View source for Trial of Thomas Hogg

{{Infobox court case
|name               = New Haven v. Thomas Hogg
|court              = New Haven Colony Court
|image              = 
|caption            = 
|full name          = 
|date decided       = 1647
|citations          = 
|transcripts        = 
|judges             = 
|number of judges   =
|decision by        =
|prior actions      = 
|subsequent actions = 
|related actions    = [[George Spencer (sex offender)|Trial of George Spencer]]
|opinions           = 
|keywords           =  {{flatlist|*[[Bestiality]]
*[[sodomy]]}}
|italic title       =No
}}
The '''trial of Thomas Hogg''' took place in [[New Haven Colony]] in 1647. Hogg was accused of [[bestiality]] when a neighbourhood [[domestic pig|sow]] gave birth to piglets that allegedly resembled him. Unlike several men and boys convicted of the crime and consequently hanged in the 1640s and ensuing decades, Hogg refused to confess, thus avoiding the [[capital punishment in Connecticut|death penalty]]. Called "the most interesting buggery case" ever, it left an enduring mark in the history of capital punishment. 

== Background ==

Thomas Hogg was a servant from [[New Haven Colony]], where the one-eyed [[George Spencer (New Haven)|George Spencer]] confessed to [[sodomy]] after a sow gave birth to a deformed one-eyed piglet, which led to his execution in early April 1642.<ref name="Chehardy"/> Like Spencer, Hogg did not enjoy a good reputation. He was considered a liar and a thief, and his appearance offended his neighbours.<ref name="Godbeer"/> Women of various social positions, including a "[[Nigger |neager]]" [[Slavery in the United States |slavewoman]] named Lucretia, reported his [[indecency]], as he allowed his "filthy nakedness" (penis and scrotum) to show through his [[breeches]]. Hogg, who suffered from a painful [[inguinal hernia]], argued that his indecency was not intentional.<ref name="Goodheart"/>

== Charges and trial ==

Five years after Spencer's execution, Hogg was implicated in "the most interesting buggery case" ever.<ref name="Jackson">{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Charles|title=The other Americans: sexual variance in the National past|publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]]|year=1996|isbn=0275955516}}</ref> He was already awaiting trial for theft, dishonesty and indecent exposure when he was brought up on charges of [[bestiality]],<ref name="McManus"/> after a sow gave birth to two piglets that resembled him.<ref name="Chehardy ">{{cite web|last=Chehardy |first=Kimberley N.|year=|url=http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1999-2000/Chehardy.htm|title='Wickedness Breaks Forth': The Crime Of Sodomy In Colonial New England|accessdate=2 February 2013}}</ref> Hogg's mistress, Mrs. Lamberton, found the birth to be a sign from God, and told the authorities that one of the "monsters" had "a fair and white skinned and head, as Thomas Hogg is",<ref name="Goodheart"/><ref name="Jackson"/> and the other "a head like a child's and one eye like him, the bigger on the right side, as if God would describe the party, with the description of the instrument of bestyalie."<ref name="Goodheart">{{cite book|last=Goodheart|first=Lawrence B.|title=The Solemn Sentence of Death: Capital Punishment in Connecticut|publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Press]]|year=2011|isbn=978-1558498471|accessdate=2 February 2013|url=https://books.google.com/?id=bEIush39IB8C&dq=%22servant+Thomas+Hogg%22}}</ref>

[[Theophilus Eaton]], governor of the colony, and his deputy brought Hogg to a barnyard where the crime was supposed to have taken place. They ordered him to scratch the sow under her ear,<ref name="Goodheart"/> after which "there appeared a working of lust in the sow, insomuch that she powred out seede before them."<ref name="Chehardy"/> Hogg was then ordered to scratch another sow, but she was not stimulated.<ref name="Chehardy"/><ref name="Goodheart"/><ref name="Friedman">{{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Lawrence|title=Crime And Punishment In American History|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|year=1994|isbn=0465024467}}</ref><ref name="Beirne">{{cite book|last=Beirne|first=Piers|title=Confronting Animal Abuse: Law, Criminology, and Human-Animal Relationships|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|year=2009|isbn=978-0742599741}}</ref> The governor and deputy governor were frustrated that, despite their experiment, Hogg denied the charges. Without the confession, the "impudent liar" could not be hanged<ref name="Goodheart"/> because the requirement of two witnesses could not be met.<ref name="Godbeer">{{cite book|last=Godbeer|first=Richard|title=Sexual Revolution in Early America|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|year=2004|isbn=0801878918|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sexualrevolution0000godb}}</ref><ref name="McManus"/> Instead, he was convicted of lying and stealing,<ref name="McManus"/> for which he was severely whipped and incarcerated.<ref name="Chehardy"/><ref name="Goodheart"/> While imprisoned, Hogg was kept on a "mean diet and hard labor, that his lusts not be fed."<ref name="Goodheart"/>

== Aftermath ==

The situation left a permanent mark on capital punishment jurisprudence<!--how?  describe!-->.<ref name="Goodheart"/> Hogg appears again in court records in 1648, when he was admonished for failing to appear for guard duty.<ref name="Chehardy"/><ref name="McManus">{{cite book|last=McManus|first=Edgar J.|title=Law and Liberty in Early New England: Criminal Justice and Due Process, 1620–1692|publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Press]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1558497726}}</ref>

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== External links ==

*[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/01/when_bestiality_gets_blamed_on_the_animals.html In early America, farm animals took the blame for zoophilic sex.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogg, Thomas}}
[[Category:1647 in law]]
[[Category:1647 in the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Legal history of Connecticut]]
[[Category:New England Puritanism]]
[[Category:Colonial Connecticut]]
[[Category:Sex crime trials]]
[[Category:Trials in the United States]]
[[Category:Zoophilia]]