The Cucking Stool. 69 
communis rizatriz, for the law confines it to the feminine gender, 
is a public nuisance to her neighbourhood, and may be indicted 
for the offence, and upon conviction, punished by being placed 
in a certain engine of correction, called the trebuchet, or cucking 
stool.” 
In the case of Regina v. Houston, in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
in Trinity Term, 6. Anne, (1707) reported in Blackerby’s cases, 
(Tit. Scolding p. 285,) the Court (the celebrated Lord Holt, then 
being at the head of it,) said that “to make this a crime indictable, 
there must be several repeated instances before they can be indicted 
for common scolds ;” and in the case of Janson v. Stuart, reported 
in the first volume of Durnford and East’s Reports, p.754, Mr. Justice 
Buller, said, “In the case of a common scold, it is not necessary to 
prove the particular expressions used; it is sufficient to prove 
generally, that she is always scolding.” 
Upon these authorities, it is as clear, that by the laws of England, 
scolds, if convicted, are still punishable by the Cucking Stool, as 
that drunkards are to be punished by the stocks. 
In the case of Steverton against Scrogs, in Michaelmas Term, 
41 Elizabeth, (1599,) reported by Sir George Croke, in his Reports 
temp. Elizabeth, p. 698, it appeared that at the Court Leet of the 
Manor of Renold, of which Oliver Scrogs was the lord, it had been 
presented by the jury, that there was not within the Vill any 
pillory or tumbrel to punish offenders, and therefore the Vill was 
amerced 20s. ; but it was held by Lord Chief Justice Popham, Mr. 
Justice Gawdy, and Mr. Justice Fenner, that the pillory and tum- 
brel ought to be provided by the Lord of the Liberty and not by the 
Vill, unless there be a prescription to the contrary, which ought 
to be specially alleged. 
Lord Chief Baron Comyns, in his “ Digest of the Laws of Eng- 
land,” a work of high legal authority, says (Tit. Tumbrel A.) “The 
tumbrel or trebuchet is an instrument for the punishment of 
women that scold or are unquiet, now called a Cucking Stool,” 
“and a man may have a pillory, tumbrel, furcas, &c., by grant or 
prescription, and every Lord of a Leet ought to have them, and for 
default, the liberty may be seized, or the lord of the liberty shall be 
fined to the king for a neglect in his time.” 
