[552] The general adoption of the “Test Workhouse" for the able-bodied, which dates from the Poor Law Reform Act of 1884, was the direct result of a one-sided reaction against the disastrous Speenhamland policy.
[553] Camden Society, Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 217.
[554] For Captain Pouch see Gay, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xviii. For the other names Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, vol. ii. p. 40.
[555] Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 70, 1537. Examination of R. Leedes: “The rebels ... were half inclined to go home. But Ralph Green ... encouraged them to go forward, saying, 'God’s blood, sirs, what will ye now do? Shall we go home and keep sheep? Nay, by God's body, yet had I rather be hanged,'" and ibid.: “The said Trotter says the meaning of the plough borne in the banner was the encouraging of the husbandman.”
[556] Ibid., vol. xii., Part I., 687, 1537. Confession of Barnarde Townleye, Clerk: “The beginners of the insurrection in Cumberland were the 4 captains of Penrith; Faith, Poverty, Pity and Charity, as the Vicar of Burgh proclaimed them at each meeting.... Conjectures that the intent was to destroy the gentlemen, that none should pay ingressums to his landlord, and little or no rent or tithe"; also ibid., Examination of Sir Robert Thompson, Vicar of Burgh: “On the Wednesday and Thursday the 4 captains followed examinand in procession with their swords drawn, and examinand said mass, which they called the Captains' mass.”
[557] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 687: “They of Kirkby Stephen plucked down the new intacks of enclosures, and sent to other Parishes to do the like, which was done at Burgh, 28th January.” For the Doncaster programme see below, p. 334. Aske said (L. and P., vol. xii., Part I., p. 901) that the new farmers of monastic estates “let and tavern out the farms of the same houses to other farmers for lucre.”
[558] These particulars are taken from Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[559] Gay, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xviii., which also gives an account of the Midland riot of 1607.
[560] MSS. in possession of Charles E. Bradshaw Bowles, Esq., of Wirksworth, for a transcript of which I am indebted to Mr. Kolthammer. See below, pp. [327–329].
[561] Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Salisbury, Part VI., pp. 49–50.