Eighteenth Century Illustration of perjurer John Waller who also died from being abused by the crowd while held in the pillory.
Posted on 04/30/2021 7:28:52 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1731 the English madam Elizabeth Needham stood in the pillory at Park Place, St. James’s, London. It wasn’t a death sentence de jure … but it became one de facto.
“Mother Needham” kept one of London’s most renowned brothels, far more exclusive than the dives of Covent Garden, and she made herself famous enough in the 1710s and 1720s to rate a place in the burgeoning print culture: Alexander Pope makes sly reference to her in The Dunciad, and as Hogarth seems to have modeled the titular courtesan of his Harlot’s Progress plates upon her.
In her heyday a variety of japes, capers, and scandals unfolded in her precincts, beyond the obvious that was her stock in trade. For a number of years she carried out business unmolested by any chastisement from the law, but she suffered a couple of arrests in the 1720s and the heat on London’s brothels escalated uncomfortably with the onset of the 1730s. Thus it was that the wily old procuress earned a conviction for keeping a disorderly house on April 29, 1731.
Her punishment included a small fine and the duty to stand twice in the pillory, exposed to public obloquy. We have already noted in these pages that the horrors of such an ordeal extended beyond the reputational to an outright threat to life and limb. While it was not unheard-of for the pillorying to invert into a ritual of celebration and triumph for its sufferer were the crowd in sympathy, “it would seem that the default crowd at the pillory attended in expectation of an aggressive event.” (“Sodomites in the Pillory in Eighteenth-century London” by Peter Bartlett, Social & Legal Studies, December 1997)...
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Today she would be an MP......................
Singapore exempts people from obligatory caning if they are over 50 years of age or the skin wounds thus inflicted are unlikely to heal in a normal amount of time.
Eighteenth Century Illustration of perjurer John Waller who also died from being abused by the crowd while held in the pillory.
Did you notice the cat being thrown at him on the left side of the picture?
Did you notice the cat being thrown at him on the left side of the picture?
Tuesday, May 4. Yesterday morning died Mother Needham … She declared in her last words, that what most affected her was the terror of standing in the pillory to-morrow in New Palace-Yard, having been so ungratefully used by the populace on Wednesday … They acted very ungratefully, considering how much she had done to oblige them.
As Mrs Needham learned, obliging the royalty of a country does not provide eternal protection.
“All the world agree he deserved to be hanged long ago, but they differ whether on this occasion,” one noble confided to his diary.
Truly, there is nothing new under the sun. Especially for the royalty.
Times may change but Man does not........................
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