Offenders sent to the pillory were dishonest butchers (whose unwholesome meat was burned under their noses), adulterers, dice coggers, forgers, cutpurses, liars, libelers, and "passers-off of latten rings for gold."
A finger pillory is similar to the standard pillory, except it encloses one's fingers in a block of wood, bent at the middle joint, so as to be very painful! If left in for any length of time. Finger pillories often went by the name of finger stocks and were routinely used in upper class halls to punish the disorderly during social gatherings.
The stocks were similar to the pillory in that an offender was put on display in a public area
With his arms or legs fixed in place by two pieces of wood. The stocks were usually placed at the entrance to a town or by the side of a road where all could see and publicly ridicule or taunt the offender. The stocks were also used as a means of holding prisoners temporarily.
Drowning and burning were all possible measures, but burning was popular for executing witches and for dealing with religious heretics. Boiling to death was less frequently used. Beheading, which remained popular through the Elizabethan era, was considered an honorable way to die and was usually reserved for those in the upper classes of society.
Hanging, perhaps one of the most well known methods of execution (often associated with the settling of the U.S. frontier) was used as a method of punishment in Elizabethan times. Offenders sometimes were hanged by chains alongside a road as an example to others.
When the accused refused to confess to a crime, he or she was sometimes "pressed” to death by placing weight on his chest until he suffocated. This torture, which replaced the earlier practice of deliberate starvation, was sometimes used to "persuade” the prisoner to confess, whether or not he was guilty.
Though many of today's crimes may be similar to those in Elizabethan England, the methods of punishment have definitely changed a lot. Most of the punishments of the Elizabethan period would be deemed cruel and unusual by today's standards. The death penalty can no longer be enacted in cases of theft or highway robbery.
One out of the ordinary punishment of the Elizabethan Era was the drunkard's cloak. It was a punishment for public drunkenness; the name of it is somewhat misleading. The flaw in the name comes from the fact that the cloak is less a cloak and more a barrel. The drunk was forced to don a barrel and wander through town while the villagers jeer at him. Holes were cut in the barrel for the person's hands and head, causing it to become like a heavy, awkward shirt.
Another weird punishment was the brank, also known as the bride's scold. The brank was a punishment enacted on women who gossiped or spoke too freely. It was a large iron framework placed on the head of the offender, forming a type of cage. There was a metal strip on the brank that fit into the mouth and was either sharpened to a point or covered with spikes so that any movement of the tongue was certain to cause severe injuries to the mouth. The woman was then led by a city official through the streets of town by a chain, then usually tied to a whipping post or pillory to stand in view of the cruel and verbally abusive public.
Yet another punishment for criminals was the pillory. The pillory was a wooden post with a wooden block on top with holes in it for the person's hands and head to be placed in. The heads and hands were then locked into place while the person was forced to stand in public display for the decided sentence. In some cases the pillory was combined with a whipping post and stocks to make a one stop, public punishment device.
Also among the list of Elizabethan punishment methods was the stocks. The stocks were similar to the pillory in that a part of the body was locked between two slabs of wood, but in the case of the stocks the feet were locked in the device instead of the hands and feet. The stocks were a proposed method of punishment for drunkenness in a 1605 Act. The offender would be fined to five shillings or six hours in the stocks. The stocks were often used as a method of holding a criminal until a more severe sentence could be decided and carried out.
One punishment about, which there is not much to say, is the whipping post. It was basically what the name says, a wooden post that the person was strapped to and whipped for Nemours number of times. This correctional method was instituted during the reign of Henry 5 and then continued through the time of Queen Elizabeth.
One more odd punishment was the ducking stool. Like the brank, it was a punishment for women whose speech was considered too brash and brazen or too free. The ducking stool was a wooden chair attached to a large lever system. The lever allowed the chair to be raised or lowered without the tipping of the chair, making it parallel to the ground at all times. The chair was then lowered into the water, dunking the loose tongued woman under the water. Based on the level of the offense and the cruelty of the deciding party the woman could be "ducked" any number of times, and in some cases of extreme measures, the woman could drown from the time spent under water. Some of the ducking stools were mobile and could be taken to the water's edge at the necessary time, while others were fixed into place along the coast of the water as a grim reminder to the women of the town of what free speaking could lead to.
One tool that was used, as punishment was the amputation saw. Much crueler than the axe, the saw was slower and more painful than the relative quickness of the axe blade.
Villagers of the period could be considered twisted individuals because of the crowds of people that gathered for the public punishments and executions. The people of the period relished the public hangings, and the persons to be hanged were often falsely accused of treason, which called for them to be publicly disemboweled and then cut into quartered sections to be left on display after the person's death.
In conclusion, the punishments of days past were much crueler than would be allowed today. Private executions have replaced the public hangings and cruel punishment! People are no longer executed for minor crimes like theft, and axes are no longer used to administer punishments. There are now holding cells for criminals awaiting trial instead of stocks. People of authority have gotten much nicer. And not as all cruel!!
