A date in Geoffrey Pimm’s rather fabulous “The Corporal Punishment of Women” caught my eye a few weeks back. It noted that:
“Daughters who proved themselves to be beyond the control of their parents often found themselves subject to the harsher disciplines of the law.”
And, at a court session on 29 July 1614:
“Elizabeth Atkins was ordered to be whipped privately in the yard of the Bridewell for misbehaving towards her parents.”
Needless to say, the 400th anniversary of the flogging couldn’t go unmarked, and so it was that Kay found herself – hands above her head, back bared – receiving a whipping on Tuesday evening: 29 July 2014. I can attest from her response that the efficacy of the sentence: a very chastened young lady writhed under the lash, and tears were not long in coming.
Now, to scour the records for the next convenient event to recreate!