July 31, 1703 sees Daniel Defoe arrested and put into a pillory
On July 31, 1703 Daniel Defoe was arrested and put into a pillory for seditious libel,
Pillory: …a standing frame that secured the head and hands, leaving the person upright, trapped, and fully on display.
… were typically placed in the busiest public spaces—market squares, crossroads, outside churches—where the maximum number of people could witness the humiliation….Crowds were an expected part of the ordeal. People might jeer, insult, or pelt the prisoner with rotten food, mud, or stones. Sometimes the treatment could become violent enough to cause serious injury or even death, though authorities did not always intend that outcome. The unpredictability of the crowd was part of the fear: once placed in the pillory, a person was at the mercy of public reaction.
https://medievalbritain.com/type/medieval-life/torture-devices/the-pillory-and-stocks/
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), English writer
Issued by Romania in 1960
Part of the Cultural Anniversaries set
Designer: Șerban Zainea
Most are familiar with Daniel Defoe primarily through his book Robinson Crusoe, which is promoted as a children’s novel. It was anything but a tale for kiddies. Abridgements and bastardisation of great literature has coloured modern audiences view of who people like Daniel Defoe were. Defoe wasn’t a children’s author. He was a radical pamphleteer, political agent, agitator and spy.
In 1702, his pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters provoked a fierce reaction from both the government and it’s detractors:
In this work, Defoe adopted the voice of an extreme High Churchman, sarcastically advocating for the harsh persecution of Dissenters, who were Protestant Christians not aligned with the Church of England. His intent was to highlight the absurdity and cruelty of such views, but the satire was so convincing that it was initially taken at face value by both supporters and opponents.
https://historysnacks.io/event/cQMzIPzd/daniel-defoe-the-english-writer-was-placed-in-a-pillory-for-seditious-libel/
It was this pamphlet that landed him before Judge Salathiel Lovell, notorious for his corruption and vicious punishments. Daniel Defoe once wrote about Lovell:
- “He trades in Justice and the Souls of Men,
- And prostitutes them equally to Gain.”
This did not endure him to the judge, who sentenced Defoe to a punitive fine, the pillory and an “indeterminate” prison time. Luckily for Defoe, his friends were deeply loyal and turned the entire pillory punishment into a statement against it’s use. Instead of the expected rotten food etc being thrown at Defoe’s head, they arranged for flowers to be thrown, and stood around Defoe reading aloud his earlier satirical poem A Hymn to the Pillory..He spent 3 days in the pillory, and then was transferred to Newgate Prison where he languished. His business quickly went bankrupt, leaving Defoe unable to pay his fine and depressed.
… until Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer came to his rescue. He paid all of Defoe’s outstanding debts arranged for his release and made a deal with him to act as a spy for the government.
A few more SODs to consider