The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments


Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments, The

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange
and Curious Punishments, by Henry M. Brooks This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
Author: Henry M. Brooks
Release Date: August 3, 2005 [EBook #16419]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLDEN TIME SERIES ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

_THE OLDEN-TIME SERIES._
16mo. Per vol., 50 cents.

There appears to be, from year to year, a growing popular taste for quaint and curious reminiscences of "Ye Olden Time," and to meet this, Mr. Henry M. Brooks has prepared a series of interesting handbooks. The materials have been gleaned chiefly from old newspapers of Boston and Salem, sources not easily accessible, and while not professing to be history, the volumes contain much material for history, so combined and presented as to be both amusing and instructive. The titles of some of the volumes indicate their scope and their promise of entertainment:--
CURIOSITIES OF THE OLD LOTTERY.
DAYS OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL.
SOME STRANGE AND CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS.
QUAINT AND CURIOUS ADVERTISEMENTS.
LITERARY CURIOSITIES.
NEW-ENGLAND SUNDAY, ETC.

"It has been the good fortune of the writer to be allowed a peep at the manuscript for this series, and he can assure the lovers of the historical and the quaint in literature that something both valuable and pleasant is in store for them. In the specialties treated of in these books Mr. Brooks has been for many years a careful collector and student, and it is gratifying to learn that the material is to be committed to book form."--_Salem Gazette._

_For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, upon receipt of price. Catalogues of our books mailed free._
TICKNOR & CO., BOSTON.

THE OLDEN TIME SERIES
SOME STRANGE AND CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS
_Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow For others' good, and melt at others' woe._
POPE: Odyssey.
_But hushed be every thought that springs From out the bitterness of things._
WORDSWORTH.

THE OLDEN TIME SERIES.
GLEANINGS CHIEFLY FROM OLD NEWSPAPERS OF BOSTON AND SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
SELECTED AND ARRANGED, WITH BRIEF COMMENTS
BY
HENRY M. BROOKS

Some Strange and Curious Punishments
"Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote."--EMERSON
BOSTON TICKNOR AND COMPANY 1886
_Copyright, 1886_, BY TICKNOR AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved._
University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.

PUNISHMENTS MENTIONED.
PAGE
ARREST of the dead 86
BACK "dress'd" 63
Banished 10
Books burned 15, 16
Bound and chained 8
Branded with a hot iron 2, 3, 43
Burned 83
CLEFT stick put on tongue 8
Confined at Castle Island 5, 48
EARS cropped 3, 10, 24
Eating one's own words 67
Executed (of frequent mention).
FINE and imprisonment (of frequent mention).
GAGGED and dipped or ducked (of frequent mention).
HUNG in chains 14, 15
IMPRISONMENT for debt 70, 71
In the bilboes 35
In the pillory (of frequent mention).
In the stocks 35
In the stocks on lecture-day 8
"KISSING the Yssrow" 44
LIMITS of the jail 70, 71
PAPER on the breast with the word Cheat 33
Prisoners sold 21, 22, 47, 48, 49
Prosecution against animals 78
SENT back to England 51
Sent to Castle Island to make nails 65
Sewed up in bed-clothes and thrashed 68
TIED neck and heels and thrown into a pond 28
Tied to a gun and whipped 20
Tied to a tree and chastised 81
Tongue bored with a hot iron 20
Tread-mill 71 to 76
UPON the gallows with rope about the neck (of frequent mention).
WHIPPED at the cart's tail 1, 9
Whipping-post (of frequent mention).

SOME STRANGE AND CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS.
-------------------------
In the month of January, 1761, "Joseph Bennett, John Jenkins, Owen McCarty, and John Wright were publickly whipt at the Cart's Tail thro' the City of New York for petty Larceny,"--so the newspaper account states,--"pursuant to Sentence inflicted on them by the Court of Quarter Sessions held last Week for the Trial of Robbers," etc. In March the same year "One Andrew Cayto received 49 Stripes at the public Whipping Post" in Boston "for House-robbing; viz., 39 for robbing one House, and 10 for robbing another." In 1762 "Jeremiah Dexter, of Walpole, pursuant to Sentence, stood in the Pillory in that Town the space of one Hour for uttering two Counterfeit Mill'd Dollars, knowing them to be such." At Ipswich, Mass., June 16, 1763, "one Francis Brown, for stealing a large quantity of Goods, was found Guilty, and it being the second Conviction, he was sentenced by the Court to sit on the Gallows an Hour with a Rope about his Neck, to be whipt 30 Stripes, and pay treble Damages. He says