1734.—Man and Woman in Stocks. details

“A stockes to staye sure and safely detayne
Lazy, lewd leu[?]terers that lawes do offend.”(Harman’s ‘Caveat,’ &c.)

“The stocks are still, we believe, occasionally used [1845], though the sooner they too become obsolete the better.” (Vol II p. 119)

Stocks are a device to secure a person at the ankles, so that their feet stick through the holes and connot be removed until the stocks are unfastened. People would be fastened in the stocks for hours or days at a time, and held up to public ridicule. It was not uncommon for bystanders to throw things at the people in the stocks, and if the things they threw were hard or sharp, sich as rocks, injuries or even death could result. These days if someone put you in the stocks, people would probably steal your telephone, your wallet, and maybe even your shoes!