The Spanking Writers

Back in 1859, Charles Dickens began publication of his own weekly literary magazine, “All the Year Round”, having fallen out with his former publisher. It continued for more than three decades, and featured the first appearance – in serialised form – of various notable novels, by Dickens himself and other novelists such as Wilkie Collins.

Perhaps of more immediate interest, though, is the issue of 4 August 1860, which featured an article entitled “The Whip”. I’ve transcribed a few of the more salacious snippets, as I thought they might entertain those amongst you who enjoy the occasional little history lesson:

Roman ladies were particularly cruel to their slaves. The poor girls in attendance… sometimes filled the whole house with their cries…

Young Roman libertines often chose the disguise of a slave’s dress for their love adventure. Rich people kept so great a crowd of slaves, that they did not know them all personally, and thus the introduction into houses was made easy. Sometimes, however, the master of the house got a hint… and the intruder was flogged as a runaway slave, or spy. Such an occurrence gave particular delight to the real slaves…

Caligula used the whip with his own hand, and on the spot; even upon people who, by talking too loudly at the theatre, spoilt his enjoyment of the players. He did not much care who the offender was…

The vestal Urbinia was whipped by a priest, and led in procession through the streets. Other vestals, we are told, had been whipped for the same offence. The guilty one, covered over with a thin veil, was whipped by a priest in a dark room…

Elizabeth, daughter of King Andreas II of Hungary, suffered much from the severity of her confessor, Conrad of Marburg. He was suspected of being the lover of the princess, and when one of her friends, Schenk von Argula, hinted at this rumour, she folded back a part of her dress, saying: “You may see the kind of love this holy man bears to me, and I to him.” Her skin was torn and bleeding from a severe whipping she had just had for a trifling disobedience…

At the courts, even ladies of honour were beaten. Catherine de Medicis, Queen of Frances, not seldom laid her ladies over her knees, to punish them with her own hands. At the Russian court the ladies of honour, down to a very recent time, suffered the rod for gossiping or over-freedom. The Semiramis of the North was very free with this kind of punishment, and thought probably not much of it, for it is reported that she sometimes got a horsewhipping herself from her favourite Potemkin.

Paul the First was also very free with the stick, even upon ladies. The wife of a rich hotel-keeper, named Remuth, having neglected to leave her carriage to kneel down when meeting the emperor in the street, was carried off to the house of correction, and then beaten with rods three days consecutively.

The Empress Elisabeth of Russia, jealous of the beautiful wife of the Chancellor Bestuschen, ordered the knout to be given to her in public…

OK, any takers for a spot of historical re-creation…?

So, on with the blog – admittedly, no doubt, for the next few days with posts I’d written before recent events. But I’m sure kinky inspiration for fresh writing won’t wait long to return…

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I was rather amused to discover the following, from the exam paper faced by prospective school teachers in New Zealand in 1890:

So, people. Pens at the ready. Ignore questions one to three inclusive, and off you go…!

At least the candidates would have been well-prepared, had they done their revision and studied past papers – for the following had appeared in 1885, along similar lines:

That’s not an exam – that’s an entire weekend’s fun kinky discussion!

How about this, for a newspaper clipping that’s wrong on so many levels:

It dates from the New York Times of October 1903, and reads:

Spanked Bride of Fourteen

Columbia, N.J., Oct. 4. – When Margaret Matlida, the fourteen-year-old daughter of William Smith, appeared at breakfast this morning, her hair “done up” and her skirt obviously lengthened by unskilled fingers attracted the attention of her father.

“What’s all this about?” he inquired.

“I’m married now, and can wear my hair the way I like,” was the reply. “Albert Cisco and I went to Washington, and Judge Craveling married us.”

“Come her, Miss-” began Mr. Smith in a deep, ominous voice, but his daughter corrected him.

“”‘Mrs.,’ if you please,” she said, in a superior manner.

There followed a short, sharp struggle which ended in Mrs. Albert Ellis Cisco being placed in an attitude which gave her every opportunity for examining the pattern of the carpet from a height of about a foot and a half. Then Mr. Smith’s right hand rose and fell with painful regularity during a period of two minutes. That part of the incident closed, Margaret Matilda retired to her room.”

