Pillory

an instrument of punishment introduced into the colonies from England. It consisted of two heavy boards fastened edge to edge by means of a hinge. Three holes, one for the neck and one on either side for a wrist, were cut in the adjacent edges. The two planks were fastened like a guideboard to an upright post standing usually on a platform. The holes were about five feet from the platform, at such a height that the head and hands could be placed through them and held firmly. The culprit on whom this ignominious punishment was inflicted was obliged to stand in this painful position during the will of the magistrate. As might be supposed, anyone condemned to the pillory might be also pelted with rotten eggs and mud and subjected to the jeers of the rabble. In the case of the punishment of a popular hero by an obnoxious magistrate the populace crowded round, sheltered the prisoner from the sun, and did everything possible to make him feel that he was the hero of the company. Even women were punished in the pillory. The pillory was once common throughout medieval Europe. Putting in the pillory was the usual punishment meted out to the users of false weights, common scolds, perjurers, ribalders, and writers of seditious articles. The stocks, the pillory, the whipping post and the ducking-stool are associated in history. The pillory was abolished in England in 1837. Offenders were set in the pillory in Prince Edward Island as late as 1860. See Stocks