Ducking  -  stooL  The  English  colonies  in
America  continued  for  a  long  time  the  mannera
and  customs  of  their  native  land:  among  others,
that  of  the  use  of  the  ducking-stool  for  the  pun-
ishment of  inveterate  scolding  women.  Bishop
Meade,  in  Old  Churches,  Minigters,  and  Familiet  in
Virginia,  says,  "  If  a  woman  was  convicted  of
slander,  her  husband  was  made  to  pay  five  hun-
dred-weight of  tobacco ;"  but  the  law  proving
insufficient,  the  penalty  was  changed  to  duck-
ing. Places  for  ducking  were  prepared  at  court-
houses. An  instance  is  mentioned  of  a  woman
who  was  ordered  to  be  ducked  three  times  from
a  vessel  lying  in  the  James  River.  The  woman
was  tied  to  a  chair  at  the  longer  end  of  a  lever,
controlled  at  the  shorter  end  by  men  with  a
rope.  The  stool  being  planted  firmly,  the  wom-
an, was  raised  on  the  lever,  and  then  lowered  so
as  to  be  plunged  under  the  water.
Dudley,  Joseph,  Governor  of  Massachusetts,
was  bom  at  Eoxbury,  July  23, 1647 ;  died  there,
April  2, 1720.  Graduated  at  Harvard  in  1665.