Somewhat amusingly, the young lady’s husband[he, a man who'd just wed a 14-year-old?] then pressed charges against his new father-in-law for assault and battery. The outcome of the case – and indeed the transcript of proceedings – sadly appear to be lost.

We wrote here a few years back about designer Pierre Cardin’s plans to restore the Marquis de Sade’s old home. I was pleased to see a BBC report last month describing his excellent progress:

Provence has its fair share of heart-stoppingly beautiful hill-top villages, most of them crowned by a half-ruined castle from which the visitor looks out in blissful reverie over a landscape of lavender, vineyards and distant mountains. But how many of them can also boast of 18th Century sexual perversions, and of revolutionaries baying for the blood of an orgy-addled literary maverick?

Marquis de Sade’s Lacoste château is now mostly in ruins, but has been transformed in recent years thanks to the philanthropy of another maverick, Pierre Cardin… Visitors are treated to views, excellent food and that elusive sensation of stepping into another time.  A little more than two centuries ago, it was where Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade began his career of erotic scandal.

It takes a certain leap of the imagination, but where the cicada now sings there really were orgies with nuns and servant girls. Possibly. We do know the man synonymous with the act of gaining pleasure by inflicting pain on others based much of the action in his later (banned) works on his time in Lacoste…

After a hot climb up steep cobbled lanes, visitors emerge among the ruins of the château. A renovated central section is where Cardin has his home and is off-limits to the public. Otherwise you are free to wander between broken-down walls and vanished gardens, look down on village roofs and muse on what it must have been like in its earlier incarnations…

‘Muse’? Right. Apparently there’s a statue of a pair of outstretched arms. I wonder if it’s ever adorned with rope? Or whether any tourist girl’s yet been thoroughly abused, beaten, shamed in the grounds? I really should plan a trip…

Dealing with a schoolgirl? It’s her backside, thighs or hands that take the whacks.  A maid in trouble? Likewise.

A girl in some darker, more abusive scene? As above, or (in theory for me, but less commonly in practice, perhaps with the flicking end of a crop) more intimate areas.

A judicial punishment? Buttocks, back… or breasts.

Breasts?! No, it wouldn’t have struck me as authentic either – and authenticity’s very much my thing when playing scenes. But I’ve just read a press report from Massachusetts that rather startled me:

Michael Cote, an environmental planner, was working on a project for the city when Planning Director Wayne M. Feiden suggested Cote go over the Hampshire Council of Governments office to see if he could find an old map.  Cote said they were looking for an old parcel the city was thinking of buying for conservation and Feiden remembered seeing old maps at the council officer.

Lydia King, executive assistant took Cote into the large storeroom where the materials were kept and Cote said “I almost dropped dead. It was amazing.”  What he found were records dating back to 1677.

“It was stunning, stunning stuff.” Among the archives were court dockets kept by the court magistrate. Cote said he read of a dispute before the court between a husband and wife. On this particular complaint, the judge sentenced the woman to 40 lashes about the breast to be administered in public. While Cote was stunned by the punishment, he was also thinking “I shouldn’t be holding this” because of how old and fragile the document was.

Now, breast whipping really isn’t high on my list of play preferences (although with a nice flogger, or the tip of a riding crop…). So I’m rather taken aback to find it appearing in this context historically – perhaps the first time I’ve read of it as a judicial punishment.

I do find accounts of historical punishments quite fascinating. Much as I recoil from the fact that the events concerned did actually take place, I can mentally pretend that they’re fiction – or the basis for a scene between consenting friends. One such is the tale of a former workhouse girl (of particular interest given our recent visit to one such establishment), punished by her employer, recounted in Burke’s Annual Register for 1829:

CRUELTY TO SERVANTS.— Lewes Quarter Sessions.— The King v. Charlotte Philp.-

The defendant was charged with assaulting Mary Anne Soffe whom she had taken as a servant from the workhouse of the parish of St. John Lewes. The first witness was the girl herself. She said she had gone to live with Mr. Philp, Northstreet, Brighton, on the 6th of November last.

