Category Archives: Insults

1774: Dealing with a difficult debtor, 18th century style

In September 1774, an Annapolis artist, Charles Peale, attempted to deal with a non-paying debtor by way of the local press. The following exchange appeared in the Maryland Gazette:

September 6th
“If a certain E. V. does not immediately pay for his family picture, his name shall be published at full length in the next paper. Charles Peale.”

September 8th
“Mr. Elie Valette, pay me for painting your family picture. Charles Peale.”

September 15th
“Mr. Charles Wilson Peale, alias Charles Peale… Yes, you shall be paid; but not before you have learned to be less insolent. Elie Valette.”

There were no further exchanges between Mr Peale and Mr Valette, so presumably the matter was settled.

Source: The Maryland Gazette, September 6th, 8th and 15th 1774. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1800: “Dirty Dutchman” missing; wife does not want him returned

In 1800, a Mrs Polly Lutgert of New York wrote to several newspapers on the eastern seaboard, informing them that her husband John had left her “about the first of June”. According to Mrs Lutgert’s letter, her husband was:

“..a dirty Dutchman, between five and six feet high, has a round face, snub nose, large mouth and teeth, squint eyed and marked with the smallpox. In addition to this he has long small legs, knock knees, [a] humped back, cat hammed and [is] a fool.”

Mrs Lutgert added:

“I do furthermore request that noone will use the least influence in their power to return him to me again…”

And that she grants her estranged husband:

“..free and interrupted ingress and regress into any part of the world, my bed only excepted.”

Source: Virginia Argus, October 31st 1800. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1866: Clergyman blames the French for masturbation in England

Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882) was an Anglican theologian and Oxford professor, known for his austerity and social conservatism. In mid-1866 Pusey launched a letter-writing campaign, penning missives to several English newspapers and journals to warn of the deadly peril of teenage masturbation. Just 50 years before, Pusey argued, the “despicable sin” was hardly known in England, and was:

“..unknown at most of our public schools. Now, alas, it is the besetting trial of our boys; it is sapping the constitutions and injuring in many the fineness of intellect.”

Pusey offered a cause for this alarming increase in masturbation – the restoration of diplomatic relations, trade and travel with France since the Napoleonic Wars. Pusey suggested that self-pollution had crossed the Channel from the schools, barrack-houses and tenements of France, where:

“..it has for centuries been practised with a contemptible openness, often in groups.”

Source: Dr E. B. Pusey, letters to The Times and the Medical Times and Gazette, June 1866. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1688: Portsmouth mayor abused with turd slur

In 1688, word reached the aldermen of Portsmouth that the city’s mayor, Mr Robert Hancock, had been subjected to a torrent of abuse outside his home. The alleged perpetrator was one William Hale, a servant of Mr William Terrell.

Hale and an accomplice turned up at Hancock’s home late in the evening, pulling boards away from its front and making a loud ruckus. Hancock appeared in the street and challenged the intruders. A witness reported that Hale gave the elderly mayor a frightful torrent of abuse. In doing so he also refused to doff his cap, saying that:

“..he would as soon pull off his hat to a turd as to Mr Hancock.”

There is no record of any sanction or penalty imposed on William Hale.

Source: Portsmouth City Council, Borough Sessions records, 1688. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1813: John Sprigg missing; he has a wide mouth and zigzag teeth

A notice from a New York newspaper in May 1813 reports the disappearance of a local man:

“Ran away from his wife and helpless family on Friday last, John Sprigg, by trade a tailor, aged thirty-five. He has a wide mouth, zigzag teeth, a nose of high-burned brick blue, with a lofty bridge, swivel eyed and a scar, not an honorable one, on his left cheek… Had on when he went a three-cocked hat which probably he has since changed to a round one, with a blue body coat, rather on the fade. He was seen in Benning on Saturday last, disguised in a clean shirt…”

It then goes on to list John Sprigg’s personal habits, none of which were favourable:

“He primes and loads [takes snuff and smokes tobacco]; he is so loquacious [talkative] that he tires every one in company but himself. In order that he may entrap the sinner and the saint, he carries a pack of cards in one pocket and the Practice of Piety in the other; he is a great liar and can varnish a falsehood with a great deal of art… It is supposed that he did not go off without a companion, as he is a great favourite with the fair sex.”

Source: The New York Register, May 5th 1813. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1623: ‘Whip Her Arse Dick’ loses libel case

In March 1622, Richard Turner, a gentleman and town councillor from Thaxted in Essex, was seen thrashing his teenage daughter Anne. According to Turner, “she had given just cause of grief and offence” and he was delivering “such correction… as to reform some errors in her”.

