| 1728. | Paid Jeremy Booth for powl for ducking-stool | 2s. |
Mr. Joseph Wilkinson, the historian of Worsborough, near Barnsley, mentions two ducking-ponds in the township—one in the village of Worsborough, another near to the Birdwell toll-bar; and, judging from the frequency with which ducking-stools were repaired by the township, it would seem they were often brought into requisition. The following extracts are drawn from the parish accounts:[260]
| 1703. | For mending ye cuck-stool | £0 | 0 | 6 |
| 1721. | Ducking-stool mending | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 1725. | For mending and hanging ye cuck-stool | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1730. | Pd. Thos. Moorhouse for mending ye stocks andcuck-stool | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Pd. Jno. South for 2 staples for ye cucking-stool | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| 1731. | Thos. Moorhouse for mending ye ducking-stool | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1734-5. | To ye ducking-stool mending | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 1736. | For mending ye ducking-stool | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| 1737. | John Ellot, for ye ducking-stool and sheep-fold door | 0 | 14 | 6 |
Mr. W. H. Dawson, the historian of Skipton, has devoted considerable attention to the old-time punishments of the town, and the first reference he was able to discover amongst the old accounts of the township is the following:
| 1734. | October 2nd. To Wm. Bell, for ducking-stool making and wood | 8s. | 6d. |
"This must," says Mr. Dawson, "surely mean that the chair was changed, for the amount is too small for the entire apparatus. In this case a ducking-stool must have existed before 1734, which is very likely." In the same Skipton township account-book is an entry as follows:
| 1743. | October. Ben Smith for ducking-stool | 4s. | 6d. |
Twenty-five years later we find a payment as follows:[261]
| 1768. | October 17th. Paid John Brown for new ducking-stool | £1 | 0s. | 11½d. |
Mr. Dawson has not been able to discover the exact date when the ducking-stool fell into disuse, but has good reason for believing that it was about 1770. We gather from a note sent to us by Mr. Dawson that: "A ducking-pond existed at Kirkby, although it had not been used within the memory of any living person. Scolds of both sexes were punished by being ducked; indeed, in the last observance of the custom, a tailor and his wife were ducked together, in view of a large gathering of people. The husband had applied for his wife to undergo the punishment on account of her quarrelsome nature, but the magistrate decided that one was not better than the other, and he ordered a joint punishment! Back to back, therefore, husband and wife were chaired and dipped into the cold water of the pond! Whether it was in remembrance of this old observance or not cannot be definitely said, but it is nevertheless a fact that in East Lancashire, in 1880, a man who had committed some violation of morals was forcibly taken by a mob, and dragged several times through a pond until he had expressed penitence for his act."[262]