case of a shepherd who had shorn his sheep on the Parish Fast was
seriously discussed, with a view to severely punishing him for the
offence. A minute as follows was passed: "The Session, considering that
there are several scandals of this nature breaking forth, recommends to
the bailie of the bailerie of Lesmahagow to fix a pair of jougs at the
kirk door, that he may cause punish corporally those who are not able to
pay fines, and that according to law."
A common word in Ayrshire for the jougs was "bregan." In the accounts of
the parish of Mauchline is an entry as under:
1681. For a lock to the bregan and mending it L1 16 0
In Jamieson's "Dictionary" it is spelled "braidyeane." Persons
neglecting to attend church on the Sunday were frequently put into the
jougs. Several cases of this kind might be cited, but perhaps
particulars of one will be sufficient. A man named John Persene was
brought before the Kirk-Session of Galston, in 1651. He admitted he had
not been to church for the space of five weeks. For thus neglecting to
attend to the ordinances, he was "injoyned to apier in the public place
of repentence, and there to be publicly rebuked, with certificatione
that if he be found to be two Sabbaths together absent from the church
he shall be put in the breggan."
In "Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," by Daniel Wilson, LL.D. (London,
1863), there is a drawing of a fine old pair of jougs, "found," says
Wilson, "imbedded in a venerable ash tree, recently blown down, at the
churchyard gate, Applegirth, Dumfriesshire. The tree, which was of great
girth, is believed to have been upwards of three hundred years old, and
the jougs were completely imbedded in its trunk, while the chain and
staple hung down within the decayed and hollow core." The jougs
belonging to the parish of Galashiels are preserved at Abbotsford. At
Merton, Berwickshire, the jougs may be seen at the church. The Fenwick
jougs are still fastened to the church wall, and the old Session Records
of the parish contain references to cases where persons were ordered to
"stand in the jougs from eight till ten, and thence go to the place of
repentence within ye kirk." At the village of Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, the
jougs are attached to the old Tolbooth, at the town of Kinross are
fastened to the market cross, and at Sanquhar they are in front of the
town hall.
[Illustration: JOUGS FROM THE OLD CHURCH OF CLOVA, FORFARSHIRE.]
We give three illustrations of the jougs. One represents a very fine
example, which may be seen in the Priory Church of Bridlington,
Yorkshire. We believe that this is the first picture which has been
published of this interesting old-times relic. It is referred to in the
local guide book, but no information is given as to when last used.
It is stated in the "History of Wakefield Cathedral," by John W. Walker,
F.S.A., that "an old chain, leaded into the wall at the junction of the
north aisle with the tower in the interior of the church, is said to
have been used for the purpose of fastening up persons who disturbed the
service." This may be safely assumed that formerly the jougs were
affixed at the end of the chain.
[Illustration: THE JOUGS AT DUDDINGSTON.]
In the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, may
be seen the jougs of the old parish church of Clova, Forfarshire. About
a mile from Edinburgh is the charming hamlet of Duddingston, and at the
churchyard gate are the jougs, which form a curious link between the
ruder customs of bygone ages and the more refined life of modern times.
FOOTNOTES:
[35] Rogers's "Scotland, Social and Domestic."
The Stocks.
Stocks were used, at an early period, as a means of punishing breakers
of the law. The precise date when they were first employed in this
country is not known, but we may infer from early mediaeval illustrations
that the stocks were in general use amongst the Anglo-Saxons, for they
often figure in drawings of their public places. The picture we here
give is from the Harleian MSS., No. 65. The stocks were usually placed
by the side of the public road, at the entrance of a town. It will be
observed that two offenders are fastened to the columns of a public
building by means of a rope or chain. It has been suggested that it is a
court-house.
[Illustration: ANGLO-SAXON PUNISHMENTS.]
The "Cambridge Trinity College Psalter"--an illuminated
manuscript--presents some curious illustrations of the manners of the
earlier half of the twelfth century. We give a reproduction of one of
its quaint pictures. Two men are in the stocks; one, it will be seen, is
held by one leg only, and the other by both, and a couple of persons are
taunting them in their time of trouble.
[Illustration: TAUNTING PERSONS IN THE STOCKS.]
