Northamptonshire, published in 1780, we find some lines entitled, "The
Ducking-Stool," which run:
"There stands, my friend, in yonder pool,
An engine called the ducking-stool,
By legal pow'r commanded down,
The joy and terror of the town,
If jarring females kindle strife,
Give language foul or lug the coif;
If noisy dames should once begin
To drive the house with horrid din,
Away, you cry, you'll grace the stool,
We'll teach you how your tongue to rule.
The fair offender fills the seat,
In sullen pomp, profoundly great.
Down in the deep the stool descends,
But here, at first, we miss our ends;
She mounts again, and rages more
Than ever vixen did before.
So, throwing water on the fire
Will make it but burn up the higher;
If so, my friend, pray let her take
A second turn into the lake,
And, rather than your patience lose,
Thrice and again repeat the dose.
No brawling wives, no furious wenches,
No fire so hot, but water quenches.
In Prior's skilful lines we see
For these another recipe:
A certain lady, we are told
(A lady, too, and yet a scold),
Was very much reliev'd, you'll say
By water, yet a different way;
A mouthful of the same she'd take,
Sure not to scold, if not to speak."
A footnote to the poem states: "To the honour of the fair sex in the
neighbourhood of R----y, this machine has been taken down (as useless)
several years." Most probably, says Mr. Jewitt, the foregoing refers to
Rugby. In the old accounts of that town several items occur, as for
example:
1721. June 5. Paid for a lock for ye ducking-stool, and
spent in towne business 1s. 2d.
1739. Sept. 25. Ducking-stool repaired. And Dec. 21,
1741. A chain for ducking-stool 2s. 4d.
Mr. Petty, F.S.A., in a note to Mr. Jewitt, which is inserted in _The
Reliquary_ for January, 1861, states that the Rugby ducking-stool "was
placed on the west side of the horsepool, near the footpath leading from
the Clifton Road towards the new churchyard. Part of the posts to which
it was affixed were visible until very lately, and the National School
is now erected on its site. The last person who underwent the punishment
was a man for beating his wife about forty years since; but although the
ducking-stool has been long removed, the ceremony of immersion in the
horse-pond was recently inflicted on an inhabitant for brutality
towards his wife." The Rugby ducking-stool was of the trebuchet form,
somewhat similar to one which was in use at Broadwater, near Worthing,
and which has been frequently engraved. We reproduce an illustration of
the latter from the _Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine_, which represents
it as it appeared in the year 1776. It was in existence at a much later
period. Its construction was very simple, consisting of a short post let
into the ground at the edge of a pond, bearing on the top a transverse
beam, one end of which carried the stool, while the other end was
secured by a rude chair. We are told, in an old description of this
ducking-stool, that the beam could be moved horizontally, so as to bring
the seat to the edge of the pond, and that when the beam was moved back,
so as to place the seat and the person in it over the pond, the beam
was worked up and down like a see-saw, and so the person in the seat was
ducked. When the machine was not in use, the end of the beam which came
on land was secured to a stump in the ground by a padlock, to prevent
the village children from ducking each other.
[Illustration: DUCKING-STOOL, BROADWATER, NEAR WORTHING.]
Mr. T. Tindall Wildridge, author of several important local historical
works, says that the great profligacy of Hull frequently gave rise in
olden times to very stringent exercise of the magisterial authority. Not
infrequently this was at the direct instigation and sometimes command of
the Archbishop of York. Occasionally the cognisance of offences was
retrospective. Thus, in November, 1620, it was resolved by the Bench of
Magistrates, then composed of the Aldermen of the town, that such as had
been "faltie for bastardes" should be carted about the town and
afterwards "ducked in the water for their faults, for which they have
hitherto escaped punishment." At a little later period, in England, in
the days of the Commonwealth, it was enacted on May 14th, 1650, that
adultery should be punished with death, but there is not any record of
the law taking effect. The Act was repealed at the Restoration. About a
century before this period, namely, in 1563, in the Scottish Parliament,
this crime was made a capital offence. In New England, in the year 1662,
several men and women suffered for this crime.
Resuming our notes on the Hull ducking-stool, we find, according to
Hadley, the historian, that in the year 1731 Mr. Beilby, who held the
office of town's husband, was ordered to take care that a ducking-stool
should be provided at the South-end for the benefit of scolds and
unquiet women. Six years later, John Hilbert published a view of the
town of Hull, in which there is a representation of the ducking-stool.
