George Spencer 1642

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to Historical Quarrels. I am your host Tyler Eckhardt.

[00:00:05] And today we're doing a short episode. This is going to be another one of those in-betweeners while I do some more research for an episode that will be coming out the following week.

[00:00:17] And so for today, I have a special one that was recommended to me by Mike Ritz at New Belief Studio.

[00:00:25] I'm sorry if you've heard of him before, he's been following the show for a while. Please go check out his online shop.

[00:00:30] If you live in Texas, hit him up. He does some great work with leather and also makes some really cool minis.

[00:00:40] And it is about George Spencer. I will actually be going over this a bit more next week as well.

[00:00:48] But George Spencer in 1642 was a man that was accused of and murdered, well executed for, for allegedly having a baby with a swine.

[00:01:02] Whoa, the sound. And so we're going to be exploring that a bit more today, just a little bit, just kind of going over his execution and everything that happened.

[00:01:13] But in his biography, George Spencer is described as an ugly balding servant with a glass eye.

[00:01:22] He's believed to have lived for a time in Boston and while there would end up being found guilty of receiving stolen goods.

[00:01:31] His punishment was a flogging and he then moved to New Haven Colony and continued to be a habitual troublemaker.

[00:01:39] He was very open about his lack of faith, never praying in the years of being in Connecticut and only reading the Bible when forced to by his master.

[00:01:49] And so in 1642, when a sow gave birth to a malformed one-eyed piglet, it was considered a manifestation of God's proof of Spencer's sins.

[00:02:03] And a big part of this is the community may have just wanted any reason at this point to kick out George Spencer at this point.

[00:02:13] And so Spencer was arrested and the Puritan authorities deemed the birth a work of God.

[00:02:20] They believed that this was irrefutable evidence that an act of bestiality had taken place.

[00:02:27] And so he was charged with profane, a theistical carriage and unfaithfulness and stubbornness to his master.

[00:02:38] A course of notorious lying, builtiness, scoffing at the ordinances, ways and people of God.

[00:02:45] And this is what he was charged with.

[00:02:48] And Spencer was told that, quote, he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy.

[00:02:56] But it was never made clear to him whether this mercy related to the proceedings of the court or those of God.

[00:03:02] So having witnessed a repentant child molester being whipped for his crime, Spencer believed that his best option was to confess on the realization that this might lead to a death sentence.

[00:03:13] He retracted his statement and so he repeated this confession and retraction again, trying to find the best solution to the situation.

[00:03:21] He just wanted to live when the trial began.

[00:03:24] When the trial began, the magistrates knew the necessity of having two witnesses to the crime.

[00:03:29] They used Spencer's retracted confessions as one witness and the stillborn piglet as the other ruling that this was sufficient to determine his guilt.

[00:03:39] And so on April 8th, 1642, the sow was put to death by the sword and Spencer was hanged.

[00:03:45] And Spencer's death was early in the history of Connecticut and is reported to be only the second execution to take place in Connecticut and the first of a non-Native American.

[00:03:59] And on August 28th, 2015, here in the US, in a review of Old New Haven criminal cases by Superior Court Judge John C. Blue,

[00:04:10] George Spencer was granted a posthumous pardon for his convictions with Blue ruling that Spencer's confession was forced and that the alleged crime of fathering a piglet was, quote, biologically impossible, which is true.

[00:04:24] It is actually impossible for humans to have babies with any other species.

[00:04:30] And part of the episode that's coming out next week, I actually did a full deep dive into humans having tried to essentially create a human mixed breed race with other animals.

[00:04:43] And there's a huge ass history of it going back from like the Greeks, where it was like a myth that like some of them may have tried to do it.

[00:04:52] To nowadays, like nowadays, humans have still been trying to do this and it is still considered like impossible or next to impossible.

[00:05:03] And if you want to do it, there's a lot of extra steps you have to do other than just fucking a pig.

[00:05:09] And Blue, because of this, called Spencer's case the first verifiable false confession in American history.

[00:05:17] And then at 1645 there would be a similar case and I'll be going over that next week with someone named Thomas Hogg, which is hilarious that his last name is Hogg and that this happened to him.

