles 3.4.1722 at Deerhurst. Curator William Hayward.
This would seem correct.
Regards, Sandra
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