related details of the career of Jane Shore. A sad tale it is, but one
which has always been popular both with gentle and simple. It is not
necessary to relate here at length the story of her life. She was born
in London, was a woman of considerable personal charms, and could do
what few ladies of her time were able to accomplish--namely, read well
and write. When some sixteen or seventeen years of age, she married
William Shore, a goldsmith and banker, of Lombard Street. She lived with
her husband seven years, but about 1470, left him to become one of the
mistresses of Edward IV. Her beauty, wit, and pleasant behaviour
rendered her popular at Court. The King died in 1483, and within two
months she was charged by Richard III. with sorcery and witchcraft, but
the charges could not be sustained. Her property, equal to about L20,000
at the present time, was taken from her by the King. He afterwards
caused her to be brought before the Ecclesiastical Court and tried for
incontinence, and for the crime she had to do penance in the streets of
London. Perhaps we cannot do better than quote Rowe's drama to relate
this part of her story:
Submissive, sad, and lonely was her look;
A burning taper in her hand she bore;
And on her shoulders, carelessly confused,
With loose neglect her lovely tresses hung;
Upon her cheek a faintish flush was spread;
Feeble she seemed, and sorely smit with pain;
While, barefoot as she trod the flinty pavement,
Her footsteps all along were marked with blood.
Yet silent still she passed, and unrepining;
Her streaming eyes bent ever on the earth,
Except when, in some bitter pang of sorrow,
To heaven, she seemed, in fervent zeal to raise,
And beg that mercy man denied her here.
We need not go into details respecting her life from this time, but
briefly state that it is a popular error to suppose that she was starved
in a ditch, and that the circumstance gave rise to the name of a part of
London known as Shoreditch. The black-letter ballad in the Pepys
collection, which makes Jane Shore die of hunger after doing penance,
and a man suffer death on the gallows for giving her bread, is without
foundation. She died about 1533 or 1534, when she was upwards of eighty
years of age. It is asserted that she strewed flowers at the funeral of
Henry VII.
A curious act of penance was performed in Hull, in the year 1534, by the
Vicar of North Cave. He appears to have made a study of the works of the
Reformers who had settled in Antwerp, and sent over their books to
England. In a sermon preached in the Holy Trinity Church, Hull, he
advocated their teaching, and for this he was tried for heresy and
convicted. He recanted, and, as an act of penance, one Sunday walked
round the church barefooted, with only his shirt on, and carrying a
large faggot in his hand to represent the punishment he deserved. On the
next market-day, in a similar manner, he walked round the market-place
of the town.
In the year 1602, a man named Cuthbert Pearson Foster, residing in the
parish of St. Nicholas, Durham, was brought before the Ecclesiastical
Court, charged with "playing at nine-holes upon the Sabbath day in time
of divine service," and was condemned to stand once in the parish church
during service, clad in a white sheet. In the following year, the four
churchwardens--Rowland Swinburn, William Harp, Richard Surtees, and
Cuthbert Dixon, men esteemed in Durham, and holding good
positions--were found guilty and admonished for a serious breach of
duty, "for not searching who was absent from the church on the Sabbath
and festive days, for it is credibly reported that drinking, banqueting,
and playing at cards, and other lawless games, are used in their parish
in alehouses, and they never made search thereof."
Of persons in the humble ranks of life who have performed public penance
in white sheets in churches, for unchastity, there are numerous entries
in parish registers. For immorality, prior to marriage, man and wife
were sometimes obliged to do penance. The Rev. Dr. J. Charles Cox found
particulars of a case of this kind recorded in the Wooley MSS., in the
British Museum, where a married couple, in the reign of James I.,
performed penance in Wirksworth Church.
In parish registers are records like the following, drawn from the Roxby
(Lincolnshire) parish register: "Memorandum.--Michael Kirby and Dixon,
Wid. had 2 Bastard Children, one in 1725, ye other in 1727, for which
they did publick pennance in our P'ish Church." "Michael Kirby and Anne
Dixon, both together did publick penance in our Parish Churche, Feb. ye
25th, 1727, for adultery."
A memorandum in the parish register of North Aston, Oxfordshire, states:
"That Mr. Cooper sent in a form of penance by Mr. Wakefield, of
Deddington, that Catherine King should do penance in ye parish church of
North Aston, ye sixth day of March, 1740, and accordingly she did.