Stocks were not only used as a mode of punishment, but as means of
securing offenders. In bygone times, every vill of common right was
compelled to erect a pair of stocks at its own expense. The constable by
common law might place persons in the stocks to keep them in hold, but
not by way of punishment.
We gather from an Act passed during the reign of Edward III., in the
year 1351, and known as the Second Statute of Labourers, that if
artificers were unruly they were liable to be placed in the stocks. Some
years later, namely, in 1376, the Commons prayed that the stocks might
be established in every village. In 1405, an Act was passed for every
town and village to be provided with a pair of stocks, so that a place
which had not this instrument of punishment and detention was regarded
as a hamlet. No village was considered to be complete, or even worthy of
the name of village, without its stocks, so essential to due order and
government were they deemed to be. A Shropshire historian, speaking of a
hamlet called Hulston, in the township of Middle, in order, apparently,
to prove that in calling the place a hamlet and not a village he was
speaking correctly, remarks in proof of his assertion, that Hulston did
not then, or ever before, possess a constable, a pound, or stocks.[36]
Wynkyn de Worde, who, in company with Richard Pynsent, succeeded to
Caxton's printing business, in the year 1491, issued from his press the
play of "Hick Scorner," and in one of the scenes the stocks are
introduced. The works of Shakespeare include numerous allusions to this
subject. Launce, in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (IV. 4), says: "I have
sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen." In "All's Well that Ends
Well" (IV. 3), Bertram says: "Come, bring forth this counterfeit module
has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier." Whereupon one of
the French lords adds: "Bring him forth; has sat i' stocks all night,
poor gallant knave." Volumnia says of Coriolanus (V. 3):
"There's no man in the world
More bound to's mother; yet here let me prate
Like one i' the stocks."
Again, in the "Comedy of Errors" (III. 1), Luce speaks of "a pair of
stocks in the town," and in "King Lear" (II. 2), Cornwall, referring to
Kent, says:
"Fetch forth the stocks!
You stubborn ancient knave."
It would seem that formerly, in great houses, as in some colleges, there
were movable stocks for the correction of the servants.[37]
In Butler's "Hudibras" are allusions to the stocks. Says the poet:
"An old dull sot, who toll'd the clock
For many years at Bridewell-dock;
. . .
Engaged the constable to seize
All those that would not break the peace;
Let out the stocks and whipping-post,
And cage, to those that gave him most."
We are enabled, by the kindness of Mr. Austin Dobson, author of "Thomas
Bewick and his Pupils," to reproduce from that work a picture of the
stocks, engraved by Charlton Nesbit for Butler's "Hudibras," 1811.
[Illustration: IN THE STOCKS, BY NESBIT.]
Scottish history contains allusions to the stocks; but in North Britain
they do not appear to have been so generally used as in England. On the
24th August, 1623, a case occupied the attention of the members of the
Kirk-Session of Kinghorn. It was proved that a man named William Allan
had been guilty of abusing his wife on the Sabbath, and for the offence
was condemned to be placed twenty-four hours in the stocks, and
subsequently to stand in the jougs two hours on a market day. It was
further intimated to him that if he again abused his wife, he would be
banished from the town. We give a picture of the stocks formerly in the
Canongate Tolbooth, Edinburgh, and now in the Scottish Antiquarian
Museum.
[Illustration: STOCKS FROM THE CANONGATE TOLBOOTH.]
It was enacted, in the year 1605, that every person convicted of
drunkenness should be fined five shillings or spend six hours in the
stocks, and James I., in the year 1623, confirmed the Act. Stocks were
usually employed for punishing drunkards, but drunkenness was by no
means the only offence for which they were brought into requisition.
Wood-stealers, or, as they were styled, "hedge-tearers," were, about
1584, set in the stocks two days in the open street, with the stolen
wood before them, as a punishment for a second offence.[38] Vagrants
were in former times often put in the stocks, and Canning's "Needy
Knife-Grinder" was taken for one, and punished.
In a valuable work mainly dealing with Devonshire, by A. H. A.
