Thomas Granger

2007-04-19T16:52:04Z

68.253.43.155: added references

{{Unreferenced|date=February 2007}}
'''Thomas Granger''' ([[1625]]? – [[September 8]], [[1642]]) was the first person [[Hanging|hanged]] in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]. He was a servant to Love Brewster, of [[Duxbury]], in the [[Plymouth Colony]] of [[British North America]]. Granger, at the age of 16 or 17, was in [[1642]] caught in the act of [[bestiality]] with a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves and a turkey, and was likewise indicted.

Granger confessed to his crimes in court privately to local magistrates, and upon indictment, publicly to ministers, and the jury. He was hanged on [[September 8]], [[1642]]. Before Granger's execution, following the laws set down in the book of [[Leviticus]], the animals with which he had had sex were slaughtered before his face and thrown into a large pit dug for their disposal. No use was made of any part of the animals.

An account of Granger's acts is recorded in Gov. [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]]'s diary ''Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647.'' Granger's crime represents the colonies' first recorded act of [[bestiality]], and the local reaction demonstrates the [[Puritans]]' immense fear of outside immoral influences.

==References==
Bradford, William ''Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647''. Ed. by Samuel Eliot Morison. New York: Knopf (1952)

Lauria, Lisa M. (1998) [http://etext.virginia.edu/users/deetz/Plymouth/Lauria1.html#IV "Sexual Misconduct in Plymouth Colony"], The Plymouth Colony Archive Project


{{DEFAULTSORT:Granger, Thomas}}

[[Category:1625 births|Granger, Thomas]]
[[Category:1642 deaths|Granger, Thomas]]
[[Category:People executed by hanging|Granger, Thomas]]
[[Category:People executed in the United States]]

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Thomas Granger