76 Ancient Wiltshire Customs. 
a Cucking stool] supra aquas situat’ ponatur et in eddem sede in 
aquas sit semel immersa [anglicé. ducked] et exinde immediate 
desumpta et interea capiatur, &c.”” The judgment against Hannah 
the wife of Joseph Saxby, of Westerham, Mercer, therefore is— 
“Therefore it is considered by the Court here, that the aforesaid 
Hannah, for the trespass, offence, and misbehaviour aforesaid, at the 
parish of Westerham aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, on Wednes- 
day, the third day of May next ensuing, be put into a certain wooden 
seat, [anglicé a Cucking Stool, | situate above waters, and in the same 
seat, in the waters may be once immersed, [anglicé ducked, | and 
thereof immediately taken out, and in the mean time be taken, &c.” 
The record then states the proceedings on the writ of error, and 
concludes with the judgment for the defendant, in the usual form, 
“quod eat inde sine die” [7.c. that she should go thereof without day. ] 
From this record it appears that persons who were punished by 
the Cucking Stool had not always three immersions, as stated by 
Mr. Neild to be the practice, at the House of Correction, at 
Liverpool. 
This is further confirmed by M. Misson, a distinguished French 
lawyer, who travelled in this country, and died in 1721, and who 
in his Memoirs and Observations in his Travels in England, (p.40) 
thus describes the Cucking Stool, and its application. 
“‘Chaise—La maniére de punir les femmes querelleuses est assez 
plaisante en Angleterre.” 
“On attache une chaise a bras a l’extrémité de deux espéces de 
solives longues de douze ou quinze pieds, et dans un éloignement 
paralléle, en sorte que ces deux piéces de bois embrassent par leur 
a M. Misson must have travelled in England in the reign of King William 
the third, as he appears to have been present at the coronation of King William 
the third, and Queen Mary, on the 11th of April, 1689. He also mentions 
Princess Anne of Denmark, by that title, (she having been afterwards Queen 
Anne,) and that he was present when King James the second received a letter 
on the 30th of October, 1688, announcing the dispersion of the Prince of Orange’s 
fleet, when that monarch said to M. Barrillon, ‘‘at last then the wind has 
declared itself a papist.” 
