These orders were put in force about May, 1571, and when they had been adopted about a year the citizens enumerate the great advantages they had derived from them. "Theis orders have been attried," they write, and "put in practize in the seyd Citie and is founde to redowne to theis commodities thereafter ensuing."
They proceed to enumerate the sums earned by nine hundred children at sixpence a week; of sixty-four men "which dailie did begge and lived ydlie and now beinge forced to worke" earned on an average a shilling a week; and of one hundred and eighty women who earned twenty pence each a week "one with another." Strange beggars were sent out of the city, and the poor were better looked after and no longer had need of collections for the healing of their miserable diseases. Altogether the citizens reckoned they saved £2818. 1s. 4d. a year in money. Besides this the most disorderly kinds of people no longer resorted to the city "and the magistrates trobles for them be marvellouselye easied."
This organisation of 1570 was essentially a municipal organisation, but we can see that the statutes considerably influenced the town rulers of the time. They had tried the semi-voluntary system of collection authorised by the statute of 1563, and had found that funds could not be collected in this manner. They therefore employed more compulsion without any hesitation. They punished "according to the statute" people who gave to beggars, and they added a special fine of their own. The statutes themselves made the organisation for the collection of funds municipal as well as parochial and it is interesting to see this double system in working order. The deacons collected the rates of their particular parishes and paid the pensions granted to the poor. But it was the Mayor or his deputies who saw that everyone was assessed at the proper amount. The payments of a parish did not necessarily meet the expenses; the rich parishes paid for the poorer ones. The deacons accounted to the aldermen responsible for the ward; and some paid to them their surplus while others received the sums necessary to make up the deficiency[233].
Norwich seems to have been the first English town to prohibit begging altogether; the system of licensed beggars was still employed in most parts of the country.
The detailed accounts for the poor of Norwich were preserved down to 1580 and show that the organisation was in full working order for ten years. One of the compilations relating to this organisation was begun in 1576 and the whole tone of this book shows that the citizens of Norwich were very proud of their doings in matters concerning the poor[234]. It is perhaps the only place where the purely municipal organisation for the poor was successful for any length of time. There were difficulties again in the seventeenth century but as long as the first enthusiasm continued the system seems to have worked well.
The work was done thoroughly and placed on a sound basis. The House of Correction and the select women were maintained by the side of a sufficient collection for the relief and training of the poor, and, probably for these reasons, the system continued to be successful as long as the administrators continued to give it the necessary amount of supervision.
The citizens of Norwich seem to have partially overcome one of the principal difficulties of a purely municipal organisation by very rigorous settlement regulations, quite as severe as any that were ever enforced after the statute of 1662. For instance a Jane Thornton is to depart because she "in summer live in the cuntrie but in wintr charge the citie," and "Richard Birch and his familie" were to go to Thorpe though he was not at this time (1570) in receipt of alms. There are many cases of the same kind and these continue throughout this period of ten years and occur again in the seventeenth century.
This kind of action with regard to new settlers was not confined to Norwich but probably extended to all parts of the country where there was much systematic relief of the poor.
3. The action of other towns.
We will now consider some of the various plans for the relief and organisation of the poor adopted in other towns.