Trial of Thomas Hogg
Thomas Hogg | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Servant |
| Known for | Being accused of fathering piglets |
| Criminal charge(s) | Dishonesty and theft |
| Criminal penalty | Flagellation and imprisonment |
Thomas Hogg (floruit 1647-1648) was a Connecticuter known for being accused of fathering piglets. Unlike several men and boys convicted of bestiality and consequently hanged in the 1640s and ensuing decades, Hogg refused to confess, thus avoiding the death penalty.
Background
Thomas Hogg was a servant from New Haven, Connecticut, where the one-eyed 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.[1] Like Spencer, Hogg did not enjoy a good reputation. Women of various social positions, including a "neager" 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.[2]
Charges
Five years after Spencer's execution, the unfortunately named Hogg ("hog" being another name for domestic pig) faced the same charges when a sow gave birth to two piglets that resembled him.[1] 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 faire and white skinne and head, as Thomas Hogg is", and the other "a head lik a childs and one eye lik him, the biger on the right side, as if God would describe the party, with the description of the instrument of bestyalie".[2]
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[1] under her ear,[2] after which "there appeared a working of lust in the sow, insomuch that she powred out seede before them".[1] Hogg was then ordered to scratch another sow, but she was not stimulated.[2][1] The governor and deputy governor were frustrated that, despite their experiment and irrefutable proof of his guilty, Hogg denied the charges. Without the confession, the "impudent lyar" could not be hanged[2] because the requirement of two witnesses could not be met.[3] Instead, he was tried for lying and stealing, for which he was whipped and incarcerated.[2][1] While imprisoned, Hogg was kept on a "mean diet and hard labor, that his lusts not be fed".[2]
Hogg appears again in court records in 1648, when he was admonished for failing to appear for watch.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Chehardy, Kimberley N. "'Wickedness Breaks Forth': The Crime Of Sodomy In Colonial New England". Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Goodheart, Lawrence B. (2011). [1558498478 "The Solemn Sentence of Death: Capital Punishment in Connecticut"]. University of Massachusetts Press. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ↑ Godbeer, Richard (2004). [0801878918 "Sexual Revolution in Early America"]. Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
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