View source for Stocks

{{Short description|Restraining device}}
{{Redirect|Village stocks|the financial instrument|Stock|other uses|Stocks (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Stocks (PSF).png|thumb|Stocks, unlike the [[pillory]] or pranger, restrain only the feet.]]

'''Stocks''' are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of [[corporal punishment]] and [[public humiliation]]. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in [[Solon]]'s law code. The law describing its use is cited by the orator [[Lysias]]: "'He shall have his or her foot confined in the stocks for five days, if the court shall make such addition to the sentence.' The 'stocks' there mentioned, Theomnestus, are what we now call 'confinement in the wood{{'"}} (''Lys''. 10.16).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lysias, Against Theomnestus 1, section 16 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0154:speech=10:section=16 |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=Project Perseus}}</ref>

==Form and applications==
[[File:Men in Bramhall stocks 1900.jpg|thumb|Village stocks in [[Bramhall]], England.]]
[[File:Millerd1728dhighcross.jpg|thumb|upright|The south prospect of the High Cross in Bristol (1728)]]

The stocks, [[pillory]], and pranger each consist of large wooden boards with hinges; however, the stocks are distinguished by their restraint of the [[feet]].

The stocks consist of placing boards around the ankles and wrists, whereas with the pillory, the boards are fixed to a pole and placed around the arms and neck, forcing the punished to stand.

Victims may be insulted, kicked, tickled, spat on, or subjected to other inhumane acts. In the Bible, the treatment of [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] and [[Silas]], disciples of Jesus, was detailed in the [[Acts of the Apostles]]: "Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks."<ref>Bible, Acts 16:24. This most likely occurred around the year 57.</ref> The [[Old Testament]]'s [[book of Job]] also describes the stocks, referring to God:

<blockquote>He puts my feet in the stocks, he watches all my paths.<ref>Job 13:27. Biblical scholars are unable to agree on when Job lived. But, it is most likely that he lived somewhere between 2350 and 1400 B.C. {{cite web |url=http://amazingbibletimeline.com/bible_questions/job-bible-timeline/ |title=When is Job on the Bible Timeline? |access-date=2014-11-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20141202162622/http://amazingbibletimeline.com/bible_questions/job-bible-timeline/ |archive-date=2014-12-02}}</ref></blockquote>

The stocks were employed by civil and military authorities from [[medieval]] to [[early modern history|early modern]] times including Colonial America. Public punishment in the stocks was a common occurrence from around 1500 until at least 1748.<ref>Earle, Alice Morse. "Curious Punishments of Bygone Days," (1896), available in digitized form through the Gutenberg project. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34005/34005-h/34005-h.htm#Page_29]; {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924215451/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34005/34005-h/34005-h.htm|date=2015-09-24}}</ref> The stocks were especially popular among the early American [[Puritan]]s, who frequently employed the stocks for punishing the "lower class".<ref>Cox, James A., [http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring03/branks.cfm "Colonial Crimes and Punishments"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115071157/http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring03/branks.cfm |date=2012-11-15}}, ''[[Colonial Williamsburg|CW]] Journal'', Spring 2003. Retrieved 2011-11-09.</ref>

In the American colonies, the stocks were also used, not only for punishment, but as a means of restraining individuals awaiting trial.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5KGA_Pillory_Stocks_and_Whipping_Post_Colonial_Williamsburg_VA|title=Pillory, Stocks and Whipping Post, Colonial Williamsburg, VA - Punishment and Disciplinary Devices on Waymarking.com|website=www.waymarking.com|access-date=18 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007233108/http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5KGA_Pillory_Stocks_and_Whipping_Post_Colonial_Williamsburg_VA|archive-date=7 October 2017}}</ref>

The offender would be exposed to whatever treatment those who passed by could imagine. This could include tickling of the feet. As noted by the ''[[New York Times]]'' in an article dated November 13, 1887, "Gone, too, are the parish stocks, in which offenders against public morality formerly sat imprisoned, with their legs held fast beneath a heavy wooden yoke, while sundry small but fiendish boys and girls improved the occasion by deliberately pulling off their socks and shoes and tickling the soles of their defenseless feet."<ref>David Ker, "England in Old Times" (page 11 of ''New York Times'', November 13, 1887)</ref>

England's [[Statute of Labourers 1351]] ([[25 Edw. 3. Stat. 2]]) prescribed the use of the stocks for "unruly artisans" and required that every town and village erect a set of stocks.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/statutesatlarge62britgoog/page/n58/mode/2up 25 Edward III - Statute 1, Chapter 2]</ref> In towns and cities they were commonly placed in prominent central locations, such as the one before Bristol's High Cross. The 1351 act was repealed in England and Wales by the [[Statute Law Revision Act 1863]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/statutesunitedk37britgoog/page/n640/mode/2up?view=theater Statute Law Revision Act 1863, 26 and 27 Victoria, Chapter 125]</ref> Sources indicate that the stocks were used in England for over 500 years and have never been formally abolished.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-torture-and-punishment/stocks.htm|title=Stocks|website=www.medieval-life-and-times.info|access-date=18 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224102154/http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-torture-and-punishment/stocks.htm|archive-date=24 December 2017}}</ref>

