Bilboes

Common card · No. 455151

Bilboes (plurale tantum) are iron restraints normally placed on a person's ankles. They were commonly used as leg shackles to restrain prisoners for different purposes until modern times. Bilboes were also used on slave ships, such as the Henrietta Marie. According to legend, the device was invented in Bilbao and brought to England by the ships of the Spanish Armada of 1588 for use on prospective English prisoners. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the term occurs in English before then.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Alice Morse Earle, Public domain