Mr. Wildridge has found traces of another local ducking-stool. He states
that in some accounts belonging to the eighteenth century there is a
charge for tarring a ducking-stool situated on the Haven-side, on the
east side of the town.
At the neighbouring town of Beverley are traces of this old mode of
punishment, and in the town records are several notes bearing on the
subject. Brewers of bad beer and bakers of bad bread, as well as
scolding women, were placed in the ducking-stool.
The Leeds ducking-stool was at Quarry Hill, near the Spa. At the Court
of Quarter Sessions, held in the town in July, 1694, it was "ordered
that Anne, the wife of Phillip Saul, a person of lewd behaviour, be
ducked for daily making strife and discord amongst her neighbours." A
similar order was made against Jane Milner and Elizabeth Wooler.
We find in the Session records of Wakefield, for 1602, the following:
"Punishm^t of Hall and Robinson, scolds: fforasmuch as Katherine
Hall and M'garet Robinson, of Wakefield, are great disturbers and
disquieters of their neighbours w'thin the toune of Wakefield, by
reason of their daily scolding and chydering, the one w'th the
other, for reformacon whereof ytt it is ordered that if they doe
hereafter continue their former course of life in scolding and
brawling, that then John Mawde, the high constable there, shall
cause them to be soundlye ducked or cucked on the cuckstool at
Wakefield for said misdemeanour."
In the records of Wakefield Sessions, under date of October 5th, 1671,
the following appears:
"Forasmuch as Jane, the wife of William Farrett of Selby, shoemaker,
stands indicted at this sessions for a common scold, to the great
annoyance and disturbance of her neighbours, and breach of His
Majesty's peace. It is therefore ordered that the said Jane Farrett,
for the said offence be openly ducked, and ducked three times over
the head and ears by the constables of Selby aforesaid, for which
this shall be their warrant."
At Bradford, the ducking-stool was formerly at the Beck, near to the
Parish Church, and on the formation of the canal it was removed, but
only a short distance from its original position. Still lingering in the
West Riding of Yorkshire, we find in the parish accounts of East
Ardsley, a village near to Wakefield, the following item:
1683-4. Paid John Crookes for repairing stool 1s. 8d.
Norrisson Scatcherd, in his "History of Morley," and William Smith, in
his "Morley Ancient and Modern," give interesting details of the
ducking-stool at Morley.
Not far distant from Morley is Calverley, and in the Constable's
accounts of the village it is stated:
1728. Paid Jeremy Booth for powl for ducking-stool 2s.
Mr. Joseph Wilkinson, the historian of Worsborough, near Barnsley,
mentions two ducking-ponds in the township--one in the village of
Worsborough, another near to the Birdwell toll-bar; and, judging from
the frequency with which ducking-stools were repaired by the township,
it would seem they were often brought into requisition. The following
extracts are drawn from the parish accounts:
1703. For mending ye cuck-stool L0 0 6
1721. Ducking-stool mending 0 1 8
1725. For mending and hanging ye cuck-stool 0 1 0
1730. Pd. Thos. Moorhouse for mending ye stocks and
cuck-stool 0 1 0
" Pd. Jno. South for 2 staples for ye cucking-stool 0 0 4
1731. Thos. Moorhouse for mending ye ducking-stool 0 1 0
1734-5. To ye ducking-stool mending 0 0 6
1736. For mending ye ducking-stool 0 10 0
1737. John Ellot, for ye ducking-stool and sheep-fold door 0 14 6
Mr. W. H. Dawson, the historian of Skipton, has devoted considerable
attention to the old-time punishments of the town, and the first
reference he was able to discover amongst the old accounts of the
township is the following:
1734. October 2nd. To Wm. Bell, for ducking-stool making
and wood 8s. 6d.
"This must," says Mr. Dawson, "surely mean that the chair was changed,
for the amount is too small for the entire apparatus. In this case a
ducking-stool must have existed before 1734, which is very likely." In
the same Skipton township account-book is an entry as follows:
1743. October. Ben Smith for ducking-stool 4s. 6d.
Twenty-five years later we find a payment as follows:
1768. October 17th. Paid John Brown for new
ducking-stool L1 0s. 11-1/2d.