News of this event soon reached the working classes of Thaxted. Turner, who was unpopular to begin with, became known as ‘Whip Her Arse Dick’. This derogatory nickname was apparently derived from a bawdy song:

“Hurry thee home Anne
Hurry thee home Anne
Whip Her Arse Dick
Whip Her Arse Dick

All those that love puddings
Come unto Parke Street
And learn the song
Of Whip Her Arse Dick.”

There were other verses, including one that compared Turner to an Essex man hanged for murdering his child. According to a witness testimony, the lyrics to ‘Whip Her Arse Dick’:

“..become public, common and notorious in the eyes, ears and tongues of Thaxted. [It had been] reported and sung, published and divulged… in diverse inns, alehouses and other places of the said town of Thaxted and the county of Essex. [It had been] taught and instructed to young children to sing the same, to wrong and provoke him.”

Facing the loss of his good name, Turner sued several individuals for libel. The case was heard in 1623 but the plaintiff was unsuccessful.

According to anecdotal evidence, ‘Whip Her Arse Dick’ was popular with locals for several years. The humiliated Turner became reclusive and suffered financially after neglecting his businesses.

Source: Various, including London Public Record Office, 8/307/9 (1623). Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1690: Oxford student sues for chicken-carving slur

In 1690, the chancellor’s court at Oxford University heard a defamation dispute between two Exeter College students: John Colmer and John Crabbe. According to the plaintiff Colmer and his witnesses, Crabbe had been telling malicious and dishonest stories about Colmer for several weeks. Colmer produced witnesses to support his claims, including the respected scholar and future Bishop of Peterborough, White Kennett.

According to their testimony, most of Crabbe’s “slanderous tales” told of Colmer’s alleged promiscuity and “brutish lust”. One story spread by Crabbe was that Colmer had been present at:

“..a supper with the Earl of Warwick [where] he represented to his Lordship the obscene parts of a woman, by the cutting of such a figure from the flesh of a roasted fowl.”

Crabbe also produced witnesses in his defence, though most were exposed as homeless prostitutes. Unsurprisingly, the chancellor’s court ruled in Colmer’s favour.

Source: Oxford University archives, Chancellor’s Court papers, folio 56, 1690.

1640: Dick Head fined for abusing gentleman

In late 1640, magistrates in Kent heard a charge of defamation submitted by Mr William Culpepper, a “gentleman of good quality and of an ancient family”. According to Culpepper he had been been accosted by Richard Head, who had assailed him with:

“..diverse unmannerly and lewd speeches, calling him rogue and rascal and bidding him kiss his arse, with other saucy and unseemly terms.”

The magistrates found in Culpepper’s favour. Richard Head was fined and ordered to apologise.

Source: Centre for Kentish Studies, Q/SO W1, folio 120. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1608: Newcastle women brawl over good white bread

The archives in Durham contain witness testimonies of a confrontation between two Newcastle women in 1608. Elizabeth Waister and Alice Fetherstone were both married, both from Ryton and consequently known to each other. While standing at a bread stall at Newcastle market, Alice accused Elizabeth of jumping the queue and purchasing the last of the “good white bread”.

This accusation unleashed a torrent of invective, which included Elizabeth’s claim that Alice was:

“..a slut that did shit in her cooking pot.”

Alice fired back with an even more poisonous barb, referring to a stillborn child Elizabeth had delivered years earlier:

“Thou art a poisoned, jaded whore… God had sent [you] one example [of your whoredom] and perhaps he might send another.”

Elizabeth subsequently sued Alice for defamation but the outcome of this case is not recorded.

Source: Testimony of Alice Fetherstone and others, Durham County Record Office, vol. 3, 1608. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1644: Italian boatman gets angry, bites finger to the bone

While visiting the Italian city of Genoa, English chronicler John Evelyn observes a wild argument between two local businessmen. After Evelyn had hailed a boat to cross the harbour, another boatman “interposed his boat before him and took us in”. This was apparently too much for the first boatman, who with “sudden and devilish passion” threatened the second:

“Tears gushing out of his eyes, he put his finger in his mouth and almost bit it off by the joint, showing it to his antagonist as an assurance to him of some bloody revenge, if he ever came near that part of the harbour again.”

Evelyn claims that such acts are common-place in Genoa, a “beautiful city more stained with horrid acts of revenge and murders than any one place in Europe, maybe the world”.

Source: The diary of John Evelyn, October 17th 1644. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.