the facts included in this chapter, read before the British
Archaeological Association, February 15th, 1888, a paper on this theme.
"It is rather remarkable," said Dr. Brushfield, "that no allusion to
this punishment is to be found in the Newcastle Corporation accounts or
other local documents." We have reproduced from Gardner's volume the
only testimony we possess of the administration of the punishment in
England. There are many traces of this kind of cloak on the continent.
It is noticed in "Travels in Holland," by Sir William Brereton, under
date of May 29th, 1634, as seen at Delft. John Evelyn visited Delft, on
August 17th, 1641, and writes that in the Senate House "hangs a weighty
vessel of wood, not unlike a butter-churn, which the adventurous woman
that hath two husbands at one time is to wear on her shoulders, her head
peeping out at the top only, and so led about the town, as a penance for
her incontinence." Samuel Pepys has an entry in his diary respecting
seeing a similar barrel at the Hague, in the year 1660. We have traces
of this mode of punishment in Germany. John Howard, in his work entitled
"The State of Prisons in England and Wales," 1784, thus writes:
"Denmark.--Some (criminals) of the lower sort, as watchmen, coachmen,
etc., are punished by being led through the city in what is called 'The
Spanish Mantle.' This is a kind of heavy vest, something like a tub,
with an aperture for the head, and irons to enclose the neck. I measured
one at Berlin, 1ft. 8in. in diameter at the top, 2ft. 11in. at the
bottom, and 2ft. 11in. high.... This mode of punishment is particularly
dreaded, and is one cause that night robberies are never heard of in
Copenhagen."
We may safely conclude that the drunkard's cloak was introduced into
Newcastle from the Continent. The author of a paper published in 1862,
under the title of "A Look at the Federal Army," after speaking of
crossing the Susquehanna, has some remarks about punishments. "I was,"
says the writer, "extremely amused to see a 'rare' specimen of Yankee
invention, in the shape of an original method of punishment drill. One
wretched delinquent was gratuitously framed in oak, his head being
thrust through a hole cut in one end of a barrel, the other end of which
had been removed; and the poor fellow 'loafed' about in the most
disconsolate manner, looking for all the world like a half-hatched
chicken. Another defaulter had heavy weights fastened to his wrists,
his hands and feet being chained together." In conclusion, we are told
that the punishments were as various as the crimes, but the man in the
pillory-like barrel was deemed the most ludicrous.
[Illustration: PUNISHMENT OF A DRUNKARD.]
The early English settlers in America introduced many English customs
into the country. The pillory, stocks, ducking-stool, etc., were
frequently employed. Drunkards were punished in various ways; sometimes
they had to wear a large "D" in red, which was painted on a board or
card, and suspended by a string round the neck.
At Haddon, Derbyshire, is a curious relic of bygone times, consisting of
an iron handcuff or ring, fastened to some woodwork in the banqueting
hall. If a person refused to drink the liquor assigned to him, or
committed an offence against the convivial customs at the festive
gatherings for which this ancient mansion was so famous, his wrist was
locked in an upright position in the iron ring, and the liquor he had
declined, or a quantity of cold water, was poured down the sleeve of his
doublet.
Whipping and Whipping-Posts.
The Anglo-Saxons whipped prisoners with a whip of three cords, knotted
at the end. It was not an uncommon practice for mistresses to whip, or
have their servants whipped, to death. William of Malmesbury relates a
story to the effect that when King Ethelred was a child, he on one
occasion displeased his mother, and she, not having a whip at hand,
flogged him with some candles until he was nearly insensible with pain.
"On this account," so runs the story, "he dreaded candles during the
rest of his life to such a degree that he would never suffer the light
of them to be introduced in his presence." During the Saxon epoch,
flogging was generally adopted as means of punishing persons guilty of
offences, whether slight or serious.
For a long time in our history, payments for using the lash formed
important items in the municipal accounts of towns or parish accounts of
villages.
Before the monasteries were dissolved, the poor were relieved at them.
