The tramp question was as troublesome in the seventeenth
century as it is to-day. We confine them in workhouse-cells and make
them break stones or pick oakum; whipping was the solution adopted by
our forefathers. We have seen John Savidge wielding his whip, which
still exists among the curiosities at Hungerford. At Barnsley in 1632
Edward Wood was paid iiijd. "for whiping of three wanderers." Ten
years earlier Richard White received only iid. for performing the like
service for six wanderers. 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.
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