Thomas Granger
"The First Youth Executed in The New World"
Family Tree History Research and Reading
As I continue getting further into Nathanial Philbrick's rendering of Plymouth and New England (and our Family's) history while reading his book "The Mayflower", I continue to be delighted by both stories and events I already knew about because of prior research and of new revelations which help me shed light on some of the other "family tree branches" and people and their histories and stories that I have been trying to learn about.
Today's interesting find starts on page 186 and has the story that two of our great grandfather's were a part of and that I had read about a few years ago after first discovering our moms family history back to the Mayflower.
Read on.......
"Thomas and his Animals"
Thomas Granger Wikitree Profile
Philbrick starts the paragraph in the book by saying:
As the number of towns grew, the character of the colony inevitably began to change, and from the viewpoint of our 11th great uncle, William Bradford, it wasn't for the good.....
As the number of towns grew, the character of the colony inevitably began to change, and from the viewpoint of our 11th great uncle, William Bradford, it wasn't for the good.....
Even worse than the cases of premarital sex and adulterous behavior were, according to him, those of sodomy and buggery.
One such case of the later behaviors happened in the middle 1600s. In 1642, seventeen year old Thomas Granger, a servant to an "honest man of Duxbury", was convicted of having sexual relations with "a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calfs and a turkey.
In his "Of Plymouth Plantation" Journal, Bradford described the case of Thomas Granger, a teen-ager executed, in
September 1642, for buggery with "a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep,
two calves and a turkey." Granger, and an individual who "had made some
sodomitical attempts upon another," were questioned about "how they came
first to the knowledge and practice of such wickedness."
The
sodomitical individual "confessed he had long used it [the practice] in
Old England." Granger "said he was taught it [bestiality] by another
that had heard of such things from some in England when he was there,
and they kept cattle together."
This indicated, Bradford said, "how one
wicked person may infect the many." He therefore advised masters to take
great care about "what servants they bring into their families."
Bradford and his fellow magistrates executed the boy on Sep 8, 1642 but not until he had witnessed the killing of his "animal paramours" which were all buried in a pit.
 |
| Thomas Granger being hung for "Beastiality" in 1642 |
Fast forward to the present time....
Starting in 2014, Students with the Archeology Department at the University of Mass. at Boston undertook excavations of what they thought to be the "original Plymouth Settlement of the Pilgrims".
"The project area is considered to have very
high archaeological sensitivity, and as we had
found in 2014, every shovel test pit and excava-
tion unit in 2015 recovered artifacts. Burial Hill
is already on the National Register of Historic
Places and is a complex and historically signifi-
cant cemetery (Berg and Friedberg 2012) covering
5.12 acres with at least 2269 gravestones from
1681 to 1957. "
high archaeological sensitivity, and as we had
found in 2014, every shovel test pit and excava-
tion unit in 2015 recovered artifacts. Burial Hill
is already on the National Register of Historic
Places and is a complex and historically signifi-
cant cemetery (Berg and Friedberg 2012) covering
5.12 acres with at least 2269 gravestones from
1681 to 1957. "
While digging they came upon one pit that was dug into the ground and in that pit were remains of various animals with their skeletons found intact! Included in those skeletal remains were what seemed to be remains of a small horse, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calfs and what seemed to be a large bird (a turkey perhaps?)
 |
| Areas of 2014-2022 Excavations |
My Family Connections to Thomas Granger
So I will add to this story, my ancestral ditties:
1. The honest man of Duxbury ,who's servant was Thomas, was our 10th great grandfather Love Brewster.
I don't know why Philbrick didn't mention him by name.
I don't know why Philbrick didn't mention him by name.
2. The magistrates that Philbrick talks about is (other than Bradford) the executioner (the messenger/sheriff/marshal of Plymouth at the time) responsible for the hanging of Granger and that man was our 10th great grandfather John Holmes.
John served in the capacity of being in charge of Plymouth law enforcement at the time so it was his duty to hang the young man.
John served in the capacity of being in charge of Plymouth law enforcement at the time so it was his duty to hang the young man.
My Family Connection to young Thomas Granger of Plymouth
There is another story that I read somewhere a while ago that "young Thomas" was asked if he had any last words and he supposedly said "screw all your little lambs...I did"
Follow the links I have attached below to learn more about this story and the men attached to it who are
our ancestors...
Warm Regards,
Your Family Historian 🦉
John
Your Family Historian 🦉
John
Sources and Further Reading
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Granger
https://www.google.com/…/in-puritan-times-a-teen-was-ha…/amp
https://www.plimoth.org/…/d…/files/media/pdf/holmes_john.pdf
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi…
https://www.google.com/…/in-puritan-times-a-teen-was-ha…/amp
https://www.plimoth.org/…/d…/files/media/pdf/holmes_john.pdf
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi…
https://www.umb.edu/news/detail/umass_boston_students_seek_original_plymouth_settlement_walls
https://www.fiskecenter.umb.edu/Pdfs/75a_PLYBH%202015%20public%20summary%20final.pdf
https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/the-age-of-sodomitical-sin/1640s/william-bradford-sodomy-and-bu
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