An Early Poor Law Account

AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT By A. F. ALLEN THE parish church of Shorne, near Gravesend, has in its vestry an interesting coUection of parish documents, most of which (including Registers which begin on 22nd September, 1538) are aheady recorded in The Parish Registers and Records of the Diocese of Rochester, pubhshed by the Society in 1912. A few documents, however, appear to have been overlooked when that book was prepared. An important omission came to hght recently when twenty-seven sheets of foolscap paper, roughly stitched in an old parchment deed of the 33rd year of Elizabeth, were found between the leaves of a vellum register of " Removals and Certificates" compiled in the 18th century. Upon examination these sheets of paper proved to be the Poor Law accounts of the parish for the period 17th AprU, 1598 to 1607.1 These accounts rival in age those of Chiddingstone, and are older than any other poor law accounts recorded in the Diocese of Rochester. They also, of course, antedate the famous Poor Law Act of 1601 by three years. The makeshift format of these accounts is a reminder that the Poor Law Act of 1597 (the first Act to apply Poor Law arrangements to rural areas) was expected to be but a temporary expedient to tide over a year or so of bad trade and unemployment. How httle could the Shorne parish officers foresee the future and how surprised they would be to learn that theh roughly-kept accounts have survived for over three hundred and fifty years. The pages, protected by theh parchment cover, are in good preservation, and although there are signs that some have been cut out, the accounts themselves are in consecutive order for each of the years between the first and last dates without any obvious gaps or omissions. Thus it may safely be assumed that the accounts are as they were left by the clerk who laid them aside after Sh WilUam Page, the local squire and magistrate, signed the last account on the 22nd day of AprU, 1608. 1 It should be noted that in about 1840 these accounts were known to Cruden the author of a History of Gravesend published in 1843. He refers to an entry in these accounts in his book. 74 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT The first page of the accounts is headed " Kent Concerning the Articles of charge (?) Shorne by Sir Jhon Leveson Knight and WiUiam 17th AprU Lambard Esqr to the Churchwardens and Overseers 1598 of the poore in the prshe of Shorne we answer pEicularly and the proceedings thereupon register as ffolloweth." The names of the two justices who gave the " Articles of charge " are noteworthy. Both left theh mark in other spheres, and Wilham Lambard, the weU-known antiquarian, was, in his day, perhaps better known as the author of Eirenarcha, a textbook upon the powers and duties of Justices. No parish officers could start with better guidance. It is therefore interesting to find on the last page of the accounts what appears to be a copy of a chcular sent to Overseers in the district which reads as follows •/• " A brief note sett down by Sh Jhon Leveson Knight concerning the articles for the order to be observed by the ovseers of the poore for theh dhecsion in their proceedings as followeth : " (Then in another ink follow the words " B y me God save the Kynge.") " Vizt :— 1. ffirst the names of the poore are to be sett downe. 2. You are to assess aU the inhabitants for their abihties only without respect of their areas of land in their occupacion. Yff yt wiU not serve or suffice then you must assess aU the occupiers of land as weU psnioners as foreyners and therein you must assess psnioners and foreiners ahke. The assess so made ys to be yerly written into thys booke. 3. Thirdly the employment of the assess & of the stock. 4. ffourthly what apprentices you have placed are to be sett down & showed & what they cost placyng. 5. ffifthly what dwelling places for the poore you have pvided anew or otherwise repayred and mayntayned. 6. sixthly what yet remayne of your coUecsion & stock. 7. seventhly whom you have aUowed to begge. (Another hand adds the words ' Layed out.') 8. eighthly who have defaulted in the monthly meeting. 9. lastly who have defaulted in paymt towards the assesse and the names of those who are newly elected to be churchwardens and overseers for the poore." 1 There are also what appear to be similar instructions copied on to a blank space on the parchment deed, but the writing is too faded to decide whether they differ in any material degree from those given above. 75 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT Guided by this " brief note " the Overseers set out theh accounts as foUows: " To the first Article wee answer yt we find the hereafter named to be poore aged & impotent psons necessarUy to be relieved with continual almes being such as have already usuaUy received relief from our poore boxe.1 Vizt:-- Ehzabeth Morrice Wyddowe of the age of lx years for blindness unable to gett her hving without almes. (There is a note to this entry in another hand ' Placed in Cobham.') Jhon Saunders of the age of lx years lame unable to gett hys hving without almes. Rigeden Mock Wyddowe of lx years of age unable to gett her hving without almes. Guyn of the age of lx years lame unable to gett her hving without rehef. (In another hand there is a note ' died Jan 28 1601.") Mother Watchan of 90 years of age unable to work ys to be relieved with almes she hath a sonn Thomas Watcham att Colling able to kepe her. (In