Thomas Granger

2015-02-09T20:31:55Z

2601:8:180:2AD:3402:EAE4:5272:1EF0:

'''Thomas Graunger''' or '''Granger''' (1625? – September 8, 1642) was the first person [[Hanging|hanged]] in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] (the first hanged in any of the colonies of New England being [[John Billington]]) and the first known juvenile to be sentenced to death and executed in the territory of today's [[United States]]. He was a servant to [[Love Brewster]], of [[Duxbury, Massachusetts|Duxbury]], in the [[Plymouth Colony]] of [[British North America]]. Graunger, at the age of 16 or 17, was convicted of "[[buggery]] with a mare, a cow, two goats, divers sheepe, two calves, and a turkey", according to court records of 7 September 1642.<ref>[http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/colonial_life/morality_and_sex.htm Morality and Sex]</ref>

Graunger confessed to his crimes in court privately to local magistrates, and upon indictment, publicly to ministers and the jury, being sentenced to "death by hanging until he was dead". He was hanged on September 8, 1642. Before Graunger's execution, following the laws set down in [[Leviticus]] 20:15 ("And if a man shall lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast"), the animals involved were slaughtered before his face and thrown into a large pit dug for their disposal, no use being made of any part of them.<ref>[http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2000/08/room_waron.htm Chronogram.com]</ref>

An account of Graunger's acts is recorded in Gov. [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]]'s diary ''[[Of Plymouth Plantation]] 1620-1647.'' Graunger's crime represents the colonies' first recorded act of [[bestiality]].

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Bradford, William ''Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647''. Ed. by Samuel Eliot Morison. New York: Knopf (1952)
*Lauria, Lisa M. (1998) [http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/Lauria1.html "Sexual Misconduct in Plymouth Colony"], The Plymouth Colony Archive Project

{{Persondata 
| NAME = Graunger, Thomas
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = American crimnal
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1625
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = 1642
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graunger, Thomas}}

[[Category:1625 births]]
[[Category:1642 deaths]]
[[Category:Zoophilia]]
[[Category:17th-century executions of American people by hanging]]
[[Category:People executed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony]]
[[Category:People executed for sodomy]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Plymouth County, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Duxbury, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American people convicted of sodomy]]

Zoophilia Wiki - User contributions [en]

Thomas Granger