In doing some genealogy research, I found the following about a brother of one of Jim's ancestors:
In a court record dated 7 September 1642, "Thomas Granger [Jr.], late servant to Love Brewster, ... was this Court indicted for buggery with a mare, a cow, two goats, divers sheep, two calves and a turkey,
at which point I laughed out loud. I think the turkey was the thing that set me off. Then I kept reading.
and was found guilty, and received [a] sentence of death by hanging until he was dead."
This was a boy who was 16 or 17 years old. He was a servant, as were his parents, so nobody cared exactly how old he was or anything else about him.
I daresay (is that one or two words?) that a lot of people I know would not have made it to adulthood -- including myself -- if we had lived in the 17th century.
4 comments:
That elicited my first LOL of the day (the actual laugh as well as the anagram). But it IS sad. What he did was terrible, but does it deserve death? I think not. Oh, and daresay is one word; we can thank my 18th century research for that little bit of knowledge.
I'll bet Jim laughed when you read that to him!
I haven't read it to Jim yet. Yeah, I think he'll get a laugh, too.
Absolutely that he should have not been allowed to get away with it. It's a terrible thing that he did. But not death.
It's amazing how many offenses were punishable by death back then, especially for children. I just can't imagine.
"Now that I have survived this long".
"We who are about to die, salute you"
My two favourite phrases.
Those are good phrases, Marc. :-0
Post a Comment