another hand there is a note ' died 1601.') Mother CarroU of L years of age lame unable to get her living without relief. (In another hand there is a note ' placed in Cobham new CoUege.') Agnes Horsley Wyddowe of the age of 45 years lame unable to hve without charitable rehef. Agnes Usher a lame wenche of the age of 50 years wanting rehef. Mother Carter of the age of 70 years unable to live without rehef. Foxe of xiij years of age a lame boy going with stUtes hving whoUy upon the almes of the psfie. Jhon Adams a boy of xi years of age so greivously tormented with the stone it he ys not able to work but needs daylye rehef. Also we finde those hereafter named to bee poore able labouring folke; yett thereby not able sufficiently, being by any sickness or other hynderance visited to helpe them selves butt are comonly reheved by our almes boxe. Vizt; Anthony Frauncys Thomas Streaton Robert Reignolds Stockwells children Fames Wyddowe Mother Watty. 1 I t is interesting to observe the close connection of the new relief with the old, previous help from the Poor box being mode the criterion of the need under the new regime. 76 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT • Also we answer to the second Article yt we finde the hereafter named of years able to bee putt to be apprentices vizt. Salomon Fame of xij years of age. Agnes Fame of the age of ix years. Jhon Saunders of the age of 9 years. George Adams of the age of xiij years. Prudence Horsley a ghl of the age of 9 years. Jhon Lark of the age of xij years. One of Stockwells chfidren we have putt out to be apprentice to a taylor of Chalk." I t may here be observed that this list of poor is only repeated twice in the later accoimts—in the years 1601 and 1602. The accounts 1598 to 1602 are signed by Sh John Leveson, but those after 1602 are not, so perhaps the hst of poor was his idea. After the lists of destitute, or potentiaUy destitute comes :— " An assessment made the xxhj of AprU 1598 by way of land scott for a stock to bee provyded and rehef to be given to and for the poore of the Pshe of Shorne." This consists of a hst of names and amounts, of interest only to the student of the parish history, which is omitted here. Each item mentions the acreage held by the ratepayer, but only in one or two places is the actual name of the property given. The " scott " appears to have been at the rate of Id. an acre. This method of assessment hardly complies with Article 2 of the Justices' dhections to " assess all the inhabitants for theh abilities only without respect of their areas of land in theh occupacion." Apparently Sh John Leveson had to bow to a deep-rooted local prejudice in favour of an assessment upon an acreage basis, a system which was stUl in use for the church rate a generation later. There are, however, traces of adjustments in the coUection. For instance in the 1598 account in the middle of a list of assessments at Id. an acre, there is an item " Off Wm Ilford for BuUam Marsh for 80 acres salte iijs. vijd."1 which works out at nearer ^d. an acre. The total year's assessment is £8 14s. Id. After the coUection foUows " The names of those wh have nott payd to the foresaid assessment " foUowed by a hst of nine names which may also be omitted except for the interesting and informative item which reads 1 This item is interesting in itself as an indication of a considerable change in the riverside part of the parish. Today there is no more than five or six acres of saltings. 77 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT " John Armstrong was assessed at iis. vd. who after he had manifested his poore estate wee thought it good to spare hym the cess iis. vd." The total amount uncollected is stated to be 10s. 9d. Having recorded the amount coUected, the Overseers then set outtheh expenditure as follows : " We thereof layd out weekely and monthly according to the necesity of the poor before mentioned in [sort ?] as hereafter appeareth: the pticulars whereof as they were severaUy and necessarUy payd to long here to dylat are abridged as foUoweth." " To Elizabeth Morrice Wyddowe in support of her Blyndness weekly aUowed xijd. hath had in all xxxvjs. vid. Mother Carroll by weekly aUowance of viijd. f; week hath had in aU xxijs. iiijd. Mother Wateham hath had in aU xijd. John Saunders by weekly aUowance of iiijd. the week hath had in all viijs. iiijd. Adam his boy troubled with the stone hath had viijs. iiijd. Agnes Usher hath had vjd. Mother Mocke hath had iijs. viijd. Gwynn hath had viijs. iid. To the Queens Bench poor prysoners vjs. vjd. Agnes Horsley hath had xijd. To Thomas AUyn the second of July in full payment of iijL wh he hath had for the keeping of one of PuUyners children who was borne in Shorne whereof he hath phiysed to discharge the pishe of Shorne xxs. To StockweUs wyfe xijd. To Streaton vijs. To the house of correction and to maymed souldiers xnjs. To a shirt for ffox xvjd. To the widdow Fame ijs. Sum layd out viiL viijd. So remayneth by thys accompt of the money aheady assessed to be pd over to the new overseers for the poore of the Prsh of Shorne xlijs. viijd. To be aUowed for this booke vd. 78 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT We also show yt to be aUowed to us for yt the xxs. which my Lord Grace gave was bestowed on the poore besyde the money before accompted in sort as necessity requyred being given to thatt end xxs.1 So remayneth no more in the whole to be delivered over but xxijs. Then foUows an interesting and exceptional item which is