Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/36

A few Notes on Ducking Stools.

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A FEW NOTES ON DUCKING STOOLS. By Llewellyn Jew1tt, F. S. A., Etc. II. AT Fordwich, I am informed by my friend Mr. Dunkin, a ducking stool was used on the bank of the river Stour, where it was broad and deep. The chair was strong and .massive, with sloping arms, and from its form was probably affixed to a tumbrell. At Gravesend, a tumbrell cucking stool was used at an inclined plane, called the horse-wash, on the bank of the river Thames; and the following entries occur in the corporation accounts : — I s- d. 1628, Novem. 9. — Paid unto Meldham for mending the Cucking Stool . 070 1629, Sept. 4. — Paid unto the Wheeler for timber for mending the Cucking Stool 034 1635, Oct, 23. — Paid for two Wheeles and Yukes for the Ducking Stool 036 1636, January 7. — Paid the Porters for ducking of Good wife Campion . 1646. June 12. — Paid two Porters for laying up the Ducking Stoole . 1653. — Paid John Powell for mending the Ducking Stoole .... 060 1680. — Paid Gattett for a proclamation, and for carrying the Ducking Stoole in market ..... o 1 6 At Kingston-upon-Thames, one of the same kind was used, but in this case the tumbrell was formed with three wheels in stead of two, as is shown by the following items in the^Chamberlain's accounts : — I s. d. "1572. — The making of the Cucking Stool 08 o Iron work for the same . .030 " Timber for the same . . .076 " Three brasses for the same, and three wheels . . . o 4 10 This stool was used in 1738, as appears by the following notice : — "Saturday, October 14, 1738. — Last week, at the Quarter Sessions at Kingston-on-Thames, an elderly woman, notorious for her vociferation,

was indicted for a common scold, and the facts alleged being fully proved, she was sentenced to receive the old punishment of being ducked, which was accordingly executed upon her in the Thames, by the proper officers, in a chair for that purpose preserved in the town; and to prove the justice of the court's sentence upon her, on her return from the water-side she fell upon one of her acquaintance, without provoca tion, with tongue, tooth, and nail, and would, had not the officers interposed, have deserved a second punishment, even before she was dry from the first." In the crypt of the fine old church of St. Mary, at Warwick, the wheels of a tumbrell are still preserved, and the chair is also in the possession of a resident of the town. The pole of the tumbrell has been destroyed within the last few years. It will be seen by the engraving that it has three wheels, and must have been very similar to the one de scribed at Kingston.

At Beverly, John, Archbishop of York, in the reign of Edward I, claimed the right of gallows, gibbet, pillory, and tumbrell, and there are some curious entries in the cor poration accounts relating to it. "1456. — Et sol' j laborar p. mundacone cois sewer jux' cuxtolepit p. exitu aque ilm p. j diem iiij."