Mr. Dawson has not been able to discover the exact date when the
ducking-stool fell into disuse, but has good reason for believing that
it was about 1770. We gather from a note sent to us by Mr. Dawson that:
"A ducking-pond existed at Kirkby, although it had not been used within
the memory of any living person. Scolds of both sexes were punished by
being ducked; indeed, in the last observance of the custom, a tailor and
his wife were ducked together, in view of a large gathering of people.
The husband had applied for his wife to undergo the punishment on
account of her quarrelsome nature, but the magistrate decided that one
was not better than the other, and he ordered a joint punishment! Back
to back, therefore, husband and wife were chaired and dipped into the
cold water of the pond! Whether it was in remembrance of this old
observance or not cannot be definitely said, but it is nevertheless a
fact that in East Lancashire, in 1880, a man who had committed some
violation of morals was forcibly taken by a mob, and dragged several
times through a pond until he had expressed penitence for his act."
We have found several allusions to the Derby ducking-stool. Wooley,
writing in 1772, states that "over against the steeple [All Saint's] is
St. Mary's Gate, which leads down to the brook near the west side of St.
Werburgh's Church, over which there is a bridge to Mr. Osborne's mill,
over the pool of which stands the ducking-stool. A joiner named Thomas
Timmins repaired it in 1729, and charged as follows:
"To ye Cuckstool, the stoop 0 01 0
2 Foot and 1/2 of Ioyce for a Rayle 0 00 5
Ja. Ford, junr., 1/2 day at Cuckstool 0 00 7"
The Chesterfield ducking-stool was pulled down towards the close of the
last century. It is stated that in the latter part of its existence it
was chiefly used for punishing refractory paupers.
The Scarborough ducking-stool was formerly placed on the old pier, and
was last used about the year 1795, when a Mrs. Gamble was ducked. The
chair is preserved in the Museum of the Scarborough Philosophical
Society. We are indebted to Dr. T. N. Brushfield for an excellent
drawing of it.
[Illustration: SCARBOROUGH DUCKING-STOOL.]
An object which attracts much attention from visitors to the interesting
museum at Ipswich is the ducking-stool of the town. We give a carefully
executed drawing of it. It is described as a strong-backed arm-chair,
with a wrought-iron rod, about an inch in diameter, fastened to each arm
in front, meeting in a segment of a circle above; there is also another
iron rod affixed to the back, which curves over the head of the person
seated in the chair, and is connected with the other at the top, to the
centre of which is fastened an iron ring for the purpose of slinging the
machine into the river. It is plain and substantial, and has more the
appearance of solidity than antiquity in its construction. We are told
by the local historian that in the Chamberlain's books are various
entries for money paid to porters for taking down the ducking-stool and
assisting in the operation of cooling, by its means, the inflammable
passions of some of the female inhabitants of Ipswich.
We give a spirited sketch of the Ipswich ducking-stool, from the pencil
of Campion, a local artist. It is worthy of the pencil of Hogarth,
Gilray, or Cruikshank; indeed, it is often said to be the production of
the last-named artist, but though after his style it is not his work.
[Illustration: IPSWICH DUCKING-STOOL.]
There are traces in the Court-Book of St. George's Gild of the use of
the ducking-stool at Norwich. Amongst other entries is one to the effect
that in 1597 a scold was ducked three times.
The ducking-stool at Nottingham, in addition to being employed for
correcting scolds, was used for the exposure of females of bad repute.
"It consisted," says Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S., "of a hollow box,
which was sufficiently large to admit of two persons being exposed at
the same time. Through holes in the side the heads of the culprits were
placed. In fact, the Nottingham cuck-stool was similar to a pillory. The
last time this ancient instrument of punishment was brought into
requisition was in 1731, when the Mayor (Thomas Trigge) caused a female
to be placed in it for immorality, and left her to the mercy of the mob,
who ducked her so severely that her death ensued shortly afterwards. The
Mayor, in consequence, was prosecuted, and the Nottingham cuck-stool was
ordered to be destroyed." In the Nottinghamshire records are traces of
the ducking-stool at Southwell and Retford. The example of the latter
town is traced back to an unusually early period.
[Illustration: IPSWICH DUCKING-STOOL.]
