Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1642 was not a hotbed of social opportunities for lonely teenage farmhand Thomas Granger, who spent much time by himself out standing in the field. His family lived in another village, and he had no one for companionship. No one, that is, except for "a mare, a cow, two goats, divers sheepe, two calves, and a turkey." Maybe it was the attraction towards other warm-blooded living beings during those crisp days of approaching autumn in New England, maybe it was a burst of vigorous adolescent hormones coursing through young Thomas's system, or maybe it was just idle curiosity--at any rate, poor Master Granger made the mistake of slaking his bodily lusts with the aforesaid critters. It was a fatal error in judgment, which led to Granger, on September 7, 1642, of achieving the not-so-desirable role of being the earliest known juvenile of European descent to be executed in the New World.
Thomas ultimately confessed to his sins, and he turned state's evidence by identifying the particular animals involved, thus ensuring that those sheep who were innocent would not also be punished with the guilty. Justice was swift and certain with an expedited trial one day and Thomas's demise by hanging the next. Prior to his death, Granger's co-defendants listed above (except for those sheep who were acquitted) also were subjected to the supreme penalty, as mandated by 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").
For a contemporary account of this tragic affair of the heart, see Governor William Bradford's diary of Plymouth Plantation.
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| By Michael Palmer (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
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