repeated each year untU 1602. " Moreover we say we have aUowed Wg ffoxe going with stilts to begge by our appoyntment att certain houses therein lymyted." Wigan Fox is described in the hst of poor as a cripple boy 13 years of age. Why he was treated differently from the other poor people is unknown. He apparently had only the parish or his begging to look to for subsistence, but there is no attempt to pay him a weekly pension or pay anyone to look after him. The expenses of 1598 record the purchase of a shirt for the boy and later accounts have similar items, but that is aU. Yet the parish was not unmindful of its responsibilities for in the year 1602 when he was seventeen years old and thus, by the standards of the time, almost a man, a number of Uluminating entries appear. In the list of impotent poor for that year (1602) there is a note " Fox placed out with a stock of money as shaU appear after." In the payments for that year there are the foUowing " More the apparreUing of ffoxe vizt for his shirt iijs iiijd for hose xiid clothe for jerkin and breeches hijs viijd sum ixs. It. moh given to Fox for placing hym in the hospitaU or almshouses att Darenth att Dartford vj£ " FinaUy, in the answer to the " fourth article " " Fourthly we answer Fox only is placed by us as before said & showed." From then onward the seventh article is always answered " We have aUowed none to begg." To return to the first year's accounts, the remaining " articles " are answered "Lastly for our monthly meeting wee have mett according to our articles. 1 This is an annual donation by the Archbishop of Canterbury which is dealt with more fully on a later page. 79 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT We the Churchwardens and overseers for the poore of the Pishe of Shorne appoynted by Sh Jhon Leveson Knight and Wm Lambard Esq the xxij of AprU 1598 foUow hereunder written Edward Armstrong George Reignold Churchwardens George Page Wigan Burston John Barnard WiUiam Munn Gent Gent Overseers appointed for the poor of the Prishe of Shorne." The status of the four overseers should be noticed. Two were local gentry and two the most substantial yeomen in the viUage. Clearly Sh John Leveson and WiUiam Lambard had been selective in theh first appointments and it is only fah to say that the standard soon falls off to the more normal yeomanry and smaU tradesmen of the viUage. So ends the first year of poor law in a Kentish viUage. The remaining years represented by these accounts follow in a general way the form of the first, and to repeat them might be tedious. It is perhaps permissible to add some notes upon the treatment of the poor as revealed in these early accounts. The main concern of the overseers was the " impotent" poor. The " poore able labouring folke " only come into the story occasionaUy, and are perhaps most notable for the way hi which they tend, as the years pass, to change from " Able labouring folke " to " Impotent." There is nothing in the accounts suggesting any attempt to put the able-bodied poor to work, and it must be supposed that they were expected to find theh own work, being granted a few coppers a week whenever they were incapacitated by sickness. The " Impotent " poor are reheved in a variety of ways, and a study of the accounts gives a broad pioture of theh place in village life. The principal method of relief of course was the " weekly aUowance." Throughout the ten years covered by the accounts the amounts range from 2d. to Is. a week. GeneraUy speaking only exceptional cases hke Ehzabeth Morrice, who was blind, received anything hke Is. a week. Cripples and even aged people seem to have been less generously relieved because presumably they could hobble around and pick up a few coppers at what the modern social system calls " hght labour." Thus, in 1602, Widow Mock received 6d. a week for the whole year, but received an additional shilling " when she was sick." In most accounts indeed the weekly payments are not for a complete year, being normaUy restricted to about ten months or less out of the year, 80 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT suggesting that the pauper was expected to support himself at certain times of the year—perhaps harvest time and the like. The problem of the amount paid to the destitute is comphcated by the fact that throughout the ten years covered by these accounts, private charity is inextricably mixed with parochial poor relief. In the accounts for the year 1598 to 1602 the Churchwardens and Overseers regularly record the receipt of gifts of money from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the local gentry, which was distributed among the poor " besydes theh weekly ahowances " as the accounts put it. This money even had a special name " devocon money," and the amounts received though they vary, were often substantial. For instance, in 1602, the amounts are set out as follows : " More wE my Ls grace of Canterbury gave xxs. " More wE my L. Cobham gave xxs. " More wE ys given by the last wUl of Reignold Hawke yearly. xxs. " More wE ys yerly given for Hutchynis gyft xs. " More wE ys yerely given by Mr Cheyney of London ad bene (?) xxvjs. viijd. An amount of £4 16s. 8d. so added to the poor rate meant a considerable addition to the total sum avaUable, for the total rates received and distributed average only about nine pounds per year throughout the whole period. This " Devocon money " was distributed on St. Thomas's day, and at Easter time. The St. Thomas's day distribution at