Scold's bridle
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A scold's bridle, sometimes called a witch's bridle, a gossip's bridle, a brank's bridle, or simply branks, was an instrument of punishment used as a form of public humiliation.
A branked scold in Colonial New England, from a lithograph in A Brief History of the United States by Joel Dorman Steele and Esther Baker Steele from 1885
16th-century Scottish branks, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland
18th century scold's bridle in the Märkisches Museum Berlin
The "Bishop's branks" of St. Andrews
Pillory
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The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public hum
Scold's bridle
…effects for the wearer, including excessive salivation and fatigue of the mouth. The scold's bridle was used on women, the counterpart of the stocks and pillory used to punish men. First recorded in Scotland in 1567, the branks were also used in England and its colonies. The Kirk sessions and barony courts in…
Daniel Defoe in the Pillory (Eyre Crowe, 1862)
The 17th-century perjurer Titus Oates in a pillory
Stone pillory from the 18th century preserved in situ in Mespelare, Belgium. It is decorated with the coat of arms of the Goubau family, who at the time were the lords of the village.
The pillory at Charing Cross in London, c. 1808