No sooner had they passed away than the vagrants became a nuisance, and
steps were taken to put a stop to begging; indeed, prior to this period
attempts had been made to check wandering vagrants. They were referred
to in the "Statute of Labourers," passed in the year 1349. Not a few
enactments were made to keep down vagrancy. In the reign of Edward VI.,
in 1547, an Act was passed, from which it appears "that any person who
had offered them work which they refused, was authorised to brand them
on the breast with a V, hold them in slavery for two years, feed them
during that period on bread and water, and hire them out to others." The
Act failed on account of its severity, and was repealed in 1549.
It was in the reign of Henry VIII., and in the year 1530, that the
famous Whipping Act was instituted, directing that vagrants were to be
carried to some market town or other place, "and there tied to the end
of a cart naked, and beaten with whips throughout such market town, or
other place, till the body shall be bloody by reason of such whipping."
Vagrants, after being whipped, had to take an oath that they would
return to their native places, or where they had last dwelt for three
years. Various temporary modifications were made in this Act, but it
remained in force until the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, when some important alterations were made. Persons were not
to be publicly whipped naked, as previously, but from the middle
upwards, and whipped until the body should be bloody. It was at this
time that the whipping-post was substituted for the cart. Whipping-posts
soon became plentiful. John Taylor, "the water poet," in one of his
works, published in 1630, adverts to them as follows:
"In London, and within a mile, I ween,
There are jails or prisons full eighteen,
And sixty whipping-posts and stocks and cages."
We give an illustration of the Waltham Abbey Whipping-Post and Stocks,
as they appeared when they stood within the old wooden market-house,
which was pulled down in 1853. The post bears on it the date 1598, and
is 5 feet 9 inches high; it is strongly made of oak, with iron clasps
for the hands when employed as a whipping-post, and for the feet when
used as the stocks. It is rather more elaborate than others which have
come under our notice. It will be observed the seat for the culprits
placed in the stocks was beside one of the immense oak pillars of the
market-house. They are now placed with the remains of the Pillory at the
entrance of the schoolroom, on the south-west side of the church.
[Illustration: WALTHAM ABBEY WHIPPING-POST AND STOCKS.]
Some of the authorities regarded with greater favour the punishment at
the whipping-post than at the cart tail. An old writer deals at some
length with the benefit of the former. Says he: "If to put in execution
the laws of the land be of any service to the nation, which few, I
think, will deny, the benefits of the whipping-post must be very
apparent, as being a necessary instrument to such an execution. Indeed,
the service it does to a country is inconceivable. I, myself, know a man
who had proceeded to lay his hand upon a silver spoon with a design to
make it his own, but on looking round, and seeing the whipping-post in
his way, he desisted from the theft. Whether he suspected that the post
would impeach him or not, I will not pretend to determine; some folks
were of opinion that he was afraid of _habeas corpus_. It is likewise an
infallible remedy for all lewd and disorderly behaviour, which the
chairman at sessions generally employs to restrain; nor is it less
beneficial to the honest part of mankind than the dishonest, for
though it lies immediately in the high road to the gallows, it has
stopped many an adventurous young man in his progress thither." The
records of the Worcester Corporation contain many references to old-time
punishments. In the year 1656 was made in the bye-law book a note of the
fact that for some years past a want has been felt "for certain
instruments for applying to the execution of justice upon offenders,
namely, the pillory, whipping-post, and gum-stoole." The Chamberlain was
directed to obtain the same. We gather from the proceedings of the
Doncaster Town Council that on the 5th of May, 1713, an order was made
for the erection of a whipping-post, to be set up at the Stocks,
Butcher-Cross, for punishing vagrants and sturdy beggars.
Notices of whipping sometimes appear in old church books. At
Kingston-on-Thames, under date of September 8th, 1572, it is recorded in
the parish register as follows: "This day in this towne was kept the
sessions of Gayle Delyverye, and ther was hanged vj. persons, and xvj.
taken for roges and vagabonds, and whypped aboyt the market-place, and
brent in the ears."
At the Quarter Sessions in Devonshire, held at Easter, 1598, it was
ordered that the mothers of illegitimate children be whipped. The
reputed fathers had to undergo a like punishment. A very strange order
was made in the same county during the Commonwealth, and it was to the
effect that every woman who had been the mother of an illegitimate
child, and had not been previously punished, be committed for trial. Mr.