Witness, Will Vaughan, Charles May, John Baillis, Churchwardens." We
learn from the same records that another person, who had become a mother
before she was made a wife, left the parish to avoid doing public
penance.
In the old churchwardens' accounts of Wakefield, are several items
bearing on this subject, and amongst the number are the following:
L s. d.
1679.--To Jos. Green for black bess penanc sheet 00 05 06
1709.--Allowed the Parish Churchwardens for goeing to Leeds
with ye man and woman to doe penance 0 5 0
1725.--June 13. Paid Jno. Briggs for the Lent of 3 sheets
for 3 persons to do pennance 00 01 6
1731.--Nov. 6. Paid for the loan of two white Sheets 6
1732.--Oct. 8. Pd. for the loan of 7 sheets for penances 1 9
1735.--Nov. 1. Pd. for a sheet that ---- had to do penance
in 1 0
1736.--Sep. 27. Pd. for two sheets ye women did penans in 8
1736.--Oct. 10. Pd. for a sheet for Stringer to do penance
in 4
1737.--June 23. Pd. for a sheet for Eliza Redhead penance 4
1750.--Dec. 26. To Priestly for a sheet & attending a
woman's penance 5 0
"On February 27th, 1815," says Mr. John W. Walker, "William Hepworth, a
shoemaker, did penance in the Parish Church for defaming the character
of an old woman named Elizabeth Blacketer. They both lived in Cock and
Swan Yard, Westgate, and the suit was carried on by one George Robinson,
an attorney, out of spite to the cobbler."
"On Sunday, August 25th, 1850, a penance was performed in the Parish
Church, by sentence of the Ecclesiastical Court, on a person who had
defamed the character of a lady in Wakefield. A recantation was repeated
by the penitent after the Vicar, and then signed by the interested
parties."[40]
The historian of Cleveland, Mr. George Markham Tweddell, furnishes us
with a copy of a document enjoining penance to be performed in 1766, by
James Beadnell, of Stokesley, in the diocese of York, tailor: "The said
James Beadnell shall be present in the Parish Church of Stokesley,
aforesaid, upon Sunday, being the fifth, twelfth, and nineteenth day of
January instant, in the time of Divine service, between the hours of ten
and eleven in the forenoon of the same day, in the presence of the whole
congregation then assembled, being barehead, barefoot, and barelegged,
having a white sheet wrapped about him from the shoulder to the feet,
and a white wand in his hand, where, immediately after the reading of
the Gospel, he shall stand upon some form or seat, before the pulpit or
place where the minister readeth prayers, and say after him as
forthwith: 'Whereas, I, good people, forgetting my duty to Almighty God,
have committed the detestable sin of adultery with Ann Andrewes, and
thereby have provoked the heavy wrath of God against me to the great
danger of my soul and evil example of others. I do earnestly repent, and
am heartily sorry for the same, desiring Almighty God, for the merits of
Jesus Christ, to forgive me both this and all other my offences, and
also ever hereafter so to assist me with His Holy Spirit, that I never
fall into the like offence again; and for that end and purpose, I
desire you all here present to pray for me, saying, "Our Father, which
art in heaven," and so forth.'"
Towards the close of the last century, it was the practice of women
doing penance at Poulton Church, Lancashire, to pass along the aisles
barefooted, clothed in a white sheet, and having in each hand a lighted
candle. The last time the ceremony was performed, we are told, the cries
of the poor girl melted the heart of the people, and the well-disposed
raised a clamour against it, and caused the practice to be discontinued.
The Rev. Thomas Jackson, the popular Wesleyan minister, was born at
Sancton, a village on the Yorkshire Wolds, in 1783. Writing of his
earlier years spent in his native village, he describes two cases of
public penance which he witnessed. "A farmer's son," says Mr. Jackson,
"the father of an illegitimate child, came into church at the time of
divine service, on the Lord's day, covered with a sheet, having a white
wand in his hand; he walked barefoot up the aisle, stood over against
the desk where the prayers were read, and then repeated a confession at
the dictation of the clergyman; after which he walked out of the
church. The other case was that of a young woman,
'Who bore unhusbanded a mother's name.'