Hamilton, entitled, "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen
Anne," there is an important note on this subject. "A favourite
punishment," says Hamilton, "for small offences, such as resisting a
constable, was the stocks. The offender had to come into the church at
morning prayer, and say publicly that he was sorry, and was then set in
the stocks until the end of the evening prayer. The punishment was
generally repeated on the next market day."
Tippling on a Sunday during public divine service was in years agone a
violation of the laws, and frequently was the means of offenders being
placed in the stocks. In Sheffield, from a record dated February 12th,
1790, we find that for drinking in a public-house, during the time of
service in the church, nine men were locked in the stocks. "Two boys,"
we find it is stated in the same work, "were made to do penance in the
church for playing at trip during divine service, by standing in the
midst of the church with their trip sticks erect."
Not far distant from Sheffield is the village of Whiston, and here
remain the old parish stocks near to the church, and bear the date of
1786.
Perhaps the most notable person ever placed in the stocks for drinking
freely, but not wisely, was Cardinal Wolsey. He was, about the year
1500, the incumbent at Lymington, near Yeovil, and at the village feast
had overstepped the bounds of moderation, and his condition being made
known to Sir Amias Poulett, J.P., a strict moralist, he was, by his
instructions, humiliated by being placed in the stocks. It was the
general practice in bygone days, not very far remote, for churchwardens
to visit the various public-houses during the time of church service and
see that no persons were drinking. At Beverley, about 1853, the
representatives of the church, while on their rounds, met in the streets
a well-known local character called Jim Brigham, staggering along the
street. The poor fellow was taken into custody, and next day brought
before the Mayor, and after being severely spoken to about the sin of
Sunday tippling, he was sentenced to the stocks for two hours. An
eye-witness to Jim's punishment says: "While he was in the stocks, one
of the Corporation officials placed in Jim's hat a sheet of paper,
stating the cause of his punishment and its extent. A young man who had
been articled to a lawyer, but who was not practising, stepped forward,
and taking the paper out, tore it into shreds, remarking it was no part
of Jim's sentence to be subjected to that additional disgrace. The act
was applauded by the onlookers. One working-man who sympathised with
him, filled and lit a tobacco pipe, and placed it in Jim's mouth; but it
was instantly removed by one of the constables, who considered it was a
most flagrant act, and one calling for prompt interference on the part
of the guardians of the law." Brigham was the last person punished in
the stocks at Beverley. The stocks, which bear the date 1789, were
movable, and fitted into sockets near the Market Cross. They are still
preserved in a chamber at St. Mary's in that town. The Minster,
Beverley, had also its stocks, which are still preserved in the roof of
that splendid edifice.
The stocks were last used at Market Drayton about sixty years ago. "It
is related," says Mr. Morris, "that some men, for imbibing too freely
and speaking unseemly language to parishioners, as they were going to
church on a Sunday morning, were, on the following day, duly charged
with the offence and fined, the alternative being confinement for four
hours in the stocks. Two of the men refused to pay the fine, and were
consequently put therein. The people flocked around them, and, while
some regaled them with an ample supply of beer, others expressed their
sympathy in a more practical way by giving them money, so that, when
released, their heads and their pockets were considerably heavier than
they had been on the previous Sunday." At Ellesmere, the stocks,
whipping-post, and pillory were a combination of engines of punishment.
The former were frequently in use for the correction of drunkards. A
regular customer, we read, was "honoured by a local poet with some
impromptu verses not unworthy of reproduction:
"'A tailor here! confined in stocks,
A prison made of wood--a--,
Weeping and wailing to get out,
But couldna' for his blood--a--
"'The pillory, it hung o'er his head,
The whipping-post so near--a--
A crowd of people round about
Did at William laugh and jeer--a--'"
"The style was," it is said, "a sarcastic imitation of 'William's'
peculiar manner of speaking when tipsy."
According to Mr. Christopher A. Markham, in his notices of Gretton
stocks, they "still stand on the village green; they were made to
secure three men, and have shackles on the post for whipping; they are
in a good state of repair. Joshua Pollard, of Gretton, was placed in
them, in the year 1857, for six hours, in default of paying five
shillings and costs for drunkenness." In the following year a man was
put in the stocks for a similar offence. It is asserted that a man was
placed in the Aynhoe stocks in 1846 for using bad language.