The old ducking-stool of King's Lynn, Norfolk, may now be seen in the
Museum of that town. The annals of the borough contain numerous
allusions to the punishment of women. In the year 1587, it is stated
that for immoral conduct, John Wanker's wife and widow Parker were both
carted. It is recorded that, in 1754, "one Elizabeth Neivel stood in the
pillory, and that one Hannah Clark was ducked for scolding." There is
mention of a woman named Howard standing in the pillory in 1782, but no
particulars are given of her crime.
[Illustration: DUCKING-STOOL, KING'S LYNN.]
In a note written for us in 1881, by Mr. R. N. Worth, the historian of
Plymouth, we are told that in Devon and Cornwall the ducking-stool was
the usual means employed for inflicting punishment on scolding women. At
Plymouth, the ducking-stool was erected at the Barbican, a site full of
historic interest. From here Sir Walter Raleigh was conducted to his
long imprisonment, followed by death on the scaffold. It was here that
the Pilgrim Fathers bade adieu to the shores of their native land to
establish a New England across the Atlantic. As might be expected, the
old municipal accounts of Plymouth contain many curious and interesting
items bearing on the punishment of women. Mr. W. H. K. Wright, editor of
the _Western Antiquary_, tells us that as recently as the year 1808 the
last person was ducked. At Plymouth, at the present time, are preserved
two ducking-chairs, one in the Athenaeum and the other in the office of
the Borough Surveyor. Mr. Wright has kindly supplied illustrations of
both. It will be observed that the chairs are made of iron.
[Illustration: PLYMOUTH DUCKING-STOOL.]
The last time the Bristol ducking-stool was used was, it is said, in the
year 1718. The Mayor gave instructions for the ducking of scolds, and
the immersions took place at the weir.
[Illustration: PLYMOUTH DUCKING-STOOL.]
We have numerous accounts of this engine of punishment in Lancashire. In
the "Manchester Historical Recorder" we find it stated, in the year
1775: "Manchester ducking-stool in use. It was an open-bottomed chair of
wood, placed upon a long pole balanced on a pivot, and suspended over
the collection of water called the Pool House and Pool Fold. It was
afterwards suspended over the Daubholes (Infirmary pond) and was used
for the purpose of punishing scolds and prostitutes." We find, on
examination of an old print, that it was similar to the example at
Broadwater, of which we give a sketch. According to Mr. Richard Brooke's
"Liverpool from 1775 to 1800," the ducking-stool was in use in 1779, by
the authority of the magistrates. We have details of the ducking-stool
at Preston, Kirkham, Burnley and other Lancashire towns.
At Wootton Bassett there was a tumbrel, which, until within the last
few years, was perfect. The chair is still preserved by the corporation
of that town. We give a drawing of it from the _Wiltshire Archaeological
and Natural History Magazine_. It will be seen from the picture that the
machine, when complete, consisted of a chair, a pair of wheels, two long
poles forming shafts, and a rope attached to each shaft, at about a foot
from the end. The person to be ducked was tied in the chair, and the
machine pushed into a pond called the Weirpond, and the shafts being let
go, the scold was lifted backwards into the water, the shafts flying up,
and being recovered again by means of the ropes attached to them. The
chair is of oak, and bears the date of 1686 on the back. In some places,
millers, if detected stealing corn, were placed in the tumbrel.
[Illustration: TUMBREL AT WOOTTON BASSETT.]
The wheels of a tumbrel are preserved in the old church of St. Mary's,
Warwick, and the chair, it is said, is still in the possession of an
inhabitant of the town.
At Kingston-upon-Thames ducking was not infrequent. The Chamberlain's
accounts include many items relating to the subject. We are disposed to
believe, from the mention of three wheels, in a payment made in 1572,
that here the engine of punishment was a tumbrel. The following amounts
were paid in 1572:
The making of the cucking-stool 8s. 0d.
Iron work for the same 3s. 0d.
Timber for the same 7s. 6d.
Three brasses for the same, and three wheels 4s. 10d.
------------
L1 3s. 4d.
In the _London Evening Post_, April 27th to 30th, 1745, it is stated:
"Last week a woman who keeps the Queen's Head alehouse, at Kingston, in
Surrey, was ordered by the court to be ducked for scolding, and was
accordingly placed in the chair and ducked in the river Thames, under
Kingston Bridge, in the presence of 2000 to 3000 people."
