[1] The poor of England till the time of Henry VIII. subsisted as the poor of Ireland until 1838 entirely upon private benevolence. Judge Blackstone observes that till the Statute 26, Henry VIII. cap. 26, he finds no compulsory method for providing for the poor, but upon the total dissolution of the Monasteries, abundance of Statutes were made in the reign of King Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth which at last established the Poor's Rate, a legal assessment for the support of the poor. Before the Reformation immense sums of money were appropriated for charitable purposes, and notwithstanding many abuses the religious order of those days never so far lost sight of this original institution as ever to neglect the poor. The famous Statute of the 43rd of Elizabeth, 1601, by which Overseers were appointed for Parishes is the basis of all the poor laws in England. By Statute 23, Edward III., 1342, it was enacted that none should give alms to a beggar able to work. An Act was passed 1531, empowering Justices to grant licenses to poor and impotent persons to beg within certain limits of territory. By the Common Law, the poor were to be sustained by "parsons, rectors of the church and parishioners so that none should die for default of sustenance," and by 15 Richard II. impropriators were obliged to distribute a yearly sum to the poor. An act of 1601 directed that every parish shall provide for its own poor by an assessment to be levied by the Justices in General Sessions and embodied regulations as to how assessment should be made and applied. In 1782 Workhouse Unions were introduced by an Act called Gilbert's Act. The Act of 1834 among other changes established the system of Poor Law Unions. In Scotland the poor were really maintained by the private Alms of individuals and by certain funds under the management of the Kirk Session, which when regularly constituted consisted of the Minister, Elders, Session Clerk and Kirk Treasurer. The Presbytery was by law appointed Auditor of the Poor's Accounts of the several parishes. In the event of any difficult case arising in the discharge of this duty the Presbytery could lay it before the Synod for advice. "Scotland and Ireland have been legislated for separately, their poor laws are similar to the English in principle and practice; both are administered by a Central Board, which supervises the local bodies charged with relief, and in both the rate is levied on the annual value of real property. The present system in Scotland was instituted by the 8th and 9th Vic. c. 83 (1845). Scotland is divided into 883 parishes, some of them combined for Workhouse accommodation. The relief is administered by a parochial board, appointed by ratepayers, the Burgh Magistrate and the Kirk Session. They appoint Inspectors of the poor who act as relieving officers. The Scotch law differs from the English and Irish in allowing no relief to able bodied adults."
Old Battersea Workhouse, which has long since been pulled down, was situated in the neighbourhood of Battersea Square. In the same neighbourhood is the "Priory," now the residence of Mr. Oakman. Not far from the Raven Tavern was the "Cage," in Surrey Lane, for the confinement of petty criminals. Near the Prince's Head Tavern was the Pound in which cattle were enclosed for trespass until replevied or redeemed. Also a wooden machine called the "Stocks" to put the legs of offenders in, for securing disorderly persons, and by way of punishment in divers cases, ordained by statute, &c., was erected without the gates of Battersea Churchyard, near the waterside.
In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, writes Robert Chambers in his "Book of Days," there flourished at the corner of the lane leading from the Wandsworth Road to Battersea Bridge a tavern yclept "The Falcon," kept by one Robert Death—a man whose figure is said to have ill comported with his name, seeing that it displayed the highest appearance of jollity and good condition. A merry-hearted artist, named John Nixon, passing the house one day, found an Undertaker's company regaling themselves at 'Death's door,' having just discharged their duty to a rich Nabob in a neighbouring churchyard, they had ... found an opportunity for refreshing exhausted nature; and well did they ply the joyful work before them. The artist, tickled at a festivity among such characters in such a place, sketched them on the spot. This sketch was soon after published, accompanied by a cantata from another hand of no great merit, in which the foreman of the company, Mr. Sable, is represented as singing as follows, to the tune of 'I've kissed and I've prattled with fifty fair maids':—
"Dukes, Lords, have I buried, and squires of fame,
And people of every degree;
But of all the fine jobs that ere came in my way,
A funeral like this for me.
This, this is the job
That fills the fob;
Oh! the burying of a Nabob for me!
Unfeather the hearse, put the pall in the bag,
Give the horses some oats and some hay;
Drink our next merry meeting and quackeries increase
With three times three and hurra!"
A portion of the Falcon Tavern erected about 275 years ago at the end of Falcon Lane still remains with the old witch elm tree in front, its hollow trunk, to which a door is attached, answers the purpose of a bin or cupboard where hay is put with which to feed horses, and the old wooden-cased pump, fastened with rusty holdfasts to the tree, may still be seen. On the 15th of January, 1811, a printed engraving was published representing "Undertakers regaling" by this road-side inn, a copy of which may now be seen within. At that time R. Death was the landlord, he had written outside the tavern in large characters, Robert Death, Dealer in Genuine Rum, Gin, Wine; an Ordinary on Sundays; Tea, Coffee and Hot Rolls; Syllabubs and Cheese-cakes in the highest perfection. The subjoined doggerel lines as a skit or burlesque on the publican's name is published with the engraving:—
"O stop not here ye sottish wights,
For purl nor ale nor gin,
For if you stop whoe'er alights
By Death is taken in.
When having eat and drank your fill
Should ye, O hapless case,
Neglect to pay your landlord's bill
Death stares you in the face.
With grief sincere I pity those
Who've drawn themselves this scrape in,
Since from this dreadful gripe, heaven knows,
Alas! there's no escaping.
This one advice my friend pursue
Whilst you have life and breath,
Ne'er pledge your host for if you do
You'll surely drink to Death."
The Falcon Tavern is now kept by Mr. J. G. Brown.
Mr. Edward Walford in his work entitled "Old and New London," published by Cassell, Petter and Galpin, London; in Part 66 at Page 479, writes, "Battersea has other claims to immortality: in spite of the claims of Burton and Edinburgh, there can be little doubt, if Fuller is a trustworthy historian, that one of the ozier beds of the river side here was the cradle of bottled ale. The story is thus circumstantially told in 'The Book of Anecdote':—Alexander Nowell, Dean of St Paul's and Master of Westminster School in the reign of Queen Mary, was a supporter of 'the new opinions' and also an excellent angler. But, writes Fuller, while Nowell was catching of fishes Bishop Bonner was after catching of Nowell, and would certainly have sent him to the Tower if he could have caught him, as doubtless he would have done had not a good merchant of London conveyed him away safely upon the seas. It so happened that Nowell had been fishing upon the banks of the Thames when he received the first intimation of his danger, which was so pressing that he dared not even go back to his house to make any preparation for his flight. Like an honest angler, he had taken with him on this expedition provisions for the day, in the shape of some bread and cheese and some beer in a bottle; and on his return from London and to his own haunts he remembered that he had left these stores in a safe place upon the bank, and there he resolved to look for them. The bread and cheese of course were gone; but the bottle was still there—'yet no bottle, but rather a gun: such was the sound at the opening thereof.' And this trifling circumstance, quaintly observes Fuller, 'is believed to have been the origin of bottled ale in England, for casualty (i.e. accident) is mother of more inventions than is industry.'"
On the road to Wandsworth and facing Plough Lane was "Ye Plough Inn," erected A.D. 1701. In front of this Inn grew an oak to which an iron ring was fastened, and it is supposed that here Dick Turpin the notorious highwayman occasionally reined up his bonny black mare. When the Inn was re-built in 1875-6 the trunk was removed to the front of the "Old House" in Plough Lane, which formerly belonged to Mr. Carter, who owned extensive market gardens about here. The following lines were written in commemoration of the famous Old Plough Tree, and the present landlord has had the lines enframed for his customers to read:—