Buttock Mail

Buttock mail, or buttock hire,^[1] was the colloquial term for a fine imposed by the ecclesiastical courts in Scotland as a punishment for sexual intercourse outside of wedlock. It could be paid to the church as an alternative to the public humiliation of being confined to the cucking stoolChair used as a punishment for those accused of offences such as drunkenness, sexual impropriety or dishonest trading., or stool of repentance, which was the usual punishment for fornication.^[2]

Buttock was a Scottish term for a prostitute;^[3] the word mail, in the sense of a tribute or rent, derives from the old Scandinavian word mál, meaning “speech, agreement”, or “payment” in Old English.^[4]