BRANKS (probably akin to Irish brancas, a halter; Ger. Pranger, fetter,

See also:

• PILLORY (0. Fr. pilori, Prov. espitlori, from Lat. speculatorium, a place of observation or " peep-hole ")

pillory)  , or SCOLDING-BRIDLE, a contrivance formerly in use throughout England and Scotland for the punishment of scolding women . It is said to have originated in the latter country . It seems to have never been a legalized form of punishment; but corporations and lords of manors in England, town councils, kirk-sessions and barony courts in Scotland assumed a right to inflict it . While specially known as the " Gossip's or Scold's Bridle" the branks was also used for women convicted of petty offences, breaches of the peace, street-brawling and abusive language . It was the equivalent of the male punishments of the stocks and pillory . In its earliest form it consisted of a hoop head-piece of iron, opening by hinges at the side so as to enclose the head, with a flat piece of iron projecting inwards so as to fit into the mouth and press the tongue down . Later it was made, by a multiplication of hoops, more like a cage, the front forming a mask of iron with holes for mouth, nose and eyes . Sometimes the mouth-plate was armed with a short spike . With this on her head the offending woman was marched through the streets by the beadle or chained to the market-cross to be gibed at by passers . The date of origin is doubtful . It was used at Edinburgh in 1567, at Glasgow in 1574, but not before the 17th century in any English town . A brank in the church of Waltonon-Thames, Surrey, bears date 1633; while another in a private collection has the crowned cipher of William III .

The Ashmolean Museum at

Oxford, the Scottish National Museum of Antiquities at Edinburgh, the towns of Lichfield, Shrewsbury, Leicester and Chester have examples of the brank . As late as 1856 it was in use at Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire . See W . Andrews, Old Time Punishments (Hull, 189o) ; A . M . Earle, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days (Chicago, 1896) .