Hamilton, in his work on the "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to
Queen Anne," has many curious notes on the subject. The Scotch pedlars
and others who wended their way to push their trade in the West of
England, ran a great risk of being whipped. At the Midsummer Sessions,
in the year 1684, information was given to the court showing that
certain Scotch pedlars, or other petty chapmen, were in the habit of
selling their goods to the "greate damage and hindrance of shopp
keepers." The Court passed measures for the protection of the local
tradesmen, and directed the petty constables to apprehend the strangers,
and without further ceremony to strip them naked, and whip them, or
cause them to be openly flogged, and sent away.
The churchwardens' accounts of Barnsley contain references to the
practice of whipping. Charges as follow occur:
1622. William Roggers, for going with six wanderers to Ardsley ijd.
Mr. Garnett, for makinge them a pass iijd.
Richard White, for whippeinge them accordinge to law ijd.
The constable's accounts of the same town, from 1632 to 1636, include
items similar to the following:
To Edward Wood, for whiping of three wanderers sent to their
dwelling-place by Sir George Plint and Mr. Rockley iiijd.
It appears from the Corporation accounts of Congleton, Cheshire, that
persons were whipped at the cart tail. We find it stated:
1637. paid to boy for whippinge John ffoxe 0 2 0
paid for a carte to tye the said ffoxe unto when he
was whipped 0 2 0
The notorious Judge Jeffreys, on one occasion, in sentencing a woman to
be whipped, said: "Hangman, I charge you to pay particular attention to
this lady. Scourge her soundly, man; scourge her till her blood runs
down! It is Christmas, a cold time for madam to strip. See that you warm
her shoulders thoroughly!"
At Worcester, in 1697, a new whipping-post was erected in the Corn
Market, at a cost of 8s. "Men and women," says a local historian, "were
whipped here promiscuously in public till the close of the last century,
if not later. Fourpence was the old charge for whipping male and female
rogues."
The next note on whipping is drawn from the church register of Burnham,
Bucks, and is one of several similar entries: "Benjamin Smat, and his
wife and three children, vagrant beggars; he of middle stature, but one
eye, was this 28th day of September, 1699, with his wife and children,
openly whipped at Boveney, in the parish of Burnham, in the county of
Bucks, according to ye laws. And they are assigned to pass forthwith
from parish to parish by ye officers thereof the next direct way to the
parish of St. [Se]pulchers, Lond., where they say they last inhabited
three years. And they are limited to be at St. [Se]pulch within ten days
next ensuing. Given under our hands and seals, Will. Glover, Vicar of
Burnham, and John Hunt, Constable of Boveney." In some instances we
gather from the entries in the parish registers, after punishing the
vagrants in their own parish, the authorities recommended them to the
tender mercy of other persons in whose hands they might fall.
At Durham, in the year 1690, a married woman named Eleanor Wilson, was
publicly whipped in the market-place, between the hours of eleven and
twelve o'clock, for being drunk on Sunday, April 20th.
Insane persons did not escape the lash. In the constable's accounts of
Great Staughtan, Huntingdonshire, is an item:
1690-1. Pd. in charges taking up a distracted woman,
watching her, and whipping her next day 0 8 6
A still more remarkable charge is the following in the same accounts:
1710-1. Pd. Thomas Hawkins for whipping 2 people yt
had small-pox 0 0 8
In 1764, we gather from the _Public Ledger_ that a woman, who is
described as "an old offender," was conveyed in a cart from Clerkenwell
Bridewell to Enfield, and publicly whipped at the cart's tail by the
common hangman, for cutting down and destroying wood in Enfield Chase.
She had to undergo the punishment three times.
Persons obtaining goods under false pretences were frequently flogged.
In 1769, at Nottingham, a young woman, aged nineteen, was found guilty
of this crime, and was, by order of the Court of Quarter Sessions,
stripped to the waist and publicly whipped on market-day in the
market-place. In the following year, a female found guilty of stealing a
handkerchief from a draper's shop, was tied to the tail of a cart and
whipped from Weekday-Cross to the Malt-Cross. It was at Nottingham, a
few years prior to this time, that a soldier was severely punished for
drinking the Pretender's health. The particulars are briefly told as
follows in _Adams's Weekly Courant_ for Wednesday, July 20th, to
Wednesday, July 27th, 1737: "Friday last, a dragoon, belonging to Lord
Cadogan's Regiment, at Nottingham, received 300 lashes, and was to
receive 300 more at Derby, and to be drum'd out of the Regiment with
halter about his neck, for drinking the Pretender's health."
