Curious Punishments Of Bygone Days Part 2

Just as soon as the Boston stocks had been well warmed by Carpenter Palmer they promptly started on a well-filled career of usefulness. They gathered in James Luxford, who had been "psented for having two wifes."

He had to pay a fine of 100 and be set in the stocks one hour upon the following market-day after lecture, and on the next lecture-day also, where he could be plainly seen by every maid and widow in the little town, that there might be no wife Number Three. Then a watchman of the town, "for drinking several times of strong waters," took his turn. Soon a man for "uncivil carriages" was "stocked." Every town was enjoined to build stocks. In 1655 Medfield had stocks, and in 1638 Newbury and Concord were fined for "the want of stocks," and Newbury was given time till the next court session to build them. The town obeyed the order, and soon John Perry was set in them for his "abusive carriage to his wife and child." Dedham and Watertown were "psent'd" in 1639 for "the want of stocks." Ipswich already had them, for John Wedgwood that same year was set in the stocks simply for being in the company of drunkards.

In Yarmouth, a thief who stole flax and yarn, and in Rehoboth, one who stole an Indian child, were "stocked." Portsmouth, New Hamps.h.i.+re, built stocks and a cage. Plymouth had a constant relay of Quakers to keep her stocks from ever lying idle, as well as other offenders, such as Ann Savory, of unsavory memory. Rhode Island ordered "good sufficient stocks" in every town. In the southern and central colonies the stocks were a constant force. The Dutch favored the pillory and whipping-post, but a few towns had stocks. We find the Heer officer in Beverwyck (Albany) dispensing justice in a most summary manner. When Martin de Metslaer wounded another in a drunken brawl, the authorities hunted Martin up, "early hauled him out of bed and set him in the stocks."

Connecticut was a firm advocate of the stocks, and plentiful examples might be given under New Haven and Connecticut laws.

Web Adey, who was evidently a "single-man," for "two breaches of the Saboth" was ordered to be set in the stocks, then to find a master, and if not complying with this second order the town would find one for him and sell him for a term of service. This was the arbitrary and not unusual method of disposing of lazy, lawless and even lonely men, as well as of more hardened criminals, who, when sold for a term of service, usually got into fresh disgrace and punishment through disobedience, idleness and running away.

I do not find many sentences of women to be set in the stocks. Jane Boulton of Plymouth was stocked for reviling the magistrates; one of her neighbors sat in the stocks and watched her husband take a flogging.

Goody Gregory of Springfield in 1640, being grievously angered by a neighbor, profanely abused her, saying "Before G.o.d I could break thy head." She acknowledged her "great sine and fault" like a woman, but she paid her fine and sat in the stocks like a man, since she swore like one.

And it should be noted that the stocks were not for the punishment of _gentlemen_, they were thoroughly plebeian. The pillory was aristocratic in comparison, as was also branding with a hot iron.

Fiercely hedged around was divine wors.h.i.+p. The stocks added their restraint by threatened use. "All persons who stand out of the meeting-house during time of service, to be set in the stocks."

In Plymouth in 1665 "all persons being without the dores att the meeting house on the Lords daies in houres of exercise, demeaneing themselves by jesting, sleeping, and the like, if they shall psist in such practices hee (the t.i.thing-man) shall sett them in the stocks."

Regard for church and state were often combined by making public confession of sin in church with punishment in front of the church after the service. This was simply a carrying out of English customs.

Mr. Hamilton, author of that interesting book, _Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne_, says, dealing with Devons.h.i.+re:

"A favorite punishment for small offenses, such as resisting the constable, was the stocks. The offender had to come into the church at morning prayer, and say publicly that he was sorry; he was then set in the stocks until the end of the evening prayer. The punishment was generally repeated on the next market-day."

It seems scarcely necessary to describe the shape and appearance of stocks, for pictures of them are so common. They were formed by two heavy timbers the upper one of which could be raised, and when lowered, was held in place by a lock. In these two timbers were cut two half-circle notches which met two similar notches when the upper timber was in place and thus formed round holes, holding firmly in place the legs of the imprisoned culprit; sometimes the arms were thrust into smaller holes similarly formed. Usually, however, the culprit sat on a low bench with simply his legs confined. Thus securely restrained, he was powerless to escape the jests and jeers of every idler in the community.

The stocks were the scene of many striking figures, and many amusing ones; what a sight was that when an English actor who had caused the playing of the Midsummer-Night's Dream in the very house of the Bishop of Lincoln, and on Sunday, too, was set in stocks at the Bishop's gate with an a.s.s's head beside him and a wisp of hay--in derision of the part he had played, that of Bottom the weaver. This in 1631--after both Plymouth and Boston had been settled.

And the stocks were not without their farcical side in New England.

Governor Winthrop's account of the exploits of a Boston Dogberry in 1644 is certainly amusing.

"There fell out a troublesome business in Boston. An English sailor happened to be drunk, and was carried to his lodging, and the constable (a G.o.dly man and much zealous against such disorders), hearing of it, found him out, being upon his bed asleep, so he awaked him, and led him to the stocks, no magistrate being at home. He being in the stocks, one of La Tour's French gentlemen visitors in Boston lifted up the stocks and let him out. The constable, hearing of it, went to the Frenchman (being then gone and quiet) and would needs carry _him_ to the stocks.

The Frenchman offered to yield himself to go to prison, but the constable, not understanding his language pressed him to go to the stocks: the Frenchman resisted and drew his sword; with that company came in and disarmed him, and carried him by force to the stocks, but soon after the constable took him out and carried him to prison, and presently after, took him forth again, and delivered him to La Tour.

Much tumult was there about this: many Frenchmen were in town, and other strangers, who were not satisfied with this dealing of the constable yet were quiet. In the morning the magistrate examined the cause, and sent for La Tour, who was much grieved for his servant's miscarriage, and also for the disgrace put upon him (for in France it is a most ignominious thing to be laid in the stocks), but yet he complained not of any injury, but left him wholly with the magistrates to do with him what they pleased, etc. ... The constable was the occasion of all this transgressing the bounds of his office, and that in six things. 1. In fetching a man out of his lodging that was asleep upon his bed, and without any warrant from authority. 2. In not putting a hook upon the stocks, nor setting some to guard them. 3. In laying hands upon the Frenchman that had opened the stocks when he was gone and quiet. 4. In carrying him to prison without warrant. 5. In delivering him out of prison without warrant. 6. In putting such a reproach upon a stranger and a gentleman when there was no need, for he knew he would be forthcoming and the magistrate would be at home that evening; but such are the fruits of ignorant and misguided zeal.... But the magistrates thought not convenient to lay these things to the constable's charge before the a.s.sembly, but rather to admonish him for it in private, lest they should have discouraged and discountenanced an honest officer."

Truly this is a striking and picturesque scene in colonial life, one worthy of Hogarth's pencil. The bronzed English sailor, inflamed with drink, ear-ringed, pigtailed, with short, wide, flapping trousers and brave with sash and s.h.i.+ning cutla.s.s; the gay, volatile Frenchman, in the beautiful and courtly dress of his day and nation, all laces and falbalas; and the solemn pragmatic Puritan tipstaff, with long wand of black and white, and horn lanthorn, with close-cropped head, sad-colored in garments, severe of feature, zealous in duty; and the spectators standing staring at the stocks; Indian stragglers, fair Puritan maidens, fierce sailor-men, a pious preacher or sober magistrate--no lack of local color in that picture.

It is interesting to note in all the colonies the attempt to exterminate all idle folk and idle ways. The severity of the penalties were so salutary in effect, that as Mrs. Goodwin says in her _Colonial Cavalier_, they soon would have exterminated even that social pest, the modern tramp. Vagrants, and those who were styled "transients," were fiercely abhorred and cruelly spurned. I have found by comparison of town records that they were often whipped from town to town, only to be thrust forth in a few weeks with fresh stripes to another grudged resting place. Such entries as this of the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, might be produced in scores:

"September 26, 1748. That the officer shall take the said transient forthwith to some publick place in this town and strip him from the waist upward, & whyp him twenty strypes well layd on his naked back, and then be by said officer transported out of this town."

The appearance of crime likewise had to be avoided. In 1635 Thomas Petet "for suspition of slander, idleness and stubbornness is to be severely whipt and kept in hold."

More shocking and still more summary was the punishment meted out to a Frenchman who was _suspected_ only of setting fire to Boston in the year 1679. He was ordered to stand in the pillory, have both ears cut off, pay the charges of the court, and lie in prison in bonds of five hundred pounds until sentence was performed.

These Ma.s.sachusetts magistrates were not the only ones to sentence punishment on suspicion. In Scotland one Richardson, a tailor, being "accusit of pickrie," or pilfering, was adjudged to be punished with "twelve straiks with ane double belt, because there could be nae sufficient proof gotten, but vehement suspition."

Writing of punishments of bygone days, an English rhymester says:

"Each mode has served its turn, and played a part For good or ill with man; but while the bane Of drunkenness corrupts the nation's heart-- Discrediting our age--methinks the reign Of stocks, at least, were well revived again."

There is, in truth, a certain fitness in setting in the stocks for drunkenness; a firm confining of the wandering uncertain legs; a fixing in one spot for quiet growing sober, and meditating on the misery of drunkenness, a fitness that with the extreme of publicity removed, or the wantonness of the spectators curbed, perhaps would not be so bad a restraining punishment after all. Some of the greatness and self-control of the later years of Cardinal Wolsey's life may have come from those hours of mortification and meditation spent in the stocks. And over the stocks might be set "a paper" as of yore, bearing in capital letters the old epitaph found in solemn warning of eternity on many an ancient tombstone but literally applicable in this temporal matter.

"All Ye who see the State of Me Think of the Gla.s.s that Runs for Thee."

IV

THE PILLORY

Hawthorne says in his immortal _Scarlet Letter_:

"This scaffold const.i.tuted a portion of a penal machine which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical or traditionary among us, but was held in the old time to be as effectual in the promotion of good citizens.h.i.+p as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fas.h.i.+oned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks--against our common nature--whatever be the delinquencies of the individual--no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Pillory.]

This "essence of punishment"--the pillory or stretch-neck--can be traced back to a remote period in England and on the Continent--certainly to the twelfth century. In its history, tragedy and comedy are equally blended; and martyrdom and obloquy are alike combined. Seen in a prominent position in every village and town, its familiarity of presence was its only retrieving characteristic; near church-yard and in public square was it ever found; local authorities forfeited the right to hold a market unless they had a pillory ready for use.

A description of a pillory is not necessary to one who has read any ill.u.s.trated history of the English Church, of the Quakers, Dissenters, or of the English people; for the rude prints of political and religious sufferers in the pillory have been often reproduced. Douce, in his _Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare_ gives six different forms of the pillory.

It was an upright board, hinged or divisible in twain, with a hole in which the head was set fast, and usually with two openings also for the hands. Often the ears were nailed to the wood on either side of the head-hole. Examples exist of a small finger-pillory or thumb-stocks, but are rare.

It would be impossible to enumerate the offences for which Englishmen were pilloried: among them were treason, sedition, arson, blasphemy, witch-craft, perjury, wife-beating, cheating, forestalling, forging, coin-clipping, tree-polling, gaming, dice-cogging, quarrelling, lying, libelling, slandering, threatening, conjuring, fortune-telling, "prigging," drunkenness, impudence. One man was set in the pillory for delivering false dinner invitations; another for a rough practical joke; another for selling an injurious quack medicine. All sharpers, beggars, impostors, vagabonds, were liable to be pilloried. So fierce sometimes was the attack of the populace with various annoying and heavy missiles on pilloried prisoners that several deaths are known to have ensued. On the other side, it is told in Chamber's _Book of Days_ that a prisoner, by the sudden collapse of a rotten footboard, was left hanging by his neck in danger of his life. On being liberated he brought action against the town and received damages.

The pillory in England has seen many a n.o.ble victim. The history of Puritanism, of Reformation, is filled with hundreds of pages of accounts of sufferings on the pillory. When such names as those of Leighton, Prynne, Lilburne, Burton and Bastwick appear as thus being punished we do not think of the pillory as a scaffold for felons, but as a platform for heroes. Who can read unmoved that painful, that pathetic account of the punishment of Dr. Bastwick. His weeping wife stood on a stool and kissed his poor pilloried face, and when his ears were cut off she placed them in a clean handkerchief and took them away, with emotions unspeakable and undying love.

De Foe said, in his famous _Hymn to the Pillory_:

"Tell us, great engine, how to understand Or reconcile the justice of this land; How Bastwick, Prynne, Hunt, Hollingsby and Pye-- Men of unspotted honesty-- Men that had learning, wit and sense, And more than most men have had since, Could equal t.i.tle to thee claim With Oates and Fuller, men of fouler fame."

Lecture-day, as affording in New England, in the pious community, the largest gathering of reproving spectators, was the day chosen in preference for the performance of public punishment by the pillory.

Hawthorne says of the Thursday Lecture: "The tokens of its observance are of a questionable cast. It is in one sense a day of public shame; the day on which transgressors who have made themselves liable to the minor severities of the Puritan law receive their reward of ignominy."

Thus Nicholas Olmstead, in Connecticut, is to "stand on the pillory at Hartford the next lecture-day." He was to be "sett on a lytle before the beginning and to stay thereon a lytle after the end."

The disgrace of the pillory clung, though the offence punished was not disgraceful. Thus in the year 1697 a citizen of Braintree, William Veasey, was set in the pillory for ploughing on a Thanksgiving day, which had been appointed in grat.i.tude for the escape of King William from a.s.sa.s.sination. The stiff old Braintree rebel declared that James II was his rightful king. Five years later Veasey was elected a member of the General Court, but was not permitted to serve as he had been in the pillory.

Throughout the Ma.s.sachusetts jurisdiction the pillory was in use. In 1671 one Mr. Thomas Withers for "surriptisiously endeavoring to prevent the Providence of G.o.d by putting in several votes for himself as an officer at a town meeting" was ordered to stand two hours in the pillory at York, Maine. Shortly after (for he was an ingenious rogue) he was similarly punished for "an irregular way of contribution," for putting large sums of money into the contribution box in meeting to induce others to give largely, and then again "surriptisiously" taking his gift back again.

There was no offense in the southern colonies more deplored, more reprobated, more legislated against than what was known as "ingrossing, forestalling, or regrating."

This was what would to-day be termed a brokerage or speculative sale, such as buying a cargo about to arrive, and selling at retail, buying a large quant.i.ty of any goods in a market to re-sell, or any form of huckstering. Its prevalence was held to cause dearth, famine and despair; English "regratours" and forestallers were frequently pilloried. Even in _Piers Plowman_ we read:

"For these aren men on this molde that moste harm worcheth, To the pore peple that parcel-mele buyggen Thei rychen thorow regraterye."

The state archives of Maryland are full of acts and resolves about forestallers, etc., and severe punishments were decreed. It was, in truth, the curse of that colony. All our merchandise brokers to-day would in those days have been liable to be thrust in prison or pillory.

In the year 1648 I learn from the Maryland archives that one John Goneere, for perjury, was "nayled by both eares to the pillory 3 nailes in each eare and the nailes to be slitt out, and whipped 20 good lashes." The same year Blanch Howell wilfully, unsolicited and unasked, committed perjury. The "sd Blanche shall stand nayled in the Pillory and loose both her eares." Both those sentences were "exequuted."