We have previously mentioned the fact that at Leicester the
cucking-stool was in use as early as 1467, and from some valuable
information brought together by Mr. William Kelly, F.S.A., and included
in his important local works, we learn that the last entry he has traced
in the old accounts of the town is the following:
1768-9. Paid Mr. Elliott for a Cuckstool by order of Hall L2 0s. 0d.
Mr. Kelly refers to the scolding cart at Leicester, and describes the
culprit as seated upon it, and being drawn through the town. He found in
the old accounts in 1629 an item:
Paid to Frauncis Pallmer for making two wheels and one barr for
the Scolding Cart ijs.
Scolding Cart is another name for the tumbrel.
The latest example of Leicester cucking-stool is preserved in the local
museum, and was placed there at the suggestion of Mr. Kelly.
[Illustration: LEOMINSTER DUCKING-STOOL.]
The Leominster ducking-stool is one of the few examples still preserved.
It was formerly kept in the parish church. We have an excellent drawing
of it in that building from the pencil of the genial author of "Verdant
Green," Cuthbert Bede. The Rev. Geo. Fyler Townsend, M.A., the erudite
historian of Leominster, furnishes us with some important information on
this interesting relic of the olden time. He says that it is a machine
of the simplest construction, "It consists merely of a strong narrow
under framework, placed on four wheels, of solid wood, about four inches
in thickness, and eighteen in diameter. At one end of this framework two
upright posts, about three feet in height, strongly embedded in the
platform, carry a long movable beam. Each of the arms of this beam are
of equal length (13 feet), and balance perfectly from the top of the
post. The culprit placed in the seat naturally weighs down that one end
into the water, while the other is lifted up in the air; men, however,
with ropes, caused the uplifted end to rise or fall, and thus obtain a
perfect see-saw. The purchase of the machine is such that the culprit
can be launched forth some 16 to 18 feet into the pond or stream, while
the administrators of the ducking stand on dry land. This instrument was
mentioned in the ancient documents of the borough by various names, as
the cucking-stoole or timbrill, or gumstole."
The latest recorded instance of the ducking-stool being used in England
occurred at Leominster. In 1809, says Mr. Townsend, a woman, Jenny
Pipes, alias Jane Corran, was paraded through the town on the
ducking-stool, and actually ducked in the water near Kenwater Bridge, by
order of the magistrates. An eye witness gave his testimony to the
desert of the punishment inflicted on this occasion, in the fact that
the first words of the culprit on being unfastened from the chair were
oaths and curses on the magistrates. In 1817, a woman named Sarah Leeke
was wheeled round the town in the chair, but not ducked, as the water
was too low. Since this time, the use of the chair has been laid aside,
and it is an object of curiosity, rather than of fear, to any of the
spectators. During the recent restoration of Leominster Church, the
ducking-stool was removed, repaired, and renovated by Mr. John
Hungerford Arkwright, and is now kept at the borough gaol of the
historically interesting town of Leominster.
The early English settlers in the United States introduced many of the
manners and customs of their native land. The ducking-stool was soon
brought into use. Mr. Henry M. Brooks, in his carefully written work,
called "Strange and Curious Punishments," published in 1886, by Ticknor
& Co., of Boston, gives many important details respecting punishing
scolds. At the present time, in some parts of America, scolding females
are liable to be punished by means of the ducking-stool. We gather from
a newspaper report that in 1889, the grand jury of Jersey City--across
the Hudson River from New York--caused a sensation by indicting Mrs.
Mary Brady as a "common scold." Astonished lawyers hunted up their old
books, and discovered that scolding is still an indictable offence in
New Jersey, and that the ducking-stool is still available as a
punishment for it, not having been specifically abolished when the
revised statutes were adopted. In Delaware, the State next to the south
of New Jersey, the whipping-post is an institution, and prisoners are
sentenced to suffer at it every week. The Common Scold Law was brought
from England to Connecticut by the Puritans and settlers, and from
Connecticut they carried it with them into New Jersey, which is
incorrectly considered a Dutch state. In closing this chapter, we may
state that a Dalziel telegram from Ottawa, published in the London
newspapers of August 8th, 1890, says that Miss Annie Pope was yesterday
charged before a police magistrate, under the provisions of an
antiquated statute, for being a "common scold." She was committed for
trial at the assizes, as the magistrate had no ducking-stool.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] Boyle's "Hedon," 1895.
The Brank, or Scold's Bridle.
[Illustration]