Card-sharpers and the like often suffered in the stocks. It appears from
the _Shrewsbury Chronicle_ of May 1st, 1829, that the punishment of the
stocks was inflicted "at Shrewsbury on three Birmingham youths for
imposing on 'the flats' of the town with the games of 'thimble and pea'
and 'prick the garter.'"
A very late instance of a man being placed in the stocks for gambling
was recorded in the _Leeds Mercury_, under date of April 14th, 1860. "A
notorious character," it is stated, "named John Gambles, of Stanningley,
having been convicted some months ago for Sunday gambling, and sentenced
to sit in the stocks for six hours, left the locality, returned lately,
and suffered his punishment by sitting in the stocks from two till
eight o'clock on Tuesday last." Several writers on this old form of
punishment regard the foregoing as the latest instance of a person being
confined in the stocks; it is, however, not the case, for one Mark Tuck,
of Newbury, Berkshire, in 1872, was placed in them. The following
particulars are furnished in _Notes and Queries_, 4th series, vol. x.,
p. 6:--"A novel scene was presented in the Butter and Poultry Market, at
Newbury, on Tuesday (June 11th, 1872) afternoon. Mark Tuck, a rag and
bone dealer, who for several years had been well known in the town as a
man of intemperate habits, and upon whom imprisonment in Reading gaol
had failed to produce any beneficial effect, was fixed in the stocks for
drunkenness and disorderly conduct in the Parish Church on Monday
evening. Twenty-six years had elapsed since the stocks were last used,
and their reappearance created no little sensation and amusement,
several hundreds of persons being attracted to the spot where they were
fixed. Tuck was seated upon a stool, and his legs were secured in the
stocks at a few minutes past one o'clock, and as the church clock,
immediately facing him, chimed each quarter, he uttered expressions of
thankfulness, and seemed anything but pleased at the laughter and
derision of the crowd. Four hours having passed, Tuck was released, and
by a little stratagem on the part of the police, he escaped without
being interfered with by the crowd."
Attendance and repairing stocks formed quite important items in old
parish accounts. A few entries drawn from the township account-books of
Skipton, may be reproduced as examples:--
s. d.
April 16th, 1763.--For taking up a man and setting in ye stocks 2 0
March 27th, 1739.--For mending stocks--wood and iron work 9 6
July 12th, 1756.--For pillory and stocks renewing 3 6
March 25th, 1776.--Paid John Lambert for repairing the stocks 5 6
March 25th, 1776.--Paid Christ. Brown for repairing the stocks 4 6
During their later years, the Skipton stocks were used almost solely on
Sundays. A practice prevailed at Skipton similar to the one we have
described at Beverley. "At a certain stage in the morning service at the
church," writes Mr. Dawson, the local historian, "the churchwardens of
the town and country parishes withdrew, and headed by the old beadle
walked through the streets of the town. If a person was found drunk in
the streets, or even drinking in one of the inns, he was promptly
escorted to the stocks, and impounded for the remainder of the morning.
An imposing personage was the beadle. He wore a cocked hat, trimmed, as
was his official coat, with gold, and he carried about with him in
majestic style a trident staff. 'A terror to evildoers' he certainly
was--at any rate, to those of tender years."[39] The churchwardens not
infrequently partook of a slight refreshment during their Sunday morning
rounds, and we remember seeing in the police reports of a Yorkshire town
that some highly respectable representatives of the Church had been
fined for drinking at an inn during their tour of inspection.
[Illustration: _From a Photo by A. Whitford Anderson, Esq., Watford._
STOCKS AND WHIPPING-POST, ALDBURY.]
"At Bramhall, Cheshire," says Mr. Alfred Burton, to whom we are indebted
for several illustrations and many valuable notes in this book, "the
stocks were perfect till 1887, when the leg-stones were unfortunately
taken away, and cannot now be found. Thomas Leah, about 1849, was the
last person put into them. He went to the constable and asked to be
placed in the stocks, a request that was granted, and he remained there
all night. On the 9th August, 1822, two women were incarcerated in the
stocks in the market place at Stockport, for three hours, one for
getting drunk, the other for gross and deliberate scandal."