Having offended her mistress., who charged her with burning the hearth-rug, which was not true, she said she would forgive her if she confessed it; and if she did not, she would punish her. Witness, from fear of being punished, said she did do it. At dinner, though she had confessed, her mistress threatened to strip her; but Mr. Philp said—” My dear, you shan’t. The girl has told the truth, and you would break your word.”

Mr. Philp then went out, and her mistress made her strip herself quite naked in the parlour behind the front shop. Her mistress told her she should strip, and untied her frock and pin-afore, and then pulled off the rest of her clothes. She pulled of all. Witness was stripped quite naked. Her mistress then sat down on all the clothes, and ordered her to clear away the dinner things. Whilst naked, she took the dinner things from the parlour into the kitchen below stairs.

She slept usually in the back kitchen; it was in the front kitchen the things were taken. She gave her all the time no clothes whatever; this took place sometime after one o’clock. After she had taken the dinner-things into the kitchen, her mistress ordered her to go upstairs into the drawing-room, and dust all the things: she did dust all the things, made the bed, and emptied the slops, &c., being the whole of the time quite naked. Her mistress was with her the whole of the time, except when she was down in the kitchen. She was kept naked from dinner till tea time, about five o’clock. Her mistress beat her whilst naked, with a birch rod made of an old broom..

On the Friday when I left, she said she would strip me naked again, before her husband and the apprentice boy, as she said I had done something which I had not done. I ran away, because I did not like to be shown naked before my master or the boy.” Witness, after she left her service, returned to Mrs. Marsh, the governess of the workhouse at Lewes, by a cart.

The abusive employer, you’ll be pleased to know, was found guilty, imprisoned and fined. What became of young Mary Anne is not recorded; I hope life worked out well for her, but I rather fear that not to have been the case…

If ever there was a prize for “most intriguing title on a vanilla bulletin board”, the “Naughty women of Hastings” – on a family history site – would surely win. And, indeed, the post itself does not disappoint, being about “the history of punishment in general and in particular extracted notes about the ladies of Hastings”. Some extracts:

The first record from Hastings in 1597 records how Mary VINTON was whipped at the cart’s tail for assaulting Elizabeth STUBBERLIED and stealing tenpence halfpenny. At the same court Joan BRECHER was similarly punished for petty larceny.

A good picture of how respectable members of society viewed those neighbours who received such beatings can be judged from a letter written in 1742 by a Hastings man John COLLIER, to his wife which mentioned that Dame Elizabeth ARTHUR, a widow, had “for abowte one a clocke beene whipt at the Carte Tayle round the town – hadde some strokes at every lanes Ende, but I fynde that it is thoughte she hadde nott half enough!”

In l659 the Hastings whipsman, called LUNSFORD, wore a ‘whipping-cote’ which then cost the sum of five shillings to the town – A ‘Catte o’ Nine Tayles’ was used whenever a carting was decreed and wide streets were invariably specified for the route to accommodate a greater number of spectators.

Hastings ‘cartings’ included:

1747 – Jane BURCHETT for ‘inciting a childe to steal money from hys father’

1754 – Mary and Elizabeth RELFE ‘for stealing one fowle call’d a henne’; Elizabeth STEVENS for stealing a hammer

1776 – a widow, Ann COLBRAN ‘for stealing two handkerchiefs value tenpence…

Two years later Elizabeth SARGENT stole “…29 pieces of silver value 2d, silver scissors value 2d,and after being stripped ‘from the waiste upward and ty’d to a cart’s tayl was whipped at the Old Market Place, the Fishe Market and ‘atte The Sundial…sixe stripes at each places’ after which she was released.

The ‘Catte’ was certainly overworked in Hastings and in 1791 William PAYNE was paid nine shillings for a new one.

Apparently: “Youth was no shield against punishment either, for in l663, 13 year old Alice FAUTLIE of Hastings was severely whipped for stealing a handkerchief belonging to Mary PUNTIS.”

The post then went on to explore branding and hangings, so we’ll move swiftly on, with a mere fleeting mention of the punishment of public penance:

On Palm Sunday, 4th April 1574, in Hastings, Jane HAMPTON, a shoemaker’s wife ‘did open penaunce for fornication in St Clements Church before 100 persons at ye Communion tyme’.

