BRANKS or SCOLDING-BRIDLE, a contrivance former ly in use throughout England and Scotland for the punishment of scolding women. It seems to have never been a legalized form of punishment; but corporations and lords of manors in England, town councils, kirk-sessions and barony courts in Scotland as sumed a right to inflict it. While specially known as the "Gossip's or Scold's Bridle," the branks was also used for women convicted of petty offences, breaches of the peace, street-brawling and abusive language. It was the equivalent of the male punishments of the stocks and pillory. In its earliest form it consisted of a hoop head-piece of iron, opening by hinges at the side so as to enclose the head, with a flat piece of iron projecting inwards so as to fit into the mouth and press the tongue down. Later it was made, by a multiplication of hoops, more like a cage, the front forming a mask of iron with holes for mouth, nose and eyes. Sometimes the mouth-plate was armed with a short spike. With this on her head the offending woman was marched through the streets by the beadle or chained to the market-cross to be gibed at by passers. The date of origin is doubtful. It was used at Edinburgh in 1567, at Glasgow in 1574, but not before the 17th century in any English town. A branks in the church of Walton-on Thames, Surrey, bears date 1633, and as late as 1856 another was in use at Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire.
See W. Andrews, Old Time Punishments (Hull, 189o) ; A. M. Earle, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days (1896).
- BRANT, JOSEPH (1742-1807), American Indian chief of the Mohawk tribe, known also by his Indian name, THAYEN DANEGEA, was born on the banks of the Ohio river in 1742. In early youth he attracted the attention of Sir William Johnson, who sent him to be educated by Dr. Eleazar Wheelock at Lebanon, Conn., in Moor's Indian charity school, in which Dartmouth col lege had its origin. He took part, on the side of the English, in the French and Indian war, and in fought with the Iroquois against Pontiac. Subsequently he settled at Canajoharie, or Upper Mohawk Castle (in what is now Montgomery county, N.Y.), where, being a devout churchman, he devoted himself to mis sionary work, and translated the Prayer Book and St. Mark's Gospel into the Mohawk tongue (1787) . When Guy Johnson (174o-88) succeeded his uncle, Sir William, as superintendent of Indian affairs in 1774, Brant became his secretary. At the out break of the War of Independence, he remained pro-British, was commissioned colonel, and organized and led the Mohawks and other Indians allied to the British against the settlement on the New York frontier. He took part in the Cherry Valley Massacre, in the attack on Minisink and the expedition of General St. Leger which resulted in the battle of Oriskany (Aug. 6, 1777). After the war he discouraged the continuance of Indian warfare on the frontier, and aided the commissioners of the United States in securing treaties of peace with the Miamis and other western tribes. Settling in Upper Canada, he again devoted himself to missionary work and in 1786 visited England, where he raised funds with which was erected the first Episcopal church in Upper Canada. His character was a peculiar compound of the traits of an Indian warrior—with few rivals for daring leadership—and of a civilized politician and diplomat of the more conservative type. He died on an estate granted him by the British government on the banks of Lake Ontario on Nov. 24, 1807. A monument was erected to his memory at Brantford, Ontario, Canada (named in his honour) in 1886.
See W. L. Stone, Life of Joseph Brant (1838; new ed., Albany, 1865) ; Edward Eggleston and Elizabeth E. Seelye, "Brant and Red Jacket" in Famous American Indians (1879) ; a Memoir (Brantford, 1872) ; and Frederick Starr, American Indians (1898).