She also came into the church barefoot, covered with a sheet, bearing a
white wand, and went through the same ceremony. She had one advantage
which the young man had not. Her long hair so completely covered her
face that not a feature could be seen. In a large town, few persons
would have known who she was, but in a small village every one is known,
and no public delinquent can escape observation, and the censure of busy
tongues. These appear to have been the last cases of the kind that
occurred at Sancton. The sin was perpetuated, but the penalty ceased; my
father observed that the rich offenders evaded the law, and then the
authorities could not for shame continue to inflict its penalty upon the
labouring classes."[41]
In the month of April, 1849, penance was performed at Ditton Church,
Cambridgeshire.
The Church of East Clevedon, Somersetshire, on July 30th, 1882, was the
scene of a man performing penance in public, and the act attracted much
attention in the newspapers of the time.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Walker's "History of Wakefield Cathedral."
[41] Rev. Thomas Jackson's "Recollections of my own Life and Times,"
1873.
The Repentance Stool.
The records of church-life in Scotland, in bygone times, contain many
allusions to the repentance stool. A very good specimen of this old-time
relic may be seen in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, at
Edinburgh. It is from the church of Old Greyfriars, of Edinburgh. In the
same museum is a sackcloth, or gown of repentance, formerly used at the
parish church of West Calder.
Persons guilty of adultery were frequently placed on the repentance
stool, and rebuked before the congregation assembled for public worship.
The ordeal was a most trying one. Severe laws have been passed in
Scotland to check adultery. "In the First Book of Discipline," says the
Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., "the Reformers demanded that adulterers
should be put to death. Their desire was not fully complied with, but in
1563 Parliament enacted that 'notour adulterers'--meaning those of whose
illicit connection a child had been born--should be executed." Dr.
Rogers and other authorities assert that the penalty was occasionally
inflicted.
[Illustration: REPENTANCE STOOL, FROM OLD GREYFRIARS, EDINBURGH.]
Paul Methven, minister at Jedburgh, in the year 1563, admitted that he
had been guilty of adultery. The General Assembly conferred with the
Lords of the Council respecting his conduct. Three years later, we are
told, that he was "permitted to prostrate himself on the floor of the
Assembly, and with weeping and howling to entreat for pardon." His
sentence was as follows: "That in Edinburgh, as the capital, in Dundee,
as his native town, and in Jedburgh, the scene of his ministrations, he
should stand in sackcloth at the church door, also on the repentance
stool, and for two Sundays in each place."
A man, on his own confession, was tried for adultery at the Presbytery
of Paisley, on November 16th, 1626, and directed to "stand and abyde six
Sabbaths barefooted and barelegged at the kirk-door of Paisley between
the second and third bell-ringing, and thereafter to goe to the place of
public repentance during the said space of six Sabbaths."
At Stow, in 1627, for a similar crime, a man was condemned to "sittin'
eighteen dyetts" upon the stool of repentance. Particulars of many cases
similar to the foregoing may be found in the pages of "Social Life in
Scotland," by the Rev. Charles Rogers, in "Old Church Life in Scotland,"
by the Rev. Andrew Edgar, and in other works.
Notes bearing on this subject sometimes find their way into the
newspapers, and a couple of paragraphs from the _Liverpool Mercury_ may
be quoted. On November 18th, 1876, it was stated that "in a church in
the Black Isle, Ross-shire, on a recent Sunday, a woman who had been
guilty of transgressing the seventh commandment was condemned to the
'cutty-stool,' and sat during the whole service with a black shawl
thrown over her head." A note in the issue for 22nd February, 1884, says
that "one of the ringleaders in the Sabbatarian riots at Strome Ferry,
in June last, was recently publicly rebuked and admonished on the
'cutty-stool,' in the Free Church, Lochcarron, for an offence against
the moral code, which, according to Free Church discipline in the
Highlands, could not be expiated in any other way."
The Ducking-Stool.
Scolding women in the olden times were treated as offenders against the
public peace, and for their transgressions were subjected to several
cruel modes of punishment. The Corporations of towns during the Middle
Ages made their own regulations for punishing persons guilty of crimes
which were not rendered penal by the laws of the land. The punishments
for correcting scolds differed greatly in various parts of the country.
It is clear, from a careful study of the history of mediaeval times, that
virtue and amiability amongst the middle and lower classes, generally
speaking, did not prevail. The free use of the tongue gave rise to riots
and feuds to an extent which it is difficult for us to realise at the
present day. A strong feeling against scolding women came down to a late
period. Readers of Boswell's "Life of Johnson" will remember how the
Doctor, in reply to a remark made by a celebrated Quaker lady, Mrs.
Knowles, observed: "Madam, we have different modes of restraining
evil--stocks for men, a ducking-stool for women, and a pound for
beasts."