Their last recorded use in the United Kingdom was on 11 June 1872 at [[Newbury, Berkshire]], [[England]].<ref>Unknown, ''Sheffield Daily Telegraph'' (Friday 14 June 1872)</ref>

In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, court records from 1811 required the building of a set of stocks for punishment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.russianbooks.org/crime/cph2.htm|title=Crime & Punishment in Colonial Upper Canada Toronto|website=www.russianbooks.org|access-date=18 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923234727/http://www.russianbooks.org/crime/cph2.htm|archive-date=23 September 2017}}</ref>

The Spanish [[conquistadores]] introduced stocks as a popular form of punishment and humiliation against those who impeded the consolidation of their settlements in the New World. They were still used in the 19th century in [[Latin America]] to punish indigenous [[miners]] in many countries for rebelling against their bosses.

== Modern use ==
=== United States ===
In 1989, the Arkansas town of [[Dermott, Arkansas|Dermott]] passed a curfew law punishable by up to thirty days in jail for the offender and up to two days in the stocks for the offender's parents.<ref>{{cite news|title=New Ordinance in Arkansas Town Threatens Parents with confinement in the stocks|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19890813&id=EC5iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MncNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2502,3040453]|access-date=1 January 2017|work=Observer-Reporter|agency=Associated Press|date=13 August 1989|location=Washington, PA|page=A4}}</ref> The city almost immediately remitted the punishment because, among other things, the city did not have a set of stocks and had allocated no funds to build one.<ref>{{cite news|title=Arkansas City Revises Stockade Ordinance|url=https://apnews.com/6e71f0358f7cc0f310146ddcf3395265|access-date=1 January 2017|work=Associated Press News|date=22 August 1989|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101232012/http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1989/arkansas-city-revises-stockade-ordinance/id-6e71f0358f7cc0f310146ddcf3395265|archive-date=1 January 2017}}</ref>

===United Kingdom===
The British town of [[Thame]] made international headlines in 2016 when it put forward a proposal to build stocks in the town. Introduced by Councillor David Bretherton, the idea was that the stocks would be used for hire and for charitable events. As noted by Bretherton, "Perhaps for charity we could do something like that, get people in the stocks and have others donate money for the time they last while having their feet tickled and syrup poured between their toes for laughs."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/14594655.Town_council_makes_bid_to_reinstate_medieval_punishment/|title=Town council makes bid to reinstate medieval punishment|website=The Oxford Times|date=2 July 2016 |access-date=18 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319085000/http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/14594655.Town_council_makes_bid_to_reinstate_medieval_punishment/|archive-date=19 March 2018}}</ref> Bretherton noted that the stocks were still legal in England. It was not proposed that the stocks would be used for punishment purposes. After the announcement, further study of the topic was undertaken.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/14.-Report-Town-Stocks.pdf |title=Agenda item 14: Report on Town Stocks |access-date=2017-07-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319151732/https://www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/14.-Report-Town-Stocks.pdf |archive-date=2018-03-19|website=Thame Town Council}}</ref>

=== Colombia ===
In Colombia in 2012, married thirty-four-year-old Alfreda Blanco Basilio and her eighteen-year-old lover Luis Martinez were placed in stocks by the Sampues tribe in Colombia due to Basilio's adultery. Basilio spent 72 hours barefoot in the stocks for her offense.<ref>Brian Andrews on NTN24 and RCN, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAhHUDXiGGw "Couple having an affair put in stocks by Indian tribe in Columbia"]; {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309225259/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAhHUDXiGGw |date=2016-03-09}}</ref>

In 2020, during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], police in Chinu, Colombia, placed residents who broke quarantine in stocks for a few hours.

==Examples==
{{Expand list|date=December 2021}}

Stocks are occasionally preserved in churches or museums; as wooden devices they are naturally subject to rotting and decay. Some have been heavily restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. Most are protected as [[listed buildings]].