Whipping at Wakefield appears to have been a common punishment. Payments
like the following frequently occur in the constable's accounts:
1787, May 15, Assistance at Whiping 3 men 0 3 0
July 6, " " 3 " 0 3 0
Aug. 17, " " 2 " 0 2 0
Sept. 7, " " 3 " 0 3 0
A fire occurred at Olney in 1783, and during the confusion a man stole
some ironwork. The crime was detected, and the man was tried and
sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail. Cowper, the poet, was an
eye-witness to the carrying out of the sentence, and in a letter to the
Rev. John Newton gives an amusing account of it. "The fellow," wrote
Cowper, "seemed to show great fortitude; but it was all an imposition.
The beadle who whipped him had his left hand filled with red ochre,
through which, after every stroke, he drew the lash of the whip, leaving
the appearance of a wound upon the skin, but in reality not hurting him
at all. This being perceived by the constable, who followed the beadle
to see that he did his duty, he (the constable) applied the cane,
without any such management or precaution, to the shoulders of the
beadle. The scene now became interesting and exciting. The beadle could
by no means be induced to strike the thief hard, which provoked the
constable to strike harder; and so the double flogging continued, until
a lass of Silver End, pitying the pityful beadle, thus suffering under
the hands of the pityless constable, joined the procession, and placing
herself immediately behind the constable, seized him by his capillary
club, and pulling him backward by the same, slapped his face with
Amazonian fury. This concentration of events has taken up more of my
paper than I intended, but I could not forbear to inform you how the
beadle thrashed the thief, the constable the beadle, and the lady the
constable, and how the thief was the only person who suffered nothing."
It will be gathered from the foregoing letter that the severity of the
whipping depended greatly on the caprice of the man who administered it.
A statute, in 1791, expressly forbade the whipping of female vagrants.
This was certainly a much needed reform.
Mr. Samuel Carter Hall, born in the year 1800, in his interesting book
entitled "Retrospect of a Long Life" (1883), relates that more than once
he saw the cruel punishment inflicted.
On the 8th of May, 1822, a man was whipped through the streets of
Glasgow by the hangman for taking part in a riot. He was the last person
to undergo public whipping at the cart's tail in Glasgow.
At Coleshill are standing a whipping-post, pillory and stocks, and as
might be expected they attract a good deal of attention from the
visitors to this quiet Midland town. Several writers have stated that
this is the only whipping-post remaining in this country; this is,
however, a mistake, as we have shown in the present chapter. We have not
been able to discover when last used. Our illustration is from a
carefully executed drawing made some years ago.
[Illustration: COLESHILL PILLORY, WHIPPING-POST, AND STOCKS.]
The old town of Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, in bygone times was a
place of importance, and amongst the names of those who have held its
manor is that of Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II. Near the
modern police station is a post on which are irons, enabling it to be
used as a whipping-post and stocks. No references relating to it can be
found in the local old-time accounts or other documents. Old folk say
that in years agone people were detained at the post by means of the
irons, but no instances are remembered of a whip being employed.
It was formerly the custom in London and other places, at the time of
executions, for parents to whip their children, so as to impress upon
their minds the awful lessons of the gallows. Executions were very often
occurring, for people were hanged for trifling offences. Down to the
year 1808, the crime of stealing from the person above the value of a
shilling was punishable with death. Children must have had a hard time
of it, and been frequently flogged.
[Illustration: WHIPPING-POST, KIRTON-IN-LINDSEY.]
Whipping servants was a common practice in the olden time. Pepys and
other old writers make note of it.
