Scold comfort for idle gossipers Bizarre punishment meted out to poor souls with a wagging tongue
MARY Careless – a woman known for her sharp tongue and furnace-hot temper – fired another verbal volley at the civic head before her.
She had been hauled before the Mayor of Stafford for allegedly striking another woman.
With her hen-pecked husband Thomas standing nearby, Careless simply shouted down the mayor.
His attempts to interview the accused were continually thwarted by the woman’s rants.
Described in press reports as a “termagant” – a “harsh-tempered and overbearing woman” – Careless constantly interrupted and insulted the dignitary.
It was May 1838, and back then authorities had a short sharp cure for troublesome and opinionated women.
The mayor, at the end of his tether over the constant heckling, called for the scold’s bridle.
Within minutes a heavy iron muzzle was brought to the Justice Room, in Stafford’s old Guildhall. The contraption was forcibly placed over Careless’s head.
At long last, the case could proceed in silence.
For her attack on Mary Bromley, Careless was fined one shilling and ordered to pay seven shillings and sixpence costs.
It was lost on the angry defendant, but she also made legal history.
Mary Careless has the dubious honour of being the last woman in Stafford to be sentenced to the scold’s bridle.
The muzzle was known in other parts of the country as the brank, branx, iron bridle or gossip’s bridle.
For 200 years it was considered a perfectly acceptable punishment for women accused of scolding, nagging and “idle gossiping”.
It was used when a woman’s ‘nagging’ was considered damaging to their own households and their communities.
The first documented use of the scold’s bridle comes from Glasgow in 1574, when two local women were the unfortunate recipients
A bridle in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, carried the inscription “To Curb Women’s Tongues that Talk Too Idle”.
The scold’s bridle could be imposed by magistrates, mayors and other upholders of the peace, as one newspaper headline – “For Ugly Tongues Wagging” – explained.
They could also be requested by husbands.
In these cases, the town jailer or constable would bring the bridle to the house to dispense summary punishment.
In some places, such as Congleton, Cheshire, a number of houses had a hook fixed by the fireplace where guilty women would be chained.
The bridle was only removed when they were considered sufficiently repentant.
The bridle’s design varied from region to region, but the shape and function remained constant.
It was a cage of iron bands locked into place over the head and secured under the chin. A horizontal bar, that covered the woman’s face, featured a plate which fitted in the woman’s mouth, making speech almost impossible and very uncomfortable.
In the most extreme examples, the plate was sharpened into a blade or covered with spikes, causing lacerations when the woman attempted to talk.
However, the bridle’s aim was not torture, but humiliation.
The miserable wearer would be led around the streets by a chain attached to the bridle. In some places the woman would then be chained to a post where she would be abused by onlookers and even flogged.
The ‘brank’ version of the apparatus was also used on those members of the public – male or female – found guilty of “uttering cursing cusswords”.
The strength of the profanities dictated the length of punishment. Repeat offenders also faced a lengthy stint in the scold’s bridle.
In December 1582, Italian-born Marrionni Onae, a goldsmith working in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, was clamped in the muzzle for 16 hours after unleashing a fusillade of swear words.
To be fair to the craftsman, he had good reason to swear. Marrionni had just spilled molten gold on his hand – and he argued that the profanities were in Italian, so those within earshot could not understand him. He was crafting jewellery for the vicar of Calvary Chapel when the accident happened, and at least the cleric allowed him to serve his sentence inside the church. But, for reasons that remain unclear, Marrionni’s wife was also placed in a witch’s brank, which had a collar of spikes. Christmas must have been very quiet in the Onae household. The device was not used without warning. Those whose conduct had placed them in danger of being muzzled were first given a hand-delivered letter telling them to shut up or face being strapped in the bridle. The “Declaration of Intent by Jurisprudence to Curb Gossipry” told offenders they had been reported for “fearful unwarranted malicious blathering” and if they failed to “button it” they faced time in the Scold’s Bridle. The legal notice featured a red wax seal with the impression of a woman sporting the infernal device.