scolds. It is also sometimes called the gossip's bridle, and in the
Macclesfield town records it is designated "a brydle for a curste
queane." In the term "queane" we have the old English synonym for a
woman; now the chief woman, the Queen. The brank is not of such great
antiquity as the ducking-stool, for the earliest mention of it we have
been able to find in this country is in the Corporation records of
Macclesfield, of the year 1623. At an earlier period, we have traces of
it in Scotland. In Glasgow burgh records, it is stated that in 1574 two
scolds were condemned to be "branket." The Kirk-session records of
Stirling for 1600 mention the "brankes" as a punishment for the shrew.
It is generally believed that the punishment is of Continental origin.
The brank may be described simply as an iron framework which was placed
on the head, enclosing it in a kind of cage; it had in front a plate of
iron, which, either sharpened or covered with spikes, was so situated as
to be placed in the mouth of the victim, and if she attempted to move
her tongue in any way whatever, it was certain to be shockingly injured.
With a brank on her head she was conducted through the streets, led by a
chain, held by one of the town's officials, an object of contempt, and
subjected to the jeers of the crowd and often left to their mercy. In
some towns it was the custom to chain the culprit to the pillory,
whipping-post, or market-cross. She thus suffered for telling her mind
to some petty tyrant in office, or speaking plainly to a wrong-doer, or
for taking to task a lazy, and perhaps a drunken husband.
[Illustration: BRANK IN LEEDS PHILOSOPHICAL MUSEUM.]
In Yorkshire, we have only seen two branks. We give a sketch of one
formerly in possession of the late Norrisson Scatcherd, F.S.A., the
historian of Morley. It is now in the Leeds Philosophical Museum, where
it attracts considerable attention. It is one of the most simple and
harmless examples that has come under our notice. Amongst the relics of
the olden time in the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society,
York, is another specimen, equally simple in its construction. It was
presented by Lady Thornton to the Society in 1880, and near it may be
seen thumb-screws from York Castle; leg bar, waist girdle, and wrist
shackles, worn by the notorious highwayman, Dick Turpin, executed April
17th, 1739; and a leg bar, worn by another notorious highwayman, named
Nevison, who suffered death on the gallows, May 4th, 1684.
The brank which has received the greatest attention is the one preserved
in the vestry of Walton-on-Thames Parish Church. It bears the date of
1632, and the following couplet:--
"Chester presents Walton with a bridle
To curb women's tongues that talk too idle."
It is traditionally said that this brank was given to Walton Parish by a
person named Chester, who had, through a gossiping and lying woman of
his acquaintance, lost an estate he expected to inherit from a rich
relative. We are enabled to give an illustration of the Walton brank.
[Illustration: BRANK AT WALTON-ON-THAMES.]
Dr. T. N. Brushfield described in an exhaustive manner all the Cheshire
branks, in an able paper read before the Architectural, Archaeological,
and Historic Society of Chester, and published in 1858. We are unable to
direct attention to all the branks noticed by Dr. Brushfield, but cannot
refrain from presenting the following account of the one at Congleton,
which is preserved in the Town Hall of that ancient borough. "It was,"
we are informed, "formerly in the hands of the town jailor, whose
services were not infrequently called into requisition. In the
old-fashioned, half-timbered houses in the borough, there was generally
fixed on one side of the large open fire-places a hook, so that, when a
man's wife indulged her scolding propensities, the husband sent for the
town jailor to bring the bridle, and had her bridled and chained to the
hook until she promised to behave herself better for the future. I have
seen one of these hooks, and have often heard husbands say to their
wives: 'If you don't rest with your tongue I'll send for the bridle and
hook you up.' The Mayor and Justices frequently brought the instrument
into use; for when women were brought before them charged with
street-brawling, and insulting the constables and others while in the
discharge of their duty, they have ordered them to be bridled and led
through the borough by the jailor. The last time this bridle was
publicly used was in 1824, when a woman was brought before the Mayor
(Bulkeley Johnson, Esq.) one Monday, charged with scolding and using
harsh language to the churchwardens and constables as they went, on the
Sunday morning, round the town to see that all the public-houses were
empty and closed during divine service. On examination, a Mr. Richard
Edwards stated on oath that on going round the town with the
churchwardens on the previous day, they met the woman (Ann Runcorn) in
a place near 'The Cockshoot,' and that immediately seeing them she
commenced a sally of abuse, calling them all the scoundrels and rogues
she could lay her tongue to; and telling them 'it would look better of
them if they would look after their own houses rather than go looking
after other folk's, which were far better than their own.' After other
abuse of a like character, they thought it only right to apprehend her,
and so brought her before the Bench on the following day. The Mayor then
delivered the following sentence: 'That it is the unanimous decision of
the Mayor and Justices that the prisoner (Ann Runcorn) there and then
have the town's bridle for scolding women put upon her, and that she be
led by the magistrate's clerk's clerk through every street in the town,
as an example to all scolding women; and that the Mayor and magistrates
were much obliged to the churchwardens for bringing the case before
them.'" "In this case," Mr. Warrington, who furnished Dr. Brushfield
with the foregoing information, adds: "I both heard the evidence and saw
the decision carried out. The bridle was put on the woman, and she was
then led through the town by one Prosper Haslam, the town clerk's
clerk, accompanied by hundreds of the inhabitants; and on her return to
the Town Hall the bridle was taken off in the presence of the Mayor,
magistrates, constables, churchwardens, and assembled inhabitants."