The well-known "Diary of a Lady of Quality" contains some interesting
glimpses of old days and ways. Under date of January 30th, 1760, Lady
Francis Pennoyer, of Bullingham Court, Herefordshire, refers to one of
her maids speaking in the housekeeper's room about a matter that was
not to the credit of the family. My lady felt that there was truth in
what the girl said, but it was not in her place to speak, and her
ladyship resolved to make her know and keep her place. "She hath a
pretty face," says the diarist, "and should not be too ready to speak
ill of those above her in station. I should be very sorry to turn her
adrift upon the world, and she hath but a poor home. Sent for her to my
room, and gave her choice, either to be well whipped, or to leave the
house instantly. She chose wisely, I think, and, with many tears, said I
might do what I liked. I bade her attend my chamber to-morrow at
twelve." Next day her ladyship writes in her diary: "Dearlove, my maid,
came to my room, as I bade her. I bade her fetch the rod from what was
my mother-in-law's rod-closet, and kneel and ask pardon, which she did
with tears. I made her prepare, and I whipped her well. The girl's flesh
is plump and firm, and she is a cleanly person--such a one, not
excepting my own daughters, who are thin, and one of them, Charlotte,
rather sallow, as I have not whipped for a long time. She hath never
been whipped before, she says, since she was a child (what can her
mother and late lady have been about, I wonder?), and she cried out a
great deal." Children and servants appear to have been frequently
flogged at Bullingham Court, both by its lord and lady. In other homes
similar practices prevailed.
[Illustration: "The Tutor's Assistant"
(_By George Cruikshank_)]
Public Penance.
Church discipline in the olden days caused the highest and lowest in the
land to perform penance in public. A notable instance of a king
subjecting himself to this humiliating form of punishment is that of
Henry II. The story of the King's quarrels with Becket, and of his
unfortunate expression which led four knights to enact a tragic deed in
Canterbury Cathedral, is familiar to the reader of history. After the
foul murder of Becket had been committed, the King was in great
distress, and resolved to do penance at the grave of the murdered
Archbishop. Mounted on his horse, he rode to Canterbury, and on coming
in sight of the Cathedral, he dismounted, and walked barefooted to
Becket's shrine. He spent the day in prayer and fasting, and at night
watched the relics of the saint. He next, in presence of the monks,
disrobed himself, and presented his bare shoulders for them to lash.
At Canossa, in the winter of 1077, was performed a most degrading act of
penance by Emperor Henry IV. of Germany. He had been excommunicated by
Pope Gregory VII., and had suffered much on that account. He resolved to
see the Pope, and, if possible, obtain absolution. The Emperor made a
long and toilsome journey in the cold, in company with his loving wife
Bertha, his infant son, and only one knight. The Pope refused to see the
Emperor until he had humbled himself at the gates of the castle. "On a
dreary winter morning," say Baring-Gould and Gilman, in their "History
of Germany," "with the ground deep in snow, the King, the heir of a line
of emperors, was forced to lay aside every mark of royalty, was clad in
the thin white dress of the penitent, and there fasting, he awaited the
pleasure of the Pope in the castle yard. But the gates did not unclose.
A second day he stood, cold, hungry, and mocked by vain hope." On the
close of the third day, we are told that he was received and pardoned by
the Pope.
The romantic story of Eleanor Cobham, first mistress and afterwards wife
of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, is one of considerable interest in
illustrating the strange beliefs of the olden times. The Duchess was
tried in the year 1441, for treason and witchcraft. It transpired that
two of her accomplices had made, by her direction, a waxen image of the
reigning monarch, Henry VI. They had placed it before a slow fire,
believing that the King's life would waste away as the figure did. In
the event of Henry's death, the Duke of Gloucester, as the nearest heir
to the house of Lancaster, would have been crowned king. On the 9th
November, sentence was pronounced upon the Duchess: it was to the effect
that she perform public penance in three open places in London, and end
her days in prison in the Isle of Man. The manner of her doing penance
was as follows: "On Monday, the 13th, she came by water from
Westminster, and landing at Temple Bridge, walked at noon-day through
Fleet Street, bearing a waxen taper of two pounds weight, to St. Paul's,
where she offered it at the high altar. On the Wednesday following, she
landed at the Old Swan, and passed through Bride Street, Gracechurch
Street, and to Leadenhall, and at Cree Church, near Aldgate, made her
second offering. On the ensuing Friday she was put on shore at
Queenhithe, whence she proceeded to St. Michael's Church, Cornhill, and
so completed her penance. In each of these processions her head was
covered only by a kerchief; her feet were bare; scrolls, containing a
narrative of her crime, were affixed to her white dress; and she was
received and attended by the Mayor, Sheriff, and Companies of London."