John William Gott (1866 – 4 November 1922) was the last person in Britain to be sent to prison for

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...

. His was also the last public prosecution. Later prosecutions were purely private.

Religious statements

A trouser salesman from

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, he led the

Freethought Socialist League Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other meth ...

, working with Thomas Stewart and Ernest Pack. Gott believed that Christian influence was undermining attempts to achieve socialism. Gott and his supporters promoted virulent and public attacks on Christianity. He boasted that his organisation was "responsible for more outdoor lectures on Secularism and Rationalism than all other Societies combined." This was not always easy, as Gott frequently had to solicit funds to continue the lectures.

Initial imprisonment

Gott came to the attention of the Home Office in 1902 with the ''Truth Seeker'' when local Manchester residents started to agitate against its circulation.Edward Royle, ''Radicals, Secularists, and Republicans: Popular Freethought in Britain, 1866-1915'', Manchester University Press, 1980. The Home Office advised the Chief Constable of Bradford not to prosecute; the Leeds police however decided to prosecute the publishers of the ''Truth Seeker'' in 1903. This prosecution was thrown out by the magistrate but Gott was again charged in Leeds for "Rib Ticklers or Questions for Parsons" in 1911. In 1911, Gott was sentenced to four months in jail for blasphemy because of publishing attacks on Christianity. His imprisonment produced a number of petitions in his support and an attempt in parliament to repeal the law on blasphemy. Gott was supported by a number of M.P.s. as well as the Conway Hall Ethical Society and many of its members and supporters like

Frederick James Gould Frederick James Gould (19 December 1855 – 6 April 1938) was an English teacher, writer, and pioneer secular humanist. Early life and career He was born in Brighton, the son of William James Gould and his wife Julia, who were evangelical Anglica ...

, William Thomas Stead,

Chapman Cohen Chapman Cohen (1 September 1868 – 4 February 1954) was an English freethinker, atheist, and secularist writer and lecturer. Life Chapman Cohen (known by his contemporaries as CC) was the elder son of Enoch Cohen, a confectioner, and his wife ...

and George William Foote. The proposed new legislation to replace the blasphemy law was supported by the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, but it failed to pass through parliament.

Further imprisonments

After the death of his wife Gott stepped up his campaigning. Further periods of imprisonment followed: two weeks at Birkenhead in 1916; and six weeks in Birmingham in 1917. In 1918 he was sentenced for exhibiting a poster contrary to the Defence of the Realm Act. His final arrest was in 1921, initially for obstruction after selling birth control tracts and other material. The charge was increased to blasphemy. At his last trial at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

in London in 1921, he was found guilty, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour. An appeal was lodged, supported by the National Secular Society; the Lord Chief Justice upheld the conviction. Giving the judgement at the Court of Appeal, Lord Trevethin C.J. said:

It does not require a person of strong religious feelings to be outraged by a description of Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem "like a circus clown on the back of two donkeys". There are other passages in the pamphlets equally offensive to anyone in sympathy with the Christian religion, whether he be a strong Christian, or a lukewarm Christian, or merely a person sympathizing with their ideals. Such a person might be provoked to a breach of the peace."E. Lauterpacht, C. J. Greenwood, ''International Law Reports'', Cambridge University Press, 1992, p.428

By the time Gott was released, his weak health had been broken by the conditions of his imprisonment. He died on 4 November 1922, at the age of 56. Historian

Edward Royle Edward Royle (born 29 March 1944) is a British academic who is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of York and author of several books on the history of religious ideas, particularly in York and Yorkshire. Career Royle gained his Ph ...

describes him as a "witty and attractive character" who became more "embittered" after the death of his wife. He was buried at Scholemoor Cemetery, Bradford.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gott, John William 1866 births 1922 deaths British critics of Christianity English socialists English prisoners and detainees People from Bradford Freethought writers People convicted of blasphemy Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales 19th-century atheists 20th-century atheists Criminals from Yorkshire