===England===
* [[Broughton-in-Furness]], Cumbria<ref>{{cite web|title=Broughton Conservation Area|url=https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/planning/conservationareas/broughtonca|website=Lake District National Park|access-date=12 September 2025}}</ref>
* [[Thornton in Lonsdale]], North Yorkshire, outside St Oswold's Church.<ref>{{cite web|title=Great Things to see in Thornton in Lonsdale|url=https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/LEAFLETThorntonInLonsdale10ThingsToSee.pdf|website=National Churches Trust|access-date=17 September 2025}}</ref>
* Caverswall, Staffordshire
* [[Evesham]], Worcestershire, on Merstow Green.<ref>{{NHLE |desc=The Stocks, Evesham |num=1081360 |accessdate=21 September 2024}}</ref>
* [[Eyam]], Derbyshire; 18th century, on the village green.<ref>{{NHLE |desc=Village Stocks, Church Street |num=1100334 |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Little Longstone]], Derbyshire; stone stock-ends in a small walled recess on the village street, dating from the 17th century or earlier.<ref>{{NHLE |desc=Stocks, Main Street |num=1109911 |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Canewdon]], Essex; inside the village [[Village lock-up|lock-up]], dated 1775.<ref>{{NHLE |desc=Village Lock Up and Stocks Adjacent to Churchyard, High Street |num=1147585 |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Aldbury]], Hertfordshire; combined stocks and whipping post on the village green.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Stocks and Whipping Post, Stocks Road, Aldbury, Hertfordshire |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/the-stocks-and-whipping-post-stocks-road-aldbury-8582 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=historicengland.org.uk |publisher=Historic England |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Great Amwell]], Hertfordshire; in the churchyard but originally sited behind a public house.<ref>{{NHLE |desc=Stocks in Churchyard 23 Metres West of Tower, St Johns Lane |num=1078744 |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[North Turton]], Lancashire; 18th or 19th century stocks in the High Street.<ref>{{NHLE |desc=Village Stocks, High Street |num=1241569 |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Haveringland]], Norfolk; 1804 or earlier.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Village Stocks - A Grade II Listed Building in Haveringland, Norfolk |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101050955-village-stocks-haveringland#.Yb4GytXP3IU |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |publisher=British Listed Buildings |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Oakham Market Cross|Oakham Market Cross and stocks]], [[Oakham]], Rutland.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1073279|desc=Oakham Marketplace Stocks|grade=I|access-date=27 November 2022}}</ref>
* [[Alfold]], Surrey; 18th century stocks and whipping post under a roof outside the church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Stocks and Whipping Post - A Grade II Listed Building in Alfold, Surrey |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101352753-the-stocks-and-whipping-post-alfold#.Yb4JrNXP3IU |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |publisher=British Listed Buildings |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Bilton, Warwickshire]]; last used in 1866, located on The Green since 1954.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bilton Stocks, The Green |url=https://timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk/detail.aspx?monuid=WA3340 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk |publisher=Warwickshire Historic Environment Record |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* [[Ufton]], Warwickshire; 18th century or earlier, by the churchyard wall.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stocks to NE of Ufton Church |url=https://timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk/detail.aspx?monuid=WA826 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk |publisher=Warwickshire Historic Environment Record |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>
* Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancashire; 18th century, in the market square.<ref>{{cite web|title=Poulton-le-Fylde Market Square Curiosities|url=https://lancashirepast.com/2020/05/16/poulton-le-fylde-market-square-curiosities/|website=Lancashire Past|access-date=9 September 2025}}</ref>
* [[Huntley, Gloucestershire]]
* [[Roydon, Essex]]; the stocks are a Grade II listed structure, along with the adjacent village lock-up.<ref>{{cite web|title=Roydon Conservation Area: Character Appraisal|url=https://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/app/uploads/2019/01/Roydon-Character-Appraisal.pdf|date=September 2006|website=Epping Forest District Council}}</ref>
* [[Newton-le-Willows]], Merseyside, outside St Peter's Church.[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stocks,_Newton-le-Willows_(geograph_2745748).jpg]

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Stocks at Belstone.jpg|The Stocks at [[Belstone]] in [[Dartmoor]], a Grade II listed monument.
Image:Stocks, Keevil, Wiltshire.jpg|Stocks in [[Keevil]], [[Wiltshire]].
File:Honley stocks 312.jpg|Stocks in the churchyard of St Mary's church, [[Honley]], [[West Yorkshire]].
</gallery>

===Northern Ireland===
* [[Dromore, County Down]]; in the Market Square.<ref>{{Cite web |title=TOWN STOCKS MARKET SQUARE DROMORE CO.DOWN |url=https://apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/Buildings/buildview.aspx?id=8388&js=false |website=apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/Buildings/ |publisher=Department for the Communities, NI Government |access-date=18 December 2021}}</ref>

== See also ==
* {{annotated link|Bilboes}}
* {{annotated link|Shackling}}
* {{annotated link|Shrew's fiddle}}
* {{annotated link|Stock (cage)|Stock}}
* {{annotated link|Wheel clamp}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Stocks (restraints)}}
{{EB1911 Poster|Stocks}}
* [https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=6032777 Photos of village stocks in the UK on geograph.org.uk]

[[Category:Corporal punishments]]
[[Category:European instruments of torture]]
[[Category:Medieval instruments of torture]]
[[Category:Modern instruments of torture]]
[[Category:Physical restraint]]
[[Category:Foot]]