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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2004-10 > 1099232081
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Subject: Excerpt Of History
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 09:14:41 EST
" Some New England towns used the brank or gossips bridle to close the
mouths of scolding or over talkative women. Henry Heginbotham, an English
historian, describes the brank as an iron gag. A cage like device that fit over the
head, which a tongue plate about two inches long, having at the end, a ball
into which is inserted a number of sharp irons pins, three on the upper surface,
three on the lower, and two pointing backwards. These could not fail to pin
the tongue and effectually silence the noisiest female brawler. In the larger
towns like Springfield and Boston, it was used, if sparingly, into the mid
19th century."
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