We give an illustration from a recent photograph by Mr. A. Whitford
Anderson, of Watford, of the stocks and whipping-post at Aldbury,
Hertfordshire. It presents one of the best pictures of these old-time
relics which has come under our notice. We have no desire for the stocks
and lash to be revived, but we hope these obsolete engines of
punishments will long remain linking the past with the present.
[Illustration]
In closing this chapter we must not omit to state that in the olden time
persons refusing to assist in getting in the corn or hay harvest were
liable to be imprisoned in the stocks. At the Northamptonshire Quarter
Sessions held in 1688, the time was fixed at two days and one night.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Morris's "Obsolete Punishments of Shropshire."
[37] Dyer's "Folk-Lore of Shakespeare."
[38] Roberts's "Social History of the Southern Counties of England,"
1856.
[39] W. H. Dawson's "History of Skipton," 1882.
The Drunkard's Cloak.
Several historians, dealing with the social life of England in bygone
times, have described the wearing of a barrel after the manner of a
cloak as a general mode of punishing drunkards, in force during the
Commonwealth. There appears to be little foundation for the statement,
and, after careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that
this mode of punishment was, as regards this country, confined to
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
In the year 1655 was printed in London a work entitled, "England's
Grievance Discovered in Relation to the Coal Trade," by Ralph Gardner,
of Chirton, in the county of Northumberland, Gent. The book is dedicated
to "Oliver, Lord Protector." Gardner not only gave a list of grievances,
but suggested measures to reform them. It will be gathered from the
following proposed remedy that he was not any advocate of half measures
in punishing persons guilty of offences. He suggested that a law be
created for death to those who should commit perjury, forgery, or
bribery.
More than one writer has said that Gardner was executed in 1661, at
York, for coining, but there is not any truth in the statement. We have
proof that he was conducting his business after the year in which it is
stated that he suffered death at the hands of the public executioner.
Gardner, in his work, gave depositions of witnesses to support his
charges against "the tyrannical oppression of the magistrates of
Newcastle-on-Tyne." "John Willis, of Ipswich," he writes, "upon his oath
said, that he, and this deponent, was in Newcastle six months ago, and
there he saw one Ann Bridlestone drove through the streets by an officer
of the same corporation, holding a rope in his hand, the other end
fastened to an engine called the branks, which is like a crown, it being
of iron, which was musled over the head and face, with a great gag or
tongue of iron forced into her mouth, which forced the blood out; and
that is the punishment which the magistrates do inflict upon chiding and
scoulding women; and he hath often seen the like done to others."
"He, this deponent, further affirms, that he hath seen men drove up and
down the streets, with a great tub or barrel opened in the sides, with a
hole in one end to put through their heads, and so cover their shoulders
and bodies, down to the small of their legs, and then close the same,
called the new-fashioned cloak, and so make them march to the view of
all beholders; and this is their punishment for drunkards and the like."
[Illustration: BRANK AND DRUNKARD'S CLOAK, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.]
Several other forms of punishment are mentioned by Gardner. Drunkards,
we gather, for the first offence were fined five shillings, to be given
to the poor, or in default of payment within a week, were set in the
stocks for six hours. For the second offence they had to be bound for
good behaviour. Scolds had to be ducked over head and ears in a
ducking-stool.
"I was certainly informed," wrote Gardner, "by persons of worth, that
the punishments above are but gentle admonitions to what they knew was
acted by two magistrates of Newcastle: one for killing a poor workman of
his own, and being questioned for it, and condemned, compounded with
King James for it, paying to a Scotch lord his weight in gold and
silver, every seven years or thereabouts, etc. The other magistrate
found a poor man cutting a few horse sticks in his wood, for which
offence he bound him to a tree, and whipt him to death."
The Rev. John Brand, in 1789, published his "History of
Newcastle-on-Tyne," and reproduced in it Gardner's notice of the
drunkard's cloak. Brand gives a picture of the cloak, and Mr. J. R.
Boyle, F.S.A., a leading authority on North Country bibliography, tells
us that he believes it to be the first pictorial representation of the
cloak. Our illustration is from Richardson's "Local Historian's Table
Book." Mr. Walter Scott, publisher, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, has kindly
lent us the block.