If you look at the wills and inventories of estates of the early
middle class and lower middle class, often they had 'hogges' and
'pigges', a horse or two [or more], but no cattle. Pork seemed to
have been very important in the early diet, and I'm talking well into
the 18th century. But hogs were quite often left to roam a forest or
an island [there are  many "Hog Islands" still in existence], to live
off the land, acorns, beech mast, etc. So if people started thinking
they could just go out and steal somebody's hogs, it could seriously
impact some settler and his family.  So I guess the law had to take
such a theft quite seriously, to discourage it.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 7, 2007, at 5:06 AM, Clara Callahan wrote:

> I am curious about two things described in this write-up:
>
>   http://www.getchwood.com/punishments/curious/chapter-11.html
>
>   Pouring cold water down someone's sleeve doesn't sound like much
> of a punishment when compared to branding, whipping, lopping and
> chopping.  Is anyone familiar with this type of punishment in early
> Virginia?
>
>   What's with the hogs?  I've seen many early Virginia court
> records which involved hog stealing and the consequences.  Why was
> the punishment so severe and was hog theft more of an offense than
> cow theft?  If so, was it because pork could be cured and kept
> longer than beef?
>
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