Whipping

The punishments handed out by the courts of the past were considerably different to those today. Whipping was an early mainstay and could be administered in several ways. One of the crueller varieties involved tying the unfortunate transgressor to the back of a cart and whipping them whilst they were dragged through the streets. Such a fate befell Fulham Law who, for stealing a cloth coat, was whipped between the gaol to the Point in October 1699. The last public whipping in Portsmouth took place on 11 January 1816.