Robert Thistlethwayte (baptized 16 December 1690 – c. January, 1744) was the third son of Francis Thistlethwayte (b. 1658) of Winterslow, Wiltshire.http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/74037 National Biography: Thistlethwayte, Robert He was a Warden of Wadham College, Oxford and a clergyman in the Church of England.
In 1737 Thistlethwayte 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. The following limerick probably also refers to Thistlethwayte:
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 sons of Wadham Insure their house 'gainst future flame; They knew their crime, the crime of Sodom, And judg'd their punishment the same.
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