Mr. W. Andrews has collected a vast store of curious anecdotes on the subject of whippings, recorded in his Bygone Punishments, to which the interested reader is referred.  The story he tells of the brutality of Judge Jeffreys may be repeated.  This infamous and inhuman judge sentenced a woman to be whipped, and said, “Hangman, I charge you to pay particular attention to this lady.  Scourge her soundly, man; scourge her till her blood runs down!  It is Christmas, a cold time for madam to strip.  See that you warm her shoulders thoroughly.”  It was not until 1791 that the whipping of female vagrants was expressly forbidden by Act of Parliament.

Stocks have been used in quite recent times.  So late as 1872, at Newbury, one Mark Tuck, a devoted disciple of John Barleycorn, suffered this penalty for his misdeeds.[51] He was a rag and bone dealer, and knew well the inside of Reading jail. Notes and Queries[52] contains an account of the proceedings, and states that he was “fixed in the stocks for drunkenness and disorderly conduct in the Parish Church on Monday evening.”  Twenty-six years had elapsed since the stocks were last used, and their reappearance created no little sensation and amusement, several hundreds of persons being attracted to the spot where they were fixed.  Tuck was seated on a stool, and his legs were secured in the stocks at a few minutes past one o’clock, and as the church clock, immediately facing him, chimed each quarter, he uttered expressions of thankfulness, and seemed anything but pleased at the laughter and derision of the crowd.  Four hours having passed, Tuck was released, and by a little stratagem on the part of the police he escaped without being interfered with by the crowd.

  [51] History of Hungerford, by W. Money, p. 38.

  [52] Notes and Queries, 4th series, X, p. 6.

Sunday drinking during divine service provided in many places victims for the stocks.  So late as half a century ago it was the custom for the churchwardens to go out of church during the morning service on Sundays and visit the public-houses to see if any persons were tippling there, and those found in flagrante delicto were immediately placed in the stocks.  So arduous did the churchwardens find this duty that they felt obliged to regale themselves at the alehouses while they made their tour of inspection, and thus rendered themselves liable to the punishment which they inflicted on others.  Mr. Rigbye, postmaster at Croston, Lancashire, who was seventy-three years of age in 1899, remembered these Sunday-morning searches, and had seen drunkards sitting in the stocks, which were fixed near the southern step of the village cross.  Mr. Rigbye, when a boy, helped to pull down the stocks, which were then much dilapidated.  A certain Richard Cottam, called “Cockle Dick,” was the last man seen in them.[53]

  [53] Ancient Crosses and Holy Wells of Lancashire, by H. Taylor,
  F.S.A., p. 37.