The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

DUCKING STOOL

The ducking stool was a chair fixed to the end of a movable beam, in which shrewish offenders were in England bound and ducked in water as a punishment and torture. The penalty was inflicted on scolds of both sexes, quarrelsome married couples being immersed tied back-to-back. In some districts unruly paupers and dishonest tradesfolk (particularly brewers of bad beer and bakers of bad bread) were also punished by means of the ducking stool. The last recorded use of the ducking stool in England was in 1809 at Leominster.
Research Ducking Stool