But with regard to the rest of England this is not the case. In every county except Northampton some justices state that they have found employment for the poor. As we might expect this was done most frequently in the towns and in the manufacturing counties, both because in these places there were more rich people and because there were also more unemployed owing to the greater fluctuations of trade.
9 b. Provision of work more necessary in the towns than in the country.
A report from Reading and Theale illustrates this: "Wee finde that the able poore in boddy to worke and wch are in country villages and hambletts haue theire ymploymt in husbondrie and by that meanes are mayntayned; other lyen in such countrie townes, populer, incorporate, where heretofore multitudes of such able persons haue lived by worke from the clothier, now through the defect and decaye of that trade and soe consequently of the clothier, thousands of these poore formerlie relieved by worke liue in much want and could hardlie subsist this deere yeare did not many extend theire charity even beyond their meanes[621]." Newbury and Abingdon were also towns in the same neighbourhood subject to similar conditions, and we know already that workhouses were founded in both these places and in Reading itself also[622]. Shrewsbury and Hereford are fair examples of more westernly towns. At Shrewsbury the justices report in June 1631 that they "are aboute a course to sett all the poore on worke within our Towne and Libertyes[623]," and in 1638 an order was made for regulating a workhouse there[624]. About the same time the Mayor of Hereford records that "there is a colleccon made in euerie severall parish wthin the said Cyttie, and competent somes raysed for to releive the impotent and needy, and a stocke for the setting of poore able people to worke and for the placeing of youth apprentices[625]." Other magistrates report in like manner: thus in the rape of Hastings they have caused the officers "as much as in them lyeth to see the said poore inhabitants bee duely kept to worke and haue fitting materialls provided for them[626]." In the hundred of Hertford the justices state in 1631 that the more populous places have already raised stocks of money to set the poor to work, and that they are still trying to induce all the others to do so though a few are not rich enough to bear the necessary taxation[627]. From St Albans, Reigate, Ipswich, Maidstone, Lynn, and Norwich, as well as from more inland towns we have similar information: the magistrates of Bedford write that "we haue raysed divers extraordenary taxes for the reliefe of our poore and settinge them on worke and therby they are set to worke[628]." But perhaps the Buckingham report indicates the most thorough organisation. There the poor had been visited apparently in the same way as at Norwich. Five hundred people were examined; the age and occupation of each were noted, and whether they had work or not. Afterwards employment was provided for those who needed it and we are told that the poor "of good disposicon are glad they are thus settled wthout begging and settle themselves seriouslie to their labor." This good result however was not obtained without complaints from the ratepayers[629].
In the country districts also employment seems to have been provided as well as in the towns whenever the poor suffered much from the want of work. In the western counties, however, there were few complaints of lack of employment, except from the cloth-workers when the trade in cloth was slack. Some justices expressly state that there is no want of work in their part of the country. Thus from a large district of Somerset we hear that there are "none lefte unplaced but such as doe mainetaine their charge by their labor[630]." Therefore, as we should expect, in many reports from the West nothing is said about finding employment for the able-bodied poor. There are, however, also a fair number of cases in which work is said to be provided. This is especially the case in the counties of Shropshire and Stafford; thus from Staffordshire three reports were sent in 1634, and in all three we are told that the poor were set to work[631]. Moreover, the Worcester justices write that "wee are carefull ... that the able poore bee well provided of worke[632]" and in almost all[633] the other western counties, at least one instance of the kind is reported[634].
(d) Provision of work in many districts in most counties of the east.
But in the east and south-east there was at any rate sometimes a chronic want of employment, and consequently numerous efforts to provide for the able-bodied poor. In the country round Hitchen we are told, as in the Reading district, that it is the poor in the town that are distressed, but in the hamlets the farmers find work for the inhabitants. The justices say they have no manufacture, and they do not know how to find a remedy for the people in the town. At one time they make the richer people employ the poor, but they do not find the experiment successful[635]. We have also an account of a permanent want of employment in a large district of Norfolk. In the hundreds of South Greenhoe, Wayland, and Grimshoe provision had been made by raising a stock to set the able-bodied poor to work, and besides the magistrates write, "Wee have manie young people wch live out of service by reason of the multitude of them, there not being services for them, but worke is provided for them in their seuerall parishes[636]."
There are very many reports of stocks for the provision of work in other country districts of the east. In Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridge there is much to make us think the system was nearly general[637], and in each of the other eastern counties there are many cases of the kind.
In a district of Middlesex the unemployed were sent to fight for Gustavus Adolphus[638], but in most parishes materials were provided for them to work up. Thus in several hundreds in Kent "stocks of materialls" were provided in every parish[639]; in Nottinghamshire those out of service and able to work were set to work "on the towne stock[640]," while at Horncastle sessions, in Lincolnshire, the justices take "special care ... that the abler sort bee constantly sett on worke by the stocke of the parishe[641]." Sometimes the sum expended was very considerable if we take into account the great difference in the value of money. Thus in Wallington, Surrey, more than £120 was used for providing work, while nearly fifty pounds remained in hand[642]. On the whole therefore in the eastern counties, between 1631 and 1640, it seems that considerable sums of money were raised and employed in most districts[643] with the object of setting to work the able-bodied poor.