"Paid Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Sambach for cutting off the leg and curing it, £4."
"For wooden leg for Joan Harris, 3s. 10d."
A charge of 2s. is made on several occasions for "a Spanish bag" for pauper women. Can any of my medical or other readers suggest a solution of this?
One "Jones of St. John's" is commemorated as the recipient of various supplies of "strong waters," but what the following entries mean is not very clear:
"Given to Jones of St. John's to buy her husband 2 galls of strong waters and send him abroad that he may not be too chargeable, 6s."
"For a gall. of strong waters to send Jones of St. John's away to save him from arrest, 3s. 4d."
Nor were the poor forgotten in their deaths: charges were regularly made for "rosemary and bayes" to put on corpses, and in one instance the churchwardens paid for the deceased pauper "an alehouse scoare for her 4d., for a plaster for her 2d., and for the old woman that layd her out 4d." In the year 1697 a charge of 8d. was made "for an act of Parliament for badging the poor," which was a copy of a statute for distinguishing paupers by fixing a badge on their clothes. Probably mendicancy was becoming a serious charge, and the legislators of the day thought to reduce it by rendering the recipients of charity as conspicuous as possible. The act of Parliament which directed that every pauper should wear a badge was the statute 8th and 9th of William III, chap. 30, sec. 2; it was passed in the year 1697. It was not at all observed for many years previous to its repeal, which was in the year 1810, by the statute 50th of George III, chap. 52. The badge contained a large Roman "P" (for poor) and the initial letter of the parish to which the pauper belonged. Great exertions were made by the parochial authorities to shift off the burden of pauperism from their own shoulders to other parishes, especially in cases of illegitimate offspring. It is said that whenever the plague prevails in the East, the afflicted sons of Islam beseech Heaven to relieve their locality and send the scourge to the next town. Our own parish registers prove that Christians share the same feelings in common. Here are instances:
"Given to Ann Hector, she being ready to cry out for a midwife, and to lodge her in St. Martin's parish, 2s."
"Paid Fabian Lancett's wife and another woman for watching a woman a night and a day for fear the woman should lye in our parish, 2s. 6d."
"Paid for a lycence to marry Mary Paine (she being big with child) to Sam. Sarles, to prevent more charge to the parish, £1. 1s. 4d."