7. The improvement effected in 1631 especially concerned the unemployed.
To begin with cases in which improvement was reported in April 1631. From a large district of Hertfordshire we hear "we haue already raysed a stocke in some parishes, and are raysing stocks for the rest to sett all the poore on worke in this division[608]." In Essex, Richmond, Bedford and Beverley fresh taxes for this purpose had just been raised, and at Agbrigg they were still "setlinge such a course for raysinge of stocke to sett ye people of able bodies on work[609]."
At Winchester the same thing is implied: the stock has been put in a clothier's hands, so that now the poor do not want work[610]. Twenty-eight reports relating not only to measures for corn, but also for the poor were sent in between April 21st and April 30th 1631. In seventeen of these the poor were set to work, and in many cases we can see that the measures have been taken since the receipt of the Book of Orders of January 1631/2[611].
In the answers sent in May we have the same kind of information. In Brixton and Wallington we have a report similar to that from Hertfordshire; "stockes of mony," we are told, "are raised in moste of the parishes wthin the said hundrede and burrow and the reste not yet raised are wth as much expedicon as may bee to bee raised for buyinge of flax, hempe and other materialls to set the poore to worke[612]." From Arundel there is a like account, "we haue caused the taxations for the releefe of the poor to be raised in euery parish in this time of scarsitye, and haue likewise caused stocks of mony to be raised in euery parish to buy materialls to sett the poor a warke, and we haue caused the Statute of Laborors to be inquired after and to be putt in execution[613]."
We can thus see that in 1631 the justices were busy raising stocks to provide work for the poor, and that in seventeen documents, or more than half of the reports of the last ten days of April 1631, we are informed that measures had been taken with this object.
8. The detailed report from Bassetlaw throws light upon the more general statements of the justices.
We will now examine a more detailed report relating to sixty parishes of Bassetlaw in County Nottingham and sent in during March 1636/7[614]. In most cases information is given under four headings, first we are told how many of the impotent poor are relieved, secondly the amount of the town stock, thirdly how many rogues have been punished, and lastly how many apprentices have been bound. This document is important because it seems to indicate the number of parochial officials who provided work for the unemployed in the district of Bassetlaw. This is not directly stated in the report, but the overseers return the amount of the town stock of their parish whenever a town stock existed. From the method in which the return is made it seems that this town stock was always used for finding employment for the able-bodied poor[615]. Other methods of dealing with those out of work are also noted, so that it appears that in forty-five out of sixty parishes the parochial authorities provided employment for those poor who could work. The amount of the stock was often quite small; in one case only sixteen shillings, but it is very possible that in this instance the parish also was small; in another place the stock consisted of a sum of about thirty pounds, and the average amount was about three pounds. This document from Bassetlaw only states in detail what many of the other reports imply, but the detail is much more convincing, and it is confirmed by the overseers' accounts from Barnet and Elstree which we have already examined[616]. It is perhaps worth while to notice that as early as 1623 the justices wrote from Bassetlaw that work for the poor was wanting, and they even then ordered that the labourers should be set to work by the town's stock and the impotent relieved by the public contribution[617].
9. Local variations in the provision for the unemployed.
a. Not so extensive in the parts North of the Humber and in the extreme West.
We have now to try to find out if it was only in a few counties that work was found for the unemployed, or if it was all over England. We have already noted that in the counties north of the Humber, and in the three western counties of Devonshire, Cornwall, and Wiltshire the poor law was apparently less well administered than in other parts of the country. In these counties with the exception of Yorkshire therefore there are few instances in which stocks are found for providing work for the unemployed. We hear however that in Ashton-under-Line there existed a "small stocke of money which is disposed on for the setting of poore to worke[618]". Moreover, in two Yorkshire reports of 1635 it is stated that the justices have been "verie carefull to raise stockes for setting our poore on worke[619]." There are other Yorkshire returns containing information of the same kind, but still the plan of finding work for the unemployed of the North seems to be comparatively unusual.[620]