The cucking-stool in the early history of England must not be confounded
with the ducking-stool. They were two distinct machines. It appears,
from a record in the "Domesday Book," that as far back as the days of
Edward the Confessor, any man or woman detected giving false measure in
the city of Chester was fined four shillings; and for brewing bad ale,
was placed in the _cathedra stercoris_. It was a degrading mode of
chastisement, the culprits being seated in the chair at their own doors
or in some public place. At Leicester, in 1467, the local authorities
directed "scolds to be punished by the mayor on a cuck-stool before
their own doors, and then carried to the four gates of the town."
According to Borlase's "Natural History of Cornwall," in that part of
the country the cucking-stool was used "as a seat of infamy, where
strumpets and scolds, with bare feet and head, were condemned to abide
the derision of those that passed by, for such time as the bailiffs of
the manors, which had the privilege of such jurisdiction, did approve."
Ale-wives in Scotland in bygone times who sold bad ale were placed in
the cucking-stool. In the year 1555, we learn from Thomas Wright that
"it was enacted by the queen-regent of Scotland that itinerant singing
women should be put on the cuck-stoles of every burgh or town; and the
first 'Homily against Contention,' part 3, published in 1562, sets forth
that 'in all well-ordered cities common brawlers and scolders be
punished with a notable kind of paine, as to be _set on_ the
cucking-stole, pillory, or such-like.' By the statute of 3 Henry VIII.,
carders and spinners of wool who were convicted of fraudulent practices
were to be _sett upon_ the pillory or the cukkyng-stole, man or woman,
as the case shall require." We agree with Mr. Wright when he observes
that the preceding passages are worded in such a manner as not to lead
us to suppose that the offenders were ducked. In the course of time the
terms cucking and ducking stools became synonymous, and implied the
machines for the ducking of scolds in water.
In some places the term thewe was used for a cucking-stool. This was the
case at Hedon, and it occurs in pleadings at Chester before the
itinerant justices and Henry VII., when George Grey, Earl of Kent,
claims the right in his manor of Bushton and Ayton of punishing
brawlers by the thewe.[42] Other instances of its use might be cited.
An intelligent Frenchman, named Misson, visited England about 1700, and
has left on record one of the best descriptions of a ducking-stool that
has been written. It occurs in a work entitled "Travels in England."
"The way of punishing scolding women," he writes, "is pleasant enough.
They fasten an arm chair to the end of two beams, twelve or fifteen feet
long, and parallel to each other, so that these two pieces of wood, with
their two ends, embrace the chair, which hangs between them upon a sort
of axle, by which means it plays freely, and always remains in the
natural horizontal position in which the chair should be, that a person
may sit conveniently in it, whether you raise it or let it down. They
set up a post on the bank of a pond or river, and over this post they
lay, almost in equilibrio, the two pieces of wood, at one end of which
the chair hangs just over the water. They place the woman in this chair,
and so plunge her into the water, as often as the sentence directs, in
order to cool her immoderate heat." In some instances the ducking was
carried to such an extent as to cause death. An old chap-book, without
date, is entitled, "Strange and Wonderful Relation of the Old Woman who
was Drowned at Ratcliff Highway a fortnight ago." It appears from this
work that the poor woman was dipped too often, for at the conclusion of
the operation she was found to be dead. We reproduce from this quaint
chap-book a picture of the ducking-stool. It will be observed that it is
not a stationary machine, but one which can be wheeled to and from the
water. Similar ducking-stools were usually kept in some convenient
building, and ready to be brought out for immediate use, but in many
places the ducking-stools were permanent fixtures.
[Illustration: DUCKING-STOOL FROM A CHAP-BOOK.]
Old municipal accounts and records contain many references to this
subject. Cole, a Cambridge antiquary, collected numerous curious items
connected with this theme. In some extracts made from the proceedings of
the Vice-Chancellor's Court, in the reign of Elizabeth, it is stated:
"Jane Johnson, adjudged to the ducking-stool for scolding, and commuted
her penance." The next person does not appear to have been so fortunate
as Jane Johnson, who avoided punishment by paying a fine of about five
shillings. It is recorded: "Katherine Saunders, accused by the
churchwardens of Saint Andrews for a common scold and slanderer of her
neighbours, was adjudged to the ducking-stool."
