[A1567/12/13]¹

Concerning the filthy vice of fornication and punishment of the same

Item, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord, with advice and consent of [James Stewart, earl of Moray], his dearest regent, and three estates of this present parliament, that if any person or persons within this realm, to burgh or to land, shall commit the filthy vice of fornication and are convicted thereof, that the committers thereof shall be punished in manner following: that is to say, for the first fault, as well the man as the woman, shall pay the sum of £40, or then both he and she shall be imprisoned for the space of eight days, their food to be bread and small drink, and thereafter presented to the market place of the town or parish bareheaded, and there stand fastened, that they may not remove for the space of two hours, as from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock at noon; for the second fault, being convicted, they shall pay the sum of 100 merks, or then the forenamed days of their imprisonment shall be doubled, their food to be bread and water only, and in the end to be presented to the said market place and both the heads of the man and the woman to be shaved; and for the third fault, being convicted thereof, shall pay £100, or else their above imprisonment to be tripled, their food to be bread and water only, and in the end to be taken to the deepest and foulest pool or water of the town or parish, there to be thrice ducked, and thereafter banished from the said town or parish for ever; and from thenceforth, how often that ever they be convicted of the aforesaid vice of fornication, that so often the said third penalty be executed upon them, and that the provost and bailies of each burgh, the justice general and his deputes, or such others persons as it shall please our said sovereign lord to give commission to, be judges to the persons suspected and accused of fornication, and, being convicted, that they shall list and take up the above-written pecuniary pains of the persons responsible and rather willing to pay the same than to be demeaned in their persons; and that the said corporal pains of imprisoning, banishing and others above-specified be executed upon all such persons as either refuses to pay the pecuniary pains or that are not responsible to pay the same; and that the same pecuniary pains which shall happen to be received be surely kept in a closed box and be converted for pious uses in those parts where the crime is committed, as it shall please our said sovereign and his dearest regent to command; and the receivers of the said pains to be ready to give account thereof whenever they shall be required thereto.