At the Quarter Sessions in Devonshire, held at[216] Easter, 1598, it was ordered that the mothers of illegitimate children be whipped. The reputed fathers had to undergo a like punishment. A very strange order was made in the same county during the Commonwealth, and it was to the effect that every woman who had been the mother of an illegitimate child, and had not been previously punished, be committed for trial. Mr. Hamilton, in his work on the "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne," has many curious notes on the subject. The Scotch pedlars and others who wended their way to push their trade in the West of England, ran a great risk of being whipped. At the Midsummer Sessions, in the year 1684, information was given to the court showing that certain Scotch pedlars, or other petty chapmen, were in the habit of selling their goods to the "greate damage and hindrance of shopp keepers." The Court passed measures for the protection of the local tradesmen, and directed the petty constables to apprehend the strangers, and without further ceremony to strip them naked, and whip them, or cause them to be openly flogged, and sent away.
The churchwardens' accounts of Barnsley contain references to the practice of whipping.[217] Charges as follow occur:
| 1622. | William Roggers, for going with six wanderers to Ardsley | ijd. |
| Mr. Garnett, for makinge them a pass | iijd. | |
| Richard White, for whippeinge them accordinge to law | ijd. |
The constable's accounts of the same town, from 1632 to 1636, include items similar to the following:
| To Edward Wood, for whiping of three wanderers sent to their dwelling-place by Sir George Plint and Mr. Rockley | iiijd. |
It appears from the Corporation accounts of Congleton, Cheshire, that persons were whipped at the cart tail. We find it stated:
| 1637. | paid to boy for whippinge John ffoxe | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| paid for a carte to tye the said ffoxe unto when hewas whipped | 0 | 2 | 0 |
The notorious Judge Jeffreys, on one occasion, in sentencing a woman to be whipped, said: "Hangman, I charge you to pay particular attention to this lady. Scourge her soundly, man; scourge her till her blood runs down! It is Christmas, a cold time for madam to strip. See that you warm her shoulders thoroughly!"
At Worcester, in 1697, a new whipping-post was erected in the Corn Market, at a cost of 8s.[218] "Men and women," says a local historian, "were whipped here promiscuously in public till the close of the last century, if not later. Fourpence was the old charge for whipping male and female rogues."
The next note on whipping is drawn from the church register of Burnham, Bucks, and is one of several similar entries: "Benjamin Smat, and his wife and three children, vagrant beggars; he of middle stature, but one eye, was this 28th day of September, 1699, with his wife and children, openly whipped at Boveney, in the parish of Burnham, in the county of Bucks, according to ye laws. And they are assigned to pass forthwith from parish to parish by ye officers thereof the next direct way to the parish of St. [Se]pulchers, Lond., where they say they last inhabited three years. And they are limited to be at St. [Se]pulch within ten days next ensuing. Given under our hands and seals, Will. Glover, Vicar of Burnham, and John Hunt, Constable of Boveney." In some instances we gather from the entries in the parish registers, after punishing the vagrants in their own parish, the authorities recommended them to the tender mercy of other persons in whose hands they might fall.[219]