The Early History of English Poor Relief

by of Girton College E. M. Leonard

But the duties of the judges of assize under the orders of the Privy Council were much more important. They had to act as the link between the central government and the county and municipal officials. They were particularly ordered to let the Council know which justices did their duty[410], and many of the reports were sent in to them. In March 1630 we hear that in Suffolk malting was prohibited in the interest of the poor by the judges of assize in order to increase the supply of barley[411]; a little earlier the Norwich authorities had great difficulty in controlling the maltsters, but stated that with the approbation of the judges they had arranged that no alehouse should be licensed but such as entered into a recognisance by sureties to sell two "thurdendeles" of beer for a penny[412]. The work done by the judges is indicated by one or two references of this kind[413], and since some of the later orders of the Privy Council were especially directed to them it seems probable that they had a great deal of influence in enforcing the orders of the Council.

5 a. The work of the overseers in 1599.

The last authority who was responsible for the execution of the poor law was the overseer. He it was who had to do the work, the function of all the others was to make him do it. It was the duty of the overseers to know all about the poor in their parish; to fix the amount of the assessment and to levy it proportionately. They had also to provide pensions and habitations for the impotent poor, to find masters for apprentices and to procure work for the unemployed. The overseers' accounts for Staplegrove in the county of Somerset in the year 1599 will show us something of their ordinary work. Payments were made by twenty-two parishioners quarterly and by sixteen weekly, while two of the inhabitants took charge of two impotent people. Ten poor people received payment of a small sum every week on what we should now call the outdoor relief system. Besides this money had been disbursed in order to provide for a pauper's burial, to recompense tithingmen for receiving the poor strangers that were brought to them, and to purchase clothes and wood for the older poor and also outfits for apprentices[414]. In this account there is nothing about setting the poor to work, but the rest of the poor law seems to have been well executed in 1599.

5 b. When stirred to greater activity by scarcity measures.

The kind of instruction given to the overseers when the justices were stirred to greater activity than usual may be gathered from a paper in the Tanner Manuscripts. It is entitled "A true copy of the charge given to the overseers of every towne the 19 of December 1623," and must refer to some particular county or some particular division. During the early part of this year the price of corn was high and the justices took many measures to provide for the poor. The sufferings of the poor in the preceding winter may be the reason that the justices were more strict in their supervision at this time. There are altogether eight orders, one of which relates to alehouses; the constables and overseers are ordered to see that the labourers and other poor are well served with bread and beer, and that they do not linger longer than is necessary for the delivery of the bread and beer. Another order shows how very inquisitorial was the character of the Government of the time: there was certainly no notion that the Englishman's house was his castle. The overseers and one of the constables were twice every week to search the houses of the labourers at night to see that all were at home, and also to look out for any articles that the people might be suspected of stealing. Several of the orders concern the keeping of the poor at work[415]. Others arrange that children, not yet old enough to be apprentices, should be taught to spin by some honest woman in the town, who was to have a penny a week for each child until it could earn something for itself. Beggars were to be punished, and provision of fuel was to be made for the poor[416]. We can see how far removed this system was from our own notions of liberty, and we can also see that if the overseers performed these orders, they had even more reason than the justices to complain of hard work. There is a great deal about the provision of work and comparatively little about pensions, so that here it seems likely that the overseers were more likely to provide for the impotent without pressure than to find work for the unemployed. During the years 1631 to 1640 we are often told that "articles" were delivered to the overseers, and this document is not improbably typical of some of them. For these are the kind of matters commented on by the justices whenever they enter into details at all[417].

5 c. After the issue of the Book of Orders.

We have seen that in a few of the justices' returns the reports of the overseers were enclosed. The justices of the Liberty of St Alban's sent their answers in this manner. They were responsible for the parishes of Chipping Barnet, East Barnet, Elstree and Northaw. In 1637 they still held monthly meetings, and the overseers' accounts returned at them will give us some idea of the work often done by overseers when they were supervised in the special manner ordered in 1631 and continued until 1640. At the January meeting of 1637 the justices gave "charge that the presentments should be better and more fully certified[418]"; at the February meeting, therefore, fairly detailed reports were returned from three of the four parishes[419]. At Chipping Barnet we hear they have no Popish recusants or non-churchgoers. They have not put forth any apprentice during the month, but are about to bind a certain fatherless child. One of the magistrates undertook to see the boy was bound before the next meeting. One family had apparently been stricken with plague, and had been paid eight shillings before they were shut up; eight weekly pensions were paid to impotent people, one to a "Mad Tib," and two people receive payments for taking care of children. The report also states that "we have in towe and yarne and cloath xx^s and in money to buy more xx^s." From this account it is clear that the poor were actually set to work in Chipping Barnet and that not all the funds available for the purpose were utilised. From Northaw the constables only report, but their return concerns poor relief as well as vagrants. They say all the impotent poor are relieved while the poor that can work are "sett on work and doe not refuse the same." In this virtuous parish also none disorder themselves with drinking or frequent alehouses during divine service on the Lord's day and no idlers could be found though the constables had diligently searched for them. From Elstree we have an account of the pensions paid to certain poor people, and we have also the statements that "we have in stocke for the poore remayning forty shillings," and "we set such on worke as want uppon euery occasion." East Barnet makes no return, and a warrant is sent for the overseers to answer the contempt. On April 9th, 1639, they send a report, and then relieve only one impotent person, but have eight pounds in hand for setting the poor to work[420].

If therefore we may take these reports as specimens of rural parishes, we see that in each parish a stock existed for setting the poor to work, and that there does not seem to have been any great difficulty about the unemployed. The relief of the impotent and the apprenticing of children appear to have been carefully looked after, and the justices were prompt to notice any omission in the reports. We shall see later that there is reason to believe that these parishes were not exceptional, but that under the supervision of the justices the same kind of measures were taken in many parts of southern England.

We have already seen that the central government, the Privy Council, energetically tried to enforce the law, and that this increased energy makes the seventeenth century the important period in England for the poor law administration. We now see that in justices, judges and overseers the local government existed through which the action of the Privy Council could be made effectual. It is in this that England differed from other European countries, particularly from France and Scotland. We have drawn our information chiefly from the official records of Privy Council, justices or overseers. We have noted examples in the work of the justices and overseers in which the action of the Privy Council did have a considerable effect. We have also seen that a large body of evidence exists which will give us much information as to the methods of relief employed, and may enable us to tell how far the system was successful. We have now to see how this organisation affected the poor, and how far it was generally enforced in all parts of the country.