Not falling for those again

Stocks

Stocks are restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation.

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Cucking stool

Cucking stools or ducking stools were chairs formerly used for punishment of disorderly women, scolds (troublesome and angry people who habitually chastised, argued and quarrelled with their neighbours) and dishonest tradesmen in England, Scotland, and elsewhere. The cucking-stool was a form of wymen pine, or "women's punishment," as referred to in Langland's Piers Plowman (1378).

They were both instruments of public humiliation and censure primarily for the offense of scolding or back biting and less often for sexual offences like bearing an illegitimate child or prostitution.

The stools were technical devices which formed part of the wider method of law enforcement through social humiliation.

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Scold's bridle

A scold's bridle, sometimes called a witch's bridle, a brank's bridle, or simply branks, was an instrument of punishment, as a form of torture and public humiliation. The device was an iron muzzle in an iron framework that enclosed the head (although some bridles were masks that depicted suffering). A bridle-bit (or curb-plate), about 2 in × 1 in (5.1 cm × 2.5 cm) in size, was slid into the mouth and either pressed down on top of the tongue as a compress or used to raise the tongue to lie flat on the wearer's palate. This prevented speaking and resulted in many unpleasant side effects for the wearer, including excessive salivation and fatigue in the mouth.

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Shrew's fiddle

A shrew's fiddle or neck violin is a variation of the yoke, pillory or rigid irons whereby the wrists are locked in front of the bound person by a hinged board or steel bar. It was originally used in the Middle Ages as a way of punishing women who were caught bickering or fighting.

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Stool of Repentance

The Stool of Repentance in Presbyterian polity, mostly in Scotland, was an elevated seat in a church used for the public penance of persons who had offended against the morality of the time, often through fornication and adultery. At the end of the service the offender usually had to stand upon the stool to receive the rebuke of the minister.

Humiliation of sitting on the stool, being punished and publicly repenting sins drove some victims to suicide. In the case of pregnant women of such parishes who had not conceived with their husbands they would often elaborately conceal their pregnancy or attempt infanticide rather than face the congregation then Kirk Session.An alternative to, or commutation of, the Stool of Repentance was payment of buttock mail.A harp tune commemorates the tradition.

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Buttock mail

Buttock mail was the colloquial term for a Scottish Poor Law tax which was introduced in 1595. Enforced by the ecclesiastical courts who had responsibility for the moral behaviour of the laity, buttock mail was levied as a fine for sexual intercourse out of wedlock.

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