Hog, Thomas (1628-03-25 - 1692-01-04)

Thomas Hog was born at Tain, Ross-shire in 1628. He was educated at Tain grammar school before entering Marischal College, Aberdeen, graduating M.A. in 1650. He was licensed in 1654 and served as chaplain to the earl of Sutherland before being ordained as minister of Kiltearn that same year. He married a sister of John Hay some time after April 1656. Hog was deposed by the synod of Ross in 1661 for taking the side of the extreme protesters during the religious controversy of the 1650s. He retired to Knockoudie in Auldearn, Nairnshire, but was delated by the bishop of Moray for preaching and keeping conventicles. He was briefly imprisoned in Forres for his offences, but continued to preach upon his release. He was delated for seditious practices in 1674, and letters of intercommuning were issued against him in 1675; he was arrested in 1677 and committed to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh before being imprisoned at the Bass Rock. He was released in 1679, although he was fined in 1683 for resuming conventicles. Hog was banished from Scotland in 1684; having travelled to London, he was quickly arrested on suspicion of complicity with the duke of Monmouth’s plot. He fled to the Netherlands in 1685, returning to Scotland in 1688 with the announcement of James VII’s indulgence to presbyterians. He served as a member of the Church of Scotland general assembly in 1690, and declined an appointment as King William’s domestic chaplain the following year due to his declining health. He was restored to Kiltearn in 1691 but died on 4 January 1692. Hog was buried under the threshold of his church’s door.