[663] Hist. Man. Com. Rep., IX. App. p. 320. Part of the proceeds of Lichfield Cathedral seem actually to have been granted to the poor of Stafford, though the poor had not received any benefit from the grant because the money had remained in private hands. We are told that the House of Correction at Stafford was much defaced, though it had formerly been used as a place "to set the poor on work." Cal. of State Papers. Feb. 17, 1654. Here we can see the process of disorganisation. The place had been used for the unemployed, but fell into decay during the war; attempts were made to restore it under the Commonwealth, but so far they were not successful.
[664] A. Kingston, Herts. during the Great Civil War, p. 182.
[665] Ib., pp. 54 and 55.
[666] Ib., p. 187.
[667] Harleian Miscellany, viii. p. 582, quoted by Eden, p. 188.
[668] Eden, Vol. I., p. 216.
[669] See above.
[670] Eden, Vol. I., p. 225.
[671] Ashley, Economic History, Vol. II., p. 346 sqq.
[672] The statutes of 1425 (James I., c. 66) and of 1427 (James I., c. 103) are vagrant acts closely resembling those of England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.