Percy Jocelyn

The Rt Rev. and Hon. Percy Jocelyn (29 November 1764 – 3 September 1843) was Anglican Bishop of Clogher in the Church of Ireland from 1820 to 1822. He was forced from his position due to being caught in homosexual practices, which had been outlawed under the Buggery Act 1533. Early life He was the third son of The 1st Earl of Roden, whose family estates were in Castlewellan, County Down, by his wife Lady Anne Hamilton. He graduated with a BA from Trinity College, Dublin. At Trinity, he was regarded as something of a bookworm, spending much of his time in his rooms on Library Square. He was later described as "a tall thin young man with a pale, meagre and melancholy countenance, and so reserved in his manners and recluse in his habits that he was considered by everybody to be both proud and unsociable". He was rector of Tamlaght, archdeacon of Ross (1788–1790), treasurer of Armagh (1790–1809), a prebend of Lismore (1796–1809), and bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1809–1820) before becoming bishop of Clogher. 1811 Scandal In 1811, James Byrne (who had been a coachman for Jocelyn's brother, John) accused him of "taking indecent familiarities" and of "using indecent or obscene conversations with him". Byrne was sued for criminal libel by Bishop Jocelyn and on conviction was sentenced to two years in gaol and also to public flogging. After he recanted his allegations at the prompting of the bishop's agent, the floggings were stopped.