Pillory, an engine for the public punishment of criminals, disused in Britain since 1837, but previous to that time commonly employed, as it also was in France and Germany. It consisted of a stout plank fixed like a signboard on the top of a pole, the pole being supported on a wooden platform elevated above the ground. Above, and parallel to this plank, another of like dimensions was placed in a similar position with respect to the pole, and fixed to the former by a hinge, being thus capable of being moved upwards from it, or closed upon it, when necessary. A large circular hole was cut, with its centre in the line of junction of the two planks, and two corresponding holes of smaller size were formed, one on each side of it; the large hole was for receiving the neck, and the two smaller the wrists. When a criminal was to be placed in the pillory he was made to mount and stand upon the platform; the upper of the two hinged planks was raised to allow the culprit's neck and wrists to be inserted in their proper grooves, and then brought down into its place, and fastened by a padlock, or in some other way. The pillory seems to have existed in England before the Conquest, in the form of the stretch-neck (an instrument by which the neck only was confined), and was originally intended, according to the 'Statute of the Pillory' (51 Hen. III. chap. 6), for persons guilty of forestalling and regrating, using deceitful weights and measures, perjury, &c. Its use was exclusively confined to this class of offenders till 1637, when restrictions were put upon the press, and all who printed books without a license were put in the pillory. From this time it became the favourite mode of punishing libellers against the government, and many eminent men were accordingly from this time pilloried, among them Leighton, Lilburn and Warton the printers, Prynne, Dr Bastwick, and Daniel Defoe. These sufferers were popular favourites, and the encouragement, applause, and sympathy of the crowd around converted the intended punishment into a triumph; but such men as Titus Oates, and the class of offenders including perjurers, swindlers, polygamists, &c., who were objects of popular hatred and disgust, were pelted with rotten eggs, garbage, mud, sometimes even with more dangerous missiles. In 1797 the preacher Thomas Evans was pilloried for singing a seditious Welsh song; so too, in May 1812 was Eaton, the publisher of Paine's Age of Reason; and in 1814 the celebrated naval hero Lord Cochrane, afterwards Earl of Dundonald, was sentenced to stand an hour in the pillory, but in the latter case the government did not dare to carry the sentence into effect. The punishment was abolished for all offences save perjury in 1815; and the perjurer Peter James Bossy was the last to stand in the London pillory, in the Old Bailey, for one hour, on 22d June 1830. In France the pillory was anciently called pilori (a word of unknown origin), and in recent times carcan, from the iron collar by which the criminal's neck was attached to the post; and even so late as 1840 a woman who had poisoned her husband was at last sentenced to the pillory at Tulle as part of her punishment.
Defoe's occupancy of the pillory on the 29th, 30th, and 31st July 1703 was memorable in many ways, and helped to deprive the pillory of its terrors. He ingeniously took the opportunity of publishing on the first day of his appearance there his vigorous Hymn to the Pillory; the crowd was on his side, and instead of pelting him with unpleasantnesses, crowned the pillory with flowers and drank the martyr's health. 'Dann'tless on high stood unabashed Defoe,' like a new Simeon Stylites, and his temper was apparently infectious.
See Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, Griffith's Chronicles of Newgate, Andrews' Punishments in the Olden Times, and Jewitt in the Reliquary for April 1861. See also JOUGS, CANG, STOCKS, and STOOL OF REPENTANCE.