{
 "id": "hanson-gregory",
 "type": "person",
 "names": {
  "name": "Hanson Gregory",
  "aliases": [
   "Captain Gregory"
  ],
  "said": "Claimed the hole and told it the same way for sixty years."
 },
 "region": [
  "new-england"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "role": "inventor",
  "state": "ME"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "The New England sailor who said he punched the first hole in a donut in 1847, at sixteen, aboard a lime-trading ship.",
  "story": "Gregory said he disliked how greasy twisted donuts were and how raw their centres came out, and punched a hole through the middle with the ship's tin pepper box, later teaching his mother the trick. The Smithsonian's account has his mother, Elizabeth Gregory, frying a deep dough that used his spice cargo — nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon rind — and putting hazelnuts or walnuts in the middle where the dough might not cook through.\n\nThe claim is one of several. Michael Krondl suggests the ring came from recipes for a jumble, a ring-shaped cookie; Linda Civitello writes the hole made donuts cook faster. By 1870 a cutter with two concentric circles was in production.",
  "today": "Nobody has produced a document that settles it, and the story is repeated as settled anyway."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "hole",
   "as": "The claim itself.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "olykoek",
   "as": "What came before it.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "elizabeth-gregory",
   "as": "The other Gregory in the story.",
   "rel": "person"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-doughnut"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-doughnut"
  },
  "fields": {
   "names.said": {
    "tier": "tradition"
   }
  }
 },
 "schema": 1,
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "The New England sailor who said he punched the first hole in a donut in 1847, at sixteen, aboard a lime-trading ship.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "new-england",
   "name": "New England",
   "state": null,
   "note": "cider donuts at the orchard, and the chain that started in Quincy"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "hole",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "The hole",
   "as": "The claim itself.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "olykoek",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Olykoek",
   "as": "What came before it.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "elizabeth-gregory",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Elizabeth Gregory",
   "as": "The other Gregory in the story.",
   "rel": "person"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-doughnut",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Doughnut — Wikipedia",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-doughnut"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-doughnut"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-doughnut"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "elizabeth-gregory",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Elizabeth Gregory",
   "as": "Her son, and the claim.",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "from": "hole",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "The hole",
   "as": "Who claimed it.",
   "rel": "person"
  }
 ]
}