Imprimis 2 bedsteads
5 twines 2 paire of wollen cards" &c.
Two years later £20 was bequeathed by W. Lawrence "to the stocke to sett ye poor to worke," and early in the reign of Charles I. a "workehowse for the setting of the poore on worke" has been lately built and the overseers paid the corporation £9. 12s. for the rent of the three tenements which formerly had existed on the site. R. N. Worth, Plymouth Municipal Records, pp. 156 and 257, and Hist. of Plymouth, p. 273.
In Marlborough also there was certainly a workhouse, for a petition was presented to the Privy Council in the name of the Mayor and burgesses concerning John Thorner, an Attorney-at-Law, who "was rated among others to pay 52/- towards the erecting of a workhouse and raising of a stock for the employment of the poore that are able and willing to worke to be paid at three general payments whereof one is already passed at our Lady day last." Thorner had refused to pay his rate, "saying that it was against the law," and had encouraged others not to pay, so "that manie of the inhabitants there made refusall also to pay their proportion." The Privy Council referred the matters to the judges, and in the mean time the rate was to be paid. Privy Council Register, 13th May, 1631.
[621] Dom. State Papers, Vol. 191, 40. II.
[622] See above.
[623] D. S. P. Vol. 194, 17. III. 14th June.
[624] The orders of the corporation of Shrewsbury, "That a stock be raised for setting the poor on work and the Castle be repaired and imployed for that purpose." Shropshire Archæological Journal, XI. p. 169.
[625] D. S. P., Vol. 194, 41. II. See below for Shaftesbury, Leominster, Gloucester, Banbury, Abergavenny, &c.