Located on Mere Point Road, not far from the center of town, stands a cemetery where the names of many of its inhabitants may seem familiar. An open area of land, between the headstones and the road, was the location of the original First Parish Meeting House.

This Old West Meeting House was used for both religious and government purposes. The building itself faced southerly, with the cemetery to its east side and a livestock pen behind it.

In the mid-18th century the Town of Brunswick, then a part of York County — in the Massachusetts Province of Maine — operated under the strict laws of Great Britain. Corporal punishments “were inflicted by local constables in accordance with the sentence of the selectmen” whenever “there was no justice … or magistrate” available.

In front of this meeting house stood a pair of stocks while a whipping-post was located out back. This apparatus of the law provided “great service in restraining the evil intentioned.”

The stocks were made of “two upright posts of oak” separated between “locked wooden planks,” where the offenders hands and legs were secured through openings. The violator was left on full public display to suffer humiliation for his or her offense.

The whipping post was an upright beam of wood secured in the ground, where an offender could be strapped-in-place, while a whip or cat-o’-nine-tails was used to inflict cruel lashing-wounds upon the violator.

A man or woman could be put into the stocks or flailed on the whipping-post for “misdemeanors and minor crimes,” violations “where the damage did not exceed forty schillings.” Bad behaviors, such as a “third conviction” for being drunk in public, came with a penalty of time served in the stocks.

In May 1784, Issac Rolf of Brunswick was found guilty of stealing five sheep and ordered to “receive five stripes on his naked back.” However, for every one of the sheep returned to its owner, one lash would be canceled.

By 1760, as Cumberland County came into being, not all minor infractions required the stocks or whipping post as a punishment. William Hasty of Harpswell was simply “fined … for sailing his coasting schooner in Quahog Bay on the Lord’s Day.” William Blake, also of Harpswell, was also fined for “neglecting to attend public worship.” Men usually fared better, before the law, than did women.

Jenny Eaton was promised some sugar, tea and coffee by a man “named Rogers” in exchange for an “embrace.” When Jenny tried to collect her bounty, Rogers reneged and Jenny filed a complaint. But when Jenny could not prove her case against the rascal, she was accused of “permitting the embrace” and found guilty of “abfaming an innocent man.”

For her failure, Jenny Eaton was sentenced to be “stretched upon the public stocks” where she would be left “exposed to sun, wind, and rain.” And the sentencing of her punishment also demanded that “rotten eggs be thrown at her” by “passing spectators.”

Even a dead woman could not escape the severity of English law in Brunswick. In about 1764, when “Brunswick had some 30-households” one woman received a cruel sentence after she had died.

James McManus, was living “in sin,” outside the bonds of matrimony, with Ann Connors. When their child was born, the father “wanted his son baptized,” but he was first forced to “confess” that he and Ann had their child out of wedlock. This matter became immediate public knowledge and a disgraceful scandal soon erupted with many shunning Ann Connors.

Unable to live with her shame, Ann “committed suicide by hanging herself from a pine tree.” Not happy with her death as an end to the matter, the magistrate ordered that “a stake be driven through her body” and that her remains then be buried on the Harpswell Road — “where the four roads met” — as a lesson to all who passed.

The original stocks, built by Robert Smart, were made for the price of four pounds. A replica of those original stocks were later created for Brunswick’s 150th sesquicentennial celebration.

Today, Brunswick’s replica stocks are on display at the Pejepscot History Center on Park Row where a new exhibit titled “The Crimes Record: Four Centuries of (In)justice in the Pejepscot Region” opens this weekend.

Although much of our history has been lost to time, much of our past is still preserved in the archives and collections of our historical societies. And the amazing lore and surprising tales of our legendary history can always be found in our true Stories from Maine

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.