XVI. And forasmuch as Charity would that poor aged and impotent persons should as necessarily be provided for as the said Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars repressed, and that the said aged, impotent and poor people should have convenient habitations and abiding places ... to the end that they nor any of them should hereafter beg or wander about; it is therefore enacted ... that the Justices of the Peace and all and singular the Shires of England and Wales ... shall ... make diligent search and enquiry of all aged poor impotent and decayed persons born within their said divisions and limits, or which were there dwelling within three years next before this present Parliament ... which live ... by alms ... and shall make a register book of the names and surnames of all such.... And ... shall ... devise and appoint ... meet and convenient places ... for their habitations and abidings, if the parish within which they shall be found shall not or will not provide for them ... and shall ... set down what portion the weekly charge towards the relief and sustentation of the said poor people will amount unto ... and, that done, they the said Justices ... shall by their good discretions tax and assess all and every the said inhabitants ... to such weekly charge as they and every of them shall weekly contribute towards the relief of the said poor people....
XVII. And be it further enacted ... that the Mayor of the City of London and the Mayors, Sheriffs, Bailiffs ... and the Constables ... within all ... the said shires of England and Wales shall once a month ... make a view and search of all the aged impotent and lame persons within the precinct of their jurisdictions, and all such ... persons as they shall find, not being born within that division ... then they shall presently see the same poor people (except leprous people and bed-rid people) ... to be conveyed on horseback, in cart or otherwise ... to the next constable, and so from constable to constable the directest way, till the said person ... be brought to the place where he or she was born or most conversant by the space of three years next before, and there to be put in the Abiding Place....
XVIII. And be it enacted ... that if any of the said poor people ... refuse to be bestowed to any of the said Abiding Places ... but covet still to hold on their trade of begging, or ... do depart and beg, then the said person so offending ... to be accounted a Rogue or Vagabond....
XXII. And it is also further enacted, that if any of the said aged and impotent persons, not being so diseased lame or impotent but that they may work in some manner of work, shall be by the overseer of their said Abiding Place appointed to work, if they refuse, then in form aforesaid to be whipped and stocked for their first refusal, and for their second refusal to be punished as in case of Vagabonds....
XXIII. Provided always ... that three Justices of Peace ... shall ... place and settle to work the Rogues and Vagabonds that shall be disposed to work ... to get their livings and to live and to be sustained only upon their labour and travail.
XXIV. Be it also farther enacted that if any Beggar’s Child being above the age of five years and under fourteen years ... shall be liked of by any subject ... of honest calling who shall be willing to take the said Child into service, the said Subject shall ... have the said Child bound with him....
THE CONDITION OF IRELAND (1571-2).
Source.—Carew MSS. (Record Commission). Vol. iii. (1589-1600), p. xci., App. A.
A. The Disorders of the Irishry in the Irish Pale of Ireland, and the cause of Waste and Decay of the same. The State of the English Pale: the cause of waste and Decay thereof: with the cause of Debate between them both.
First it is to be understand that the land of Ireland was divided into several Kingdoms, and so continued of long time, until the coming of King Henry the Second, who then did win by conquest the most part of the same land, and the same gave and departed amongst his nobles and certain English gentlemen and others that went with him into Ireland, in reward of their service there done, where they both planted themselves and remained as obedient subjects to the King and Crown of England and his laws, and maintained the same. The rest of the land some he put under tribute, other some were never by him conquered, and they both so left continued and maintained their old customs, which were the laws of the Brehons, which before the conquest was used. And as those then planted by the King maintained the laws of England, and continued the same by them and theirs successively until this day, as the English Pale and civil towns doth maintain and use the same, even as the others, as well [they] that were put under tribute and they that were never conquered, as also those by them since subdued brought under their rule, doth maintain the Brehon’s law as they did before the conquest, which custom they continue in the Irish Pale, who are now the more part of the realm. The race and stirpe of them this day do maintain and use the same contrary to God his law, and also repugnant to the Queen’s Majesty’s laws and all other good and civil orders.