19. The records of the Wakefield Sessions (England) dated October 5, 1671 contain the following judgement:
'Forasmuch as Jane, the wife of William Farrett of Selby, a 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.'
The townsfolk: "When we say SHUT UP we mean SHUT UP!"
Real Punishments - 1681 Sophia Lindsay
20. Lady Sophia Lindsay helped her father, the Earl of Argyll, escape from his house arrest for alleged treason. In May 1681, she was sentenced to be whipped through the streets at the cart's tail. Her family appealed to the Duke of York for clemency - it would be unfitting for an aristocratic woman to be punished in a way usually reserved for whores.
His Grace reduced her sentence to a lesser but still painful punishment in private - the birch. Lady Sophia's birching, which was always given on the bare bottom, took half an hour and wore out two bunches of birch twigs.
Here, as the noble Lady is about to start screaming and crying, she has an extra humiliation - her maid gets to watch (no doubt remembering all the times SHE's been disciplined).
Real Punishments - 1692 Tituba
21. Everyone knows about the witch trials in Salem ("The Crucible" was based on real trials). This pricking on the rack with hot needles, to find a 'witches mark', was part of the usual process. It involved careful examination of the accused woman's naked body.
Not that this was in any way a motivation for these puritanical Christian men. Surely not!
[This was going to be Lizzie Proctor, but I realised that white women are over-represented in this series. These puritans were affirmative-action torturers.]