[Illustration: BRANK AT STOCKPORT.]
In Cheshire, at the present time, there are traces of thirteen branks,
and at Stockport is the most brutal example of the English branks. "It
will be observed," says the local historian, Dr. Henry Heginbotham,
J.P., "that the special characteristic of this brank is the peculiar
construction of the tongue-plate or gag. It is about two inches long,
having at the end, as may be seen in the engraving, a ball, into which
is inserted a number of sharp iron pins, three on the upper surface,
three on the lower, and two pointing backwards. These could not fail to
pin the tongue, and effectually silence the noisiest brawler. At the
fore part of the collar, there is an iron chain, with a leathern thong
attached, by which the offender was led for public gaze through the
market-place." It was formerly on market days exhibited in front of the
house of the person who had charge of it, as a warning to scolding or
swearing women. Dr. Heginbotham states that: "There is no evidence of
its having been actually used for many years, but there is testimony to
the fact, that within the last forty years the brank was brought to a
termagant market woman, who was effectually silenced by its threatened
application."
We are indebted to Mr. Alfred Burton for a drawing of the Macclesfield
brank. Dr. Brushfield describes this as "a respectable-looking brank."
He tells us that "the gag is plain, and the end of it is turned down;
there is only one band which passes over the head, and is hinged to the
hoops; a temporary joint exists at the upper part, and ample provision
is made for readily adjusting it to any description of head. The chain
still remains attached to the hoop. About the year 1858, Mr. Swinnerton
informed Dr. Brushfield that he had never seen it used, but that at the
petty sessions it had often been produced _in terrorem_, to stay the
volubility of a woman's tongue; and that a threat by a magistrate to
order its appliance had always proved sufficient to abate the garrulity
of the most determined scold."
[Illustration: BRANK AT MACCLESFIELD.]
Towards the close of the first quarter of the present century, the brank
was last used at Altrincham. A virago, who caused her neighbours great
trouble, was frequently cautioned in vain respecting her conduct, and as
a last resource she was condemned to walk through the town wearing the
brank. She refused to move, and it was finally decided to wheel her in
a barrow through the principal streets of the town, round the
market-place, and to her own home. The punishment had the desired
effect, and for the remainder of her life she kept a quiet tongue.
There are many traces of the brank in Lancashire. Mr. W. E. A. Axon
informs us that his father remembers the brank being used at Manchester
at the commencement of the present century. Kirkham had its brank for
scolds, in addition to a ducking-stool. We find, in the same county,
traces of the brank at Holme, in the Forest of Rossendale. In the
accounts of the Greave for the Forest of Rossendale for 1691-2 is an
entry of the true antiquarian cast:
Item, for a Bridle for scouldinge women, 2s. 6d.
In "Some Obsolete Peculiarities of English Law," by William Beamont, the
author gives particulars respecting the Warrington brank. "Hanging up in
our museum," says Mr. Beamont, "may be seen a representation of a
withered female face wearing the brank or scold's bridle; one of which
instruments, as inflexible as iron and ingenuity can make it, for
keeping an unruly tongue quiet by mechanical means, hangs up beside it;
and almost within the time of living memory, Cicily Pewsill, an inmate
of the workhouse, and a notorious scold, was seen wearing this
disagreeable head-gear in the streets of Warrington for half-an-hour or
more.... Cicily Pewsill's case still lingers in tradition, as the last
occasion of its application in Warrington, and it will soon pass into
history."