You know, I really do like the idea a scene in which a girl is made to publicly confess her wrong-doing before an assembled crowd of onlookers… although whether that would happen before or after she was whipped, and whether the flogging would be in public or in private, is very much open for debate!

A few years back, we posted an occasional series of accounts entitled “Whipped on this day” – accounts of real-life sentences and punishments drawn from the archives of London’s Old Bailey in the 1700s. I recently stumbled across another such account, from a slightly earlier era:

THE PROCEEDINGS ON THE King’s Commissions Of the PEACE…  held for the City of London, and County of Middlesex, at Justice-Hall, in the Old-Baily, the 11th. and 12th. of July, 1688.  And in the Fourth Year of His Majesties Reign…  before the Right Honourable, Sir  John Shorter , Kt. Lord Mayor of the City of London, and Sir  Bartholomew Shower , Kt. and Recorder of the said City; together with other of His Majesties Justices of the city of London and County of Middlesex.

They  had a busy couple of days sentencing female prisoners to be whipped:

Mary Jone alias Coleson , and  Ann Cox alias Williams of the Parish of  St. Ann Agnes , were Indicted for Stealing three yards of Bone-lace, value 50 s. on the 30th. day of May last, the Goods of  Thomas Huckle . The Evidence against them was Huckle and his Man, who affirmed that they both came into the Prosecutor’s Shop to Cheapen some Lace, and so took away the Goods . The Prisoners could say but little for themselves, but denied the Fact; but being look’d upon as little better than Common Shop-lifters, they were found Guilty to the value of 10 d. only .

Dorothy Harding of the Parish of  St. Clement’s Danes was Indicted for Stealing two Silver Spoons, value 15 s. one Silver Porringer, value 40 s. from  William Dinn , on the 10th. day of June last. The Evidence for the King against the Prisoner deposed, that Prisoner was a Servant next door to the Prosecutor’s House, and that she was wont frequently to go in and out to Borrow somewhat or other, as other Neighbours may do, and when the Prosecutor missed his Goods he had some suspicion of the Prisoner and Apprehended her, and upon her Examination she confessed that she had given out the Porringer sell, but the Spoons were thrown into the House-of Office; yet she denied it all upon her Tryal, an was found Guilty only to the value of 10 d.

Alice Jones , a Girl about fourteen years of age, was Tried for Stealing a Silk-Gown, value 15 s. One Silk-Petticoat, value 2 s. and other Goods of a small value , from  James Jones , of the Parish of  St. Clement Danes , on the 12th of February last past. The Evidence against her was Mrs. Jones, who said, That the Prisoner was a Servant to her, and had the Use of all her Keys, and so had opportunity to take away the Goods &c. The Prisoner said that she knew nothing of it, although she had confest it before upon her Examination. She was taken about three Months after the Robbery was done, in White-chappel. And having nothing to offer to help her self, she was found Guilty to the value of 10 d.

Grace Littlemore was Tried for Robbing  Elizabeth Martin of a Gold Ring, value 5 s. and 6 s. in Mony, on the 6th of May last. It appeared that she came to the Prosecutor’s House, and wheedled her out to go to some Lady’s House; and going along the street, she took an opportunity to pick her Pocket of the Ring and the other things , which were taken in her Custody in the Gate-house. And the Prisoner having little to say on her own behalf, she was found Guilty to the value of 10 d.

Dorothy Fyander was Tried for Stealing Ten Yards of Strip’d Muslin, value 50 s. the Goods of  Elizabeth Sparry . The Evidence deposed, That the Prisoner came into the Shop of the Prosecutor to cheapen some Muslin, and so took away the said Muslin , which was found upon her. So she was found Guilty to the value of 10 d.

One interesting historical note is the consistent use of the phrase “the value of 10 d.” – my understanding is that theft of twelve pence or more would lead to hanging, so it may be that the judges were showing leniency by fixing the amount shown at the lower level.