[00:05:28] So there you guys go. That's your small little tidbit.

[00:05:33] I guess your your preview for next week's episode.

[00:05:37] Again, I am sorry that this is so short of an episode today.

[00:05:42] I'm just I want to make sure everything I want to make sure that episodes done very well.

[00:05:49] And so I'm still working out a couple kinks in the script.

[00:05:52] And I just do not have the time this weekend to get that done before the episode is going to be released.

[00:06:00] So I wanted to leave this with you guys.

[00:06:02] I am also working on a bit next week and I kind of want to get this party started because George Spencer was only parted in the U.S.

[00:06:13] But technically, George Spencer was under British authority and England's rule.

[00:06:20] So in order to get him like fully pardoned for something that he was killed for, not only does the U.S.

[00:06:26] have to have to, you know, pardon him, but the magistrates over in England who, you know, who technically had part of the official saying whose laws and whoever one was adherent to during that time also needs to grant him a pardon.

[00:06:42] So I'm working on getting a official.

[00:06:45] I have a friend who's a lawyer and he's looking into England's laws right now.

[00:06:51] And that's this part of what's taking up the time.

[00:06:53] So he's looking into England's laws, but there's been a lot of posthumous pardons in England's history before most famously with Alan Turing and some of the soldiers soldiers were granted pardon and death for war crimes.

[00:07:11] So we have that and a few other things as well that we're currently working on right now, because then I officially want to essentially get something that like a what's it called?

[00:07:27] One of those like sign campaigns where you just get like a bunch of signatures to support someone.

[00:07:35] Because there is no question that George Spencer, you know, probably fucked the pig or maybe he didn't fuck the pig.

[00:07:42] But the guy was a notorious asshole.

[00:07:47] And I just want to be like, pardon the pig fucker.

[00:07:53] We need this to be we need this wrong to be righted.

[00:07:56] He didn't father a child with that pig.

[00:07:59] So working on that, working on some of the bits to and some of the jokes and some of the history and some of the sources I'm quoting, because I just need to make sure everything is true.

[00:08:15] And that's taking a lot longer than I thought I was going to.

[00:08:19] But yeah, no, if you guys have any suggestions for future episodes or anything that you'd like me to cover, please let me know.

[00:08:26] If you have anything that you concerned about for the show, also let me know or anything that you would like me to add to the show or want me to do a little better.

[00:08:41] Just comment if you're on YouTube or send me an email at historical quarrels at gmail.com.

[00:08:46] I'm more than happy to respond and to take ideas and try to work with them.

[00:08:53] I'm going to be like, like I said, last episode, I'll be trying to ramp up production a bit more, get it a bit higher quality and have everything going in a smooth, smoother rhythm from here on out.

[00:09:07] That being said, as I have said in previous episodes, do expect the small in between or episodes to be sporadic.

[00:09:14] I'm not going to say it's going to be every month, but it may happen, you know, like once every couple months or if I just get backed up because just life and things are happening.

[00:09:26] So these will become a little more common.

[00:09:30] And in the future, I will be making some video formatted episodes like essentially taking an older episode, breaking down bits of information and then getting like either old historical pictures and trying to like animate them and posting that in like a video, video form or some content for that.

[00:09:56] So look forward to that.

[00:09:59] Be sure you're happening soon.

[00:10:02] Other than that, though, you guys have a good one.

[00:10:05] Yeah, be ready for the I think I'm going to call it the human Z episode next Monday and be ready for the full legal way of process that we'll have to go through to get this man pardoned in England next Monday.

[00:10:22] So as we get ready for that, I want you guys to be spreading spreading the word that we have.

[00:10:29] We need to get you get George Spencer notorious pig fucker pardoned in England for a crime he committed in the Americas back in 1642.

[00:10:38] Okay, I don't care how you do it, but just spread that word.

[00:10:41] Get that fire started.

[00:10:42] So when the full episode comes out next week, we have that going.

[00:10:46] I love you guys.

[00:10:47] Have a good one.

[00:10:48] Bye.