The Rev. J. Clay told Mr. William Dobson that since his connection with
Preston House of Correction the brank was put on a woman there, but the
matter coming to the knowledge of the Home Secretary, its further use
was prohibited, and to make sure of the barbarous practice being
discontinued the brank itself was ordered to be sent to London. A second
brank was kept in the prison, principally formed of leather, but with an
iron tongue-piece.[43]
[Illustration: BRANK AT THE MANOR HOUSE, HAMSTALL RIDWARE.]
At the north country town of Morpeth a brank is still preserved. The
following is a record of its use: "Dec. 3, 1741, Elizabeth, wife of
George Holborn, was punished with the branks for two hours, at the
Market Cross, Morpeth, by order of Mr. Thomas Gait and Mr. George
Nicholls, then bailiffs, for scandalous and opprobrious language to
several persons in the town, as well as to the said bailiffs."
[Illustration: BRANK AT LICHFIELD.]
Staffordshire supplies several notable examples of the brank. They were
formerly kept at Hamstall Ridware, Beaudesart, Lichfield, Walsall, and
at Newcastle-under-Lyme. The branks in the two towns last named are
alluded to by the celebrated Dr. Plot, the old historian of the county,
in an amusing manner. "We come to the arts that respect mankind," says
Plot, "amongst which, as elsewhere, the civility of precedence must be
allowed to the woman, and that as well in punishments as favours. For
the former, whereof they have such a peculiar artifice at Newcastle
[under Lyme] and Walsall for correcting of scolds, which it does, too,
so effectually and so very safely, that I look upon it as much to be
preferred to the cucking-stool, which not only endangers the health of
the party, but also gives her tongue liberty 'twixt every dip, to
neither of which is this at all liable, it being such a bridle for the
tongue as not only quite deprives them of speech, but brings shame for
the transgression, and humility thereupon, before 'tis taken off. Which,
being an instrument scarce heard of, much less seen, I have here
presented it to the reader's view [here follows a reference to a plate]
as it was taken from the original one, made of iron, at
Newcastle-under-Lyme, wherein the letter _a_ shows the jointed collar
that comes round the neck; _b_, _c_, the loops and staples to let it out
and in, according to the bigness and slenderness of the neck; _d_, the
jointed semicircle that comes over the head, made forked at one end to
let through the nose, and _e_, the plate-iron that is put into the
mouth and keeps down the tongue. Which, being put upon the offender by
order of the magistrate, and fastened with a padlock behind, she is led
through the town by an officer, to her shame, nor is it taken off until
after the party begins to show all external signs imaginable of
humiliation and amendment." This brank afterwards passed into the hands
of Mr. Joseph Mayer, F.S.A. founder of the Museum at Liverpool.
[Illustration: CHESTERFIELD BRANK.]
It is pleasing to record the fact that there is only trace of one brank
belonging to Derbyshire--a circumstance which speaks well for its men
and women. The latter have for a long period borne exemplary characters.
Philip Kinder, in the preface of his projected "History of Derbyshire,"
written about the middle of the seventeenth century, alludes to them.
"The country-women here," says Kinder, "are chaste and sober, and very
diligent in their housewifery; they hate idleness, love and obey their
husbands; only in some of the great towns many of the seeming
sanctificators used to follow the Presbyterian gang, and on a lecture
day put on their best rayment, and doo hereby take occasion to goo a
gossipping. Your merry wives of Bentley will sometimes look in ye
glass, chirpe a cupp merrily, yet not indecently. In the Peak they are
much given to dance after the bagpipes--almost every towne hath a
bagpipe in it." "The Chesterfield brank," says Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, "is
a remarkably good example, and has the additional interest of bearing a
date. It is nine inches in height, and six inches and three-quarters
across the hoop. It consists of a hoop of iron, hinged on either side
and fastening behind, and a band, also of iron, passing over the head
from back to front, and opening in front to admit the nose of the woman
whose misfortune it was to wear it. The mode of putting it on would be
thus: the brank would be opened by throwing back the sides of the hoop,
and the hinder part of the band by means of the hinges, C, F, F. The
constable, or other official, would then stand in front of his victim,
and force the knife, or plate, A, into her mouth, the divided band
passing on either side of the nose, which would protrude through the
opening, B. The hoop would then be closed behind, the band brought down
from the top to the back of the head, and fastened down upon it, at E,
and thus the cage would at once be firmly and immovably fixed so long as
her tormentors might think fit. On the left side is a chain, D, one end
of which is attached to the hoop, and at the other end is a ring, by
which the victim was led, or by which she was, at pleasure, attached to
a post or wall. On front of the brank are the initials 'T.C.,' and the
date '1688'--the year of the 'Glorious Revolution'--the year of all
years memorable in the annals of Chesterfield and the little village of
Whittington, closely adjoining, in which the Revolution was planned.