What rather fascinated me was the paragraph explaining that “The Tryals being over, the Court proceeded to give Judgment, as followeth…”. The above band of convicts were “ordered to be Whipt” as follows:

Dorothy Harding , Alice Jones , Grace Littlmore , Dor. Fyander… to be Whipt from Newgate to Aldgate.

Mary Jones and  Ann Cox to be Whipt from Newgate to the Royal Exchange in Cornhil.

I was surprised both by the fact that all of the trials were apparently concluded before the sentence of whipping was pronounced (one imagines the prisoners waiting nervously, wondering if they would escape with a mere fine, yet dreading the worst) – and that the floggings were of different durations. (For those of you who don’t know London, “Newgate to the Royal Exchange” is about half the 1.5 mile journey from Newgate to Aldgate).

It strikes me that I have little idea of the logistics of the whippings, either. Presumably they’d have been “whipped at the cart’s tail” – tied to the back of a cart, stripped from the waist up and flogged as they made their way through the streets. But how severe was the whipping – did they thrash them non-stop, or inflict the occasional lash as they processed past certain landmarks en route? What implement was used (some sources say a birch, but I suspect something leather)? And with so many people to deal with, did they take them through the streets one-by-one; or tie more than one woman to a given cart; or did a grand procession of carts set off together, each leading a different convict? And more to the point, would Boris, as Mayor of London, authorise a re-enactment one quiet Sunday morning?

Whilst searching for information relating to the 1810 whipping post scene re-enacted recently in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, I unearthed an account of an earlier punishment in that town, on a family history site.

In May 1665, one Peter Tallman filed for divorce from his wife, accusing her of adultery; she confessed:

In the Puritan colonies, adultery was a capital offense, though seldom punished to the full degree of the law. In Rhode Island, as well, adultery was a serious offense, but it was not punishable by death… The court sentenced her to a fine of ten pounds and ordered that she be whipped. She was to receive fifteen lashes in Portsmouth, and the following week, fifteen lashes in Newport…

Ann Tallman was sent to jail to await the carrying out of her sentence, but she escaped and fled to her brother in Virginia. In 1667, she returned to the colony and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Rather than being punished for her escape, she was rewarded. Her fine was forgiven and her sentence was cut in half. Instead of fifteen lashes in Portsmouth and Newport, she would only be whipped in Newport.

This must have reduced her humiliation. The people of Portsmouth had been her friends and neighbors for the seven years before her divorce. Although she had lived in Newport for eight years, time had passed. It had to be better to receive her punishment in front of relative strangers.

What struck me in this is the discussion of the humiliation of a flogging being seen as such an integral part of the punishment. Never mind the lashes – it’s having them inflicted in front of friends and neighbours that really hurts. I’ve never come across an account of historical whippings that discusses this aspect; I thought it was rather fascinating.

How I love the theatre! So far this year, I’ve seen some amazing productions – Sir Derek Jacobi’s impressive  King Lear, Rory Kinnear’s magnificent Hamlet, director Danny Boyle’s truly remarkable Frankenstein, Tracy Bennett’s deservedly-acclaimed performance as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow.

Yet how I wish I lived in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, for the theatrical productions there sound far, far more interesting. Here’s an account from the Portsmouth Patch of April 22:

The beautiful weather of last weekend made an historical walking tour of Tiverton Four Corners all the more charming. The birds were singing, the air was crisp and the historical tales came to life with the help from actors of the Portsmouth Community Theater…

Around the corner, [Cindy] Killavey transformed herself into another townsperson from the past. She told a story from 1810 about a young woman who was sentenced to a public flogging for being unable to pay a town fine. As she was being tied to the whipping post, the governor at that time, Governor Wilbur, drove past the scene.

The crowd flocked to him and begged that he stop the public punishment. He calmly responded that if there was no whipping post, there couldn’t possibly be a flogging. The crowd revolted and tore the post from the ground.

I’m picturing a slightly different outcome in a future production, whereby the actor playing the Governor ends up unfortunately delayed. The other members of the company would have no choice, in the interests of dramatic integrity, other than to continue with the flogging, as the crowd cheered them on.  Not, I hasten to add, Ms Killavey, if you’re reading, that I would wish you any harm: I think we might need to send a volunteer to act as your understudy.