least seems to have been at a special ceremony for in 1600 Harry Jameson received " for towhng ye beU 4d." The intricacies of accountancy in Roman numerals and Court hand, plus the ravages of time make it hard to say exactly what each of the poor received each year from this source, but in 1601 the amount paid on St. Thomas's day is clearly stated to have been 2s. lOd. per head. It should also be mentioned that among the recipients of " devocon money " there are some who are not mentioned in either of the hsts of impotent or able-bodied poor, and who otherwise receive no rehef from the parish. One must assume that there were besides the named paupers, a fringe of people whose means were such that, though they were not " on the rates ", they were considered to be deserving of some occasional oharitable assistance. Apart from weekly payments, there were other methods of providing relief. For instance the housing of the poor was one of the Overseers' responsibilities. From the outset the overseers did not hesitate to take advantage of Lord Cobham's new foundation of Cobham CoUege Almshouses. Shorne parish had (and stUl has) two vacancies in the almshouses which were fiUed immediately after the estabUshment of 81 10 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT the Charity by two of the Shorne poor ; blind Ehzabeth Morrice, and lame Mother CarroU. These two were among the highest paid of Shorne's poor and to get them into the CoUege where they would receive the alms of the CoUege was an obvious saving of Shorne rates. There is some indication in the history of the College that this practice of exporting paupers from the viUages entitled to fiU vacancies to the CoUege was to prove a nuisance to Cobham and the Charity, but it is clear that from the first Shorne overseers regarded it as a proper practice and Sh John Leveson and WiUiam Lambard (both Executors of Lord Cobham's wiU) did not object. On the other hand Cobham overseers seem to have seen the danger at once for in 1599 we find an entry in the Shorne accounts " It. for writinge a bond for our poore when they were put into ye Right Honorable ye Lo. of Cobham his hospital viijd." The almshouses at Cobham, however, were not sufficient to house all the poor of Shorne, and in 1604 the Overseers provided accommodation at Shorne. In that year we find a payment of " I t . to Thomas Brice to buhd a house on Shorne HiU for the poore xlvjs." and in the answer to the fifth " article " that year there is a statement " It. wee have sett up and finished (' a house ' is put in and struck out) two tenements for poore people wherein are dwelling olde MiUs & his wife & an old widdowe woman caled Mother Horslie." At this time the top of Shorne HiU formed part of the manorial waste and thus provided an ideal free site for the erection of what must be considered extremely cheap accommodation. From payments made some fifty years later for the repah of these houses it would seem they were thatched and of wattle and daub construction. Besides a weekly allowance and housing the poor sometimes received an aUowance in kind, such as in 1600. " It. payd for a tovat of wheat for ould Saunders xviijd." NormaUy, however, rehef in kind was reserved for clothing of children and the adult poor had to subsist on a weekly payment of 2d. to Is. per week, an organized distribution of charity money, and limited housing accommodation, tempered by somewhat more generous treatment in times of sickness. The rehef of sickness is perhaps worth a moment's consideration. I t naturaUy implied complete incapacity, and the average rate of rehef was comparatively high. For instance, in 1601 there are several payments for rehef of sickness, including " To George Adams in his sickness 9. 0. " To him weekly 6d. 12. 0. " To him at his going to London to the hospital 2. 0. 82 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT In 1602 and 1606 there is a higher incidence of sickness relief than usual, and some sort of pestUence may well have visited the viUage in these years. In 1606, indeed, there is an unusual payment " It for the rehefe of the poore of Cobham in the sickness time xxs. Whether this was the plague does not appear, but the later parish poor accounts record a similar (though larger) payment to the " visited parishes of Milton and Gravesend " in 1665 when the plague is known to have ravaged those parishes. The treatment of chUdren in these early years of poor law should be mentioned. Apprenticeship was of course the standard practice, and the putting out of StockweU's chUd to a •" taylor " of Chalk in 1598 has aheady been noticed. In Shorne, however, the practice of apprenticeship seems to have been rare in the years under consideration, for only three apprentices (including the somewhat exceptional case of Foxe) are noted, and although six children are mentioned in the " Articles " of 1598 as " Fit to be apprenticed " the accounts bear no trace of any attempt to apprentice any of them except Solomon Fames who was bound out in the foUowing year. One of the expenses of an apprenticeship was the fitting out of the child with clothes and this has preserved one glimpse of the apprentice lad's new-bought finery in an entry in 1599 " It. for apparell for Solomon Ffarnes a jerkin, hose and shoes and doublet shirt and other necessaries when we put him out to be an apprentice viijs. NormaUy, however, the overseers simply answer the article about apprentices " Nyther have we bounde any one apprentice." The entry in 1598 about " PuