Curious Punishments of Bygone Days

								

chargeable and vexatious suits and cast in great damages, be it enacted
that all women found guilty be sentenced to ducking."
Others dated 1662 are most explicit.
"The court in every county shall cause to be set up near a Court House a
Pillory, a pair of Stocks, a Whipping Post and a Ducking-Stool in such
place as they think convenient, which not being set up within six month
after the date of this act the said Court shall be fined 5,000 lbs. of
tobacco.
"In actions of slander caused by a man's wife, after judgment past for
damages, the woman shall be punished by Ducking, and if the slander be
such as the damages shall be adjudged as above 500 lbs. of Tobacco, then
the woman shall have ducking for every 500 lbs. of Tobacco adjudged
against the husband if he refuse to pay the Tobacco."
The fee of a sheriff or constable for ducking was twenty pounds of
tobacco.
The American Historical Record, Vol. I, gives a letter said to have
been written to Governor Endicott, of Massachusetts, in 1634, by one
Thomas Hartley, from Hungars Parish, Virginia. It gives a graphic
description of a ducking-stool, and an account of a ducking in Virginia.
I quote from it:
"The day afore yesterday at two of ye clock in ye afternoon I saw this
punishment given to one Betsey wife of John Tucker who by ye violence of
her tongue has made his house and ye neighborhood uncomfortable. She was
taken to ye pond near where I am sojourning by ye officer who was joined
by ye Magistrate and ye Minister Mr. Cotton who had frequently
admonished her and a large number of People. They had a machine for ye
purpose yt belongs to ye Parish, and which I was so told had been so
used three times this Summer. It is a platform with 4 small rollers or
wheels and two upright posts between which works a Lever by a Rope
fastened to its shorter or heavier end. At ye end of ye longer arm is
fixed a stool upon which sd Betsey was fastened by cords, her gown tied
fast around her feete. The Machine was then moved up to ye edge of ye
pond, ye Rope was slackened by ye officer and ye woman was allowed to go
down under ye water for ye space of half a minute. Betsey had a stout
stomach, and would not yield until she had allowed herself to be ducked
5 several times. At length she cried piteously, Let me go Let me go, by
God's help I'll sin no more. Then they drew back ye Machine, untied ye
Ropes and let her walk home in her wetted clothes a hopefully penitent
woman."
Bishop Meade, in his Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia,
tells of a "scolding quean" who was ordered to be ducked three times
from the yard arm of a vessel lying in James River. A woman in
Northampton County, Virginia, suffered a peculiarly degrading punishment
for slander. In the lack of a ducking-stool she was "drawen ouer the
Kings Creeke at the starne of a boate or Canoux, also the next Saboth
day in the time of diuine seruise" was obliged to present herself before
the minister and congregation, and acknowledge her fault and beg