78 Ancient Wiltshire Customs. 
The parish of Liverpool also had its chair of correction for regu- 
lating the temperament of the ungentle portion of the gentle sex of 
that place. The date of its introduction there is not recorded, neither 
is it known when, by the improvement in female manners, it was 
no longer found to be necessary ; but that it was in request, (and 
probably from its condition had been frequently so,) so late as the 
year 1695, may be inferred from an item in the parochial expen- 
diture of that year, when “ Edward Accres was paid for mending 
the Cuck Stool, fifteen shillings.” 
Neither does its use in Lancashire appear to have been confined 
to the ladies. In the Book of Customs of the Manor of Preston, in 
that county,? it is written that fraudulent tradespeople and insolvent 
burgesses, occasionally underwent the cooling operation. No 26, 
of the Customs (which are in Latin,) runs thus :—“ Also if a bur- 
gess shall be in mercy for bread and ale, the first, second, or third 
time, he shall be in mercy 12d; but the fourth time he shall go to 
the Cuck Stool.” (‘“Ibit at Cuckestolam.”) Some fields in that 
parish are still called “‘ Cuck Stool Pit Fields :” and not more than 
forty-five years ago, a Cuck Stool complete, stood over a pit by the 
turnpike road on the way from Preston to Liverpool. 
In the county of York also there was punishment for scolds. 
The author of the History of Morley, in the West Riding, men- 
tions that the villagers in old times, were very particular in this 
good usage: that for some reason or other, the Puritans had 
been very anxious to preserve it: that he had often observed these 
instruments near churches: and he is of opinion that if with the 
stocks for brawlers of the other sex, they were more in use, it would 
be no worse for society.» 
In one of the books of the Exchequer for Cornwall we are told 
by Borlase¢ that the following curious entry may be found :— 
“Manor of Cotford Farlo, temp. Hen. I1I..—Whereas, by reason 
of brawling women, many evils are introduced into the Manor, and 
quarrels, fighting, scandal, and other disturbances arise through 
a See Baines’s History of Lancashire, vol. iv. pp. 83 and 300. 
Scatcherd’s Morley, [1830.] p. 192. ¢ Borlase’s Cornwall, i. 303. 