We find in one of Cole's manuscript volumes, preserved in the British
Museum, a graphic sketch of this ancient mode of punishment. He says:
"In my time, when I was a boy, I lived with my grandmother in the great
corner house at the foot, 'neath the Magdalen College, Cambridge, and
rebuilt since by my uncle, Joseph Cook. I remember to have seen a woman
ducked for scolding. The chair was hung by a pulley fastened to a beam
about the middle of the bridge, in which [he means the chair, of course,
not the bridge] the woman was confined, and let down three times, and
then taken out. The bridge was then of timber, before the present stone
bridge of one arch was built. The ducking-stool was constantly hanging
in its place, and on the back of it were engraved devils laying hold of
scolds, etc. Some time afterwards a new chair was erected in the place
of the old one, having the same devices carved upon it, and well painted
and ornamented. When the new bridge of stone was erected, in 1754, this
chair was taken away, and I lately saw the carved and gilt back of it
nailed up by the shop of one Mr. Jackson, a whitesmith, in the Butcher's
Row, behind the Town Hall, who offered it to me, but I did not know what
to do with it. In October, 1776, I saw in the old Town Hall a third
ducking-stool, of plain oak, with an iron bar in front of it, to confine
the person in the seat, but I made no inquiries about it. I mention
these things as the practice of ducking scolds in the river seems now to
be totally laid aside." Mr. Cole died in 1782, so did not long survive
the writing of the foregoing curious notes.
The Sandwich ducking-stool was embellished with men and women scolding.
On the cross-bar were carved the following words:
"Of members ye tonge is worst or best,--an
Yll tonge oft doeth breede unrest."
Boys, in his "Collections for the History of Sandwich," published in
1792, remarks that the ducking-stool was preserved in the second storey
of the Town Hall, along with the arms, offensive and defensive, of the
Trained Bands. Boys's book includes some important information on
old-time punishments. In the year 1534, it is recorded that two women
were banished from Sandwich for immorality. To deter them from coming
back to the town, it was decided that "if they return, one of them is to
suffer the pain of sitting over the coqueen-stool, and the other is to
be set three days in the stocks, with an allowance of only bread and
water, and afterwards to be placed in the coqueen-stool and dipped to
the chin." A woman, in the year 1568, was "carted and banished." At
Sandwich, Ipswich, and some other places, as a punishment for scolding
and other offences it was not an uncommon thing to compel the
transgressors to carry a wooden mortar round the town.
[Illustration: SANDWICH DUCKING-STOOL.]
Respecting the cost of erecting a ducking-stool, we find a curious and
detailed account in the parish books of Southam, Warwickshire, for the
year 1718. In the first place, a man was sent from Southam to Daventry
to make a drawing of the ducking-stool of that town, at a cost of three
shillings and twopence. The sum of one pound one shilling and eightpence
is charged for labour and material in making and fixing the engine of
punishment. An entry of ten shillings is made for painting it, which
appears a rather heavy amount when we observe that the carpenter only
charged a little over a pound for labour and timber. Perhaps, like the
good folk of Sandwich, the authorities of Southam had their chair
ornamented with artistic portraits and enriched with poetic quotations.
The blacksmith had to furnish ironwork, etc., at a cost of four
shillings and sixpence. For carrying the stool to its proper place
half-a-crown was paid. Lastly, nine shillings and sixpence had to be
expended to make the pond deeper, so that the ducking-stool might work
in a satisfactory manner. The total amount reached L2 11s. 4d. At
Coventry, in the same county, we find traces of two ducking-stools, and
respecting them Mr. W. G. Fretton, F.S.A., supplies us with some curious
details. The following notes are drawn from the Leet Book, under date of
October 11th, 1597: "Whereas there are divers and sundrie disordered
persons (women) within this citie that be scolds, brawlers, disturbers,
and disquieters of theire neighbors, to the great offence of Almightie
God and the breach of Her Majestie's peace: for the reformation of such
abuses, it is ordered and enacted at this leet, that if any disordered
and disquiet persons of this citie do from henceforth scold or brawle
with their neighbo'rs or others, upon complaint thereof to the Alderman
of the ward made, or to the Maior for the time being, they shall be
committed to the cooke-stoole lately appointed for the punishment of
such offenders, and thereupon be punished for their deserts, except they
or everie of them, do presentlie paie iijs iijd for their redemption
from that punishment to the use of the poore of this citie." The old
accounts of the City of Coventry contain numerous items bearing on the
ducking-stool.