In the constable's
accounts of Hungerford we find such items as:--
"Pd for cheeke and brace for the pillory 00,02,00
Pd for mending the pillory 00,00,06
Pd the Widow Tanner for iron geare for the whipping post 00,03,06"
Whipping was a very favourite pastime at this old Berkshire town; this
entry will suffice:--
"Pd to John Savidge for his extraordinary
paines this yeare and whipping of severall persons 00,05,00"
John Savidge was worthy of his name, but the good folks of Hungerford
tempered mercy with justice and usually gave a monetary consolation to
those who suffered from the lash. Thus we read:--
"Gave a poore man that was whipped and sent
from Tythinge to Tythinge 00,00,04"
Women were whipped at Hungerford, as we find that the same John
Savidge received 2d. for whipping Dorothy Millar. All this was
according to law. The first Whipping Act was passed in 1530 when Henry
VIII reigned, and according to this barbarous piece of legislation the
victim was stripped naked and tied to a cart-tail, dragged through the
streets of the town, and whipped "till his body was bloody." In
Elizabeth's time the cart-tail went out of fashion and a
whipping-post was substituted, and only the upper part of the body was
exposed.
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