Thomas Cannon was a possible literary collaborator with John Cleland, author of Fanny Hill, as well as the writer of what may be the earliest published defence of homosexuality in English, Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd (1749). Cannon and his printer were arrested but released on bail of £400 each. Cannon fled abroad for three years. The printer was sent to trial, found guilty, and fined, imprisoned for a month, and also subjected to the public torture of the pillory.