Strange that an instrument of brutal and tyrannical torture should be
made and used at Chesterfield at the same moment that the people should
be plotting for freedom at the same place. The brank was formerly in the
old poor-house at Chesterfield, and came into the hands of Mr. Weale,
the assistant Poor-law Commissioner, who presented it to Lady Walsham.
It is (August, 1860) still in the hands of Sir John Walsham, Bart.,
and the drawing from which the accompanying woodcut is executed was
kindly made and furnished to me by Miss Dulcy Bell, Sir John's
sister-in-law."[44]
The Leicester brank is similar to the one at Chesterfield. At the back
of the hoop is a chain about twelve inches long. It was formerly kept in
the Leicester borough gaol.
[Illustration: LEICESTER BRANK.]
In the year 1821, Judge Richardson gave orders for a brank to be
destroyed which was kept ready and most probably frequently used at the
County Hall, Nottingham. We gather from a note furnished by Mr. J.
Potter Briscoe a curious circumstance in connection with this
brank--that it was used to subdue the unruly tongues of the sterner sex,
as well as those of noisy females. James Brodie, a blind beggar who was
executed on the 15th July, 1799, for the murder of his boy-guide, in the
Nottingham Forest, was the last person punished with the brank. During
his imprisonment, prior to execution, he was so noisy that the brank
was called into requisition, to do what he refused to do himself,
namely, to hold his tongue.
[Illustration: BRANK FORMERLY IN THE POSSESSION OF MR. CARRINGTON.]
Here is a picture of a brank formerly in the possession of the late Mr.
F. A. Carrington, the well-known antiquary. It is supposed to belong to
the period of William III. Mr. Carrington could not give any history of
this curious relic of the olden time.
[Illustration: BRANK AT DODDINGTON PARK.]
At Doddington Park, Lincolnshire, a brank is preserved, and is of a
decidedly foreign appearance. It will be noticed that it bears some
resemblance to the peculiar long-snouted visor of the bascinets,
occasionally worn in the reign of Richard II. No historical particulars
are known respecting this grotesque brank.
[Illustration: BRANK IN THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM.]
In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, a curious brank may be seen. It is
not recorded in the catalogue of the collection by whom it was
presented, or where it was previously used; it is described as "a gag
or brank, formerly used with the ducking-stool, as a punishment for
scolds." It will be noticed that a chain is attached to the front of
this brank, so that the poor unfortunate woman, in addition to being
gagged, had the mortification of being led by the nose through the
town. The gag is marked _a_, and _b_ is the aperture for the nose.
[Illustration: ENGINE OF TORTURE IN THE LUDLOW MUSEUM.]
A curious engine of torture may be seen in the Ludlow Museum, and we
give an illustration of it. It belongs to a class of engines far more
formidable than branks. A description of this head-piece appears in the
_Archaeological Journal_ for September, 1856, from the pen of Mr. W. J.
Bernard Smith. "The powerful screwing apparatus," says Mr. Smith, "seems
calculated to force the iron mask with torturing effect upon the brow of
the victim; there are no eye-holes, but concavities in their places, as
though to allow for the starting of the eye-balls under violent
pressure. There is a strong bar with a square hole, evidently intended
to fasten the criminal against a wall, or perhaps to the pillory; and I
have heard it said that these instruments were used to keep the head
steady during the infliction of branding." A curious instrument of
punishment, belonging to the same class as that at Ludlow, is described
at some length, with an illustration, in "Worcester in Olden Times," by
John Noake (London, 1849). The picture and description have been
frequently reproduced.
[Illustration: SHREWSBURY BRANK.]
Several Shropshire branks remain at the present time. The one at
Shrewsbury does not appear to be of any great antiquity. Its form is
simple and its character harmless. This bridle was at one time in
constant use in Shrewsbury, and there are those yet living whose
memories are sufficiently good to carry them back to the days when the
effects of the application of the brank in question were to be seen,
rather than, as now, imagined. The year cannot be ascertained when this
brank was first worn, but it is known to have been last used in
1846.[45]
At Oswestry are two branks, one belonging to the Corporation, and the
other is in the store-room of the Workhouse. The Rector of Whitchurch
has in his possession a brank, which was formerly used by the town and
union authorities. At Market Drayton are two branks: one is the property
of the Lord of the Manor, and the other formerly belonged to the Dodcot
Union. The Market Drayton brank, and also the one at Whitchurch, have on
each a revolving wheel at the end of the gag or tongue-plate. In bygone
times, the brank was frequently used for correcting unmanageable
paupers.
At Edinburgh, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,
is a brank said to be from a town in East Fifeshire, having a
rowel-shaped gag. In the year 1560, it was decided by the Town Council
of Edinburgh, that all persons found guilty of blasphemy should be
punished by the iron brank. In North Britain, it appears to have been
used for punishing persons guilty of immorality. On the 7th October, the
Kirk-Session of Canongate sentenced David Persoun, convicted of this
offence, to be "brankit for four hours," while his associate in guilt,
Isobel Mountray, was "banisit the gait," that is, expelled from the
parish. Only a week previously, the same Kirk-Session had issued a
proclamation that all women found guilty of this lawlessness "be brankit
six houris at the croce."
We close this chapter by directing attention to the Bishop's brank, kept
at St. Andrews, respecting which a singular story is told. A woman in a
humble walk of life, named Isabel Lindsay, stood up in the parish church
of St. Andrews, during the time of divine service, when Archbishop Sharp
was preaching, and declared that when he was a college student he was
guilty of an illicit amour with her. She was arrested for this
statement, and brought before the Kirk-Sessions, and by its members
sentenced "to appear for a succession of Sundays on the repentance
stool, wearing the brank."
FOOTNOTES:
[43] Dobson's "Preston in the Olden Time," 1857.
[44] "The Reliquary," October, 1860.
[45] Morris's "Obsolete Punishments of Shropshire."
Riding the Stang.
The ancient custom of riding the stang still lingers in some remote
parts of the country. Holding delinquents up to ridicule was a favourite
mode of punishment practised by our forefathers, and riding the stang
was the means generally employed for punishing husbands who beat their
wives, or allowed themselves to be henpecked, or were profligate in
their conduct. There are various designations for the custom. In
Yorkshire, riding the stang is the name used; in Scotland the same term
is applied; in the South of England skimmington-riding is the title
generally employed, and on the Continent it is known by other
appellations.
[Illustration: RIDING THE STANG.]
The mode of carrying out the ceremony is as follows: A man having beaten
his wife, the young men of the village assume the attitude of public
censors, and arrangements are made for riding the stang three nights in
succession. A trumpeter blows his horn loud and long as day gives way
to night, and the villagers are brought together. A pole or a ladder is
procured, and the most witty man in the village is placed thereon,
mounted shoulder-high, and carried in great state through the streets.
In one hand he has a large key or stick, and in the other a
dripping-pan, and leads the music of the crowd. Men, women, and children
join in the fun, and beat kettles, pans, pots, or anything else that
will make a noise; tin whistles, horns, and trumpets are blown, the
noise produced being better imagined than described. As soon as all is
ready, a start is made, and about every fifty yards the procession
stops, and the mounted man proclaims at the top of his voice a rhyme
suited to the nature of the offence, somewhat as follows:
"Ran, tan, tan; ran, tan, tan,
To the sound of this pan;
This is to give notice that Tom Trotter
Has beaten his good woman!
For what, and for why?
Because she ate when she was hungry,
And drank when she was dry.
Ran, tan, ran, tan, tan;
Hurrah--hurrah! for this good wo-man!
He beat her, he beat her, he beat her indeed,
For spending a penny when she had need.
He beat her black, he beat her blue;
When Old Nick gets him, he'll give him his due;
Ran, tan, tan; ran, tan, tan;
We'll send him there in this old frying-pan;
Hurrah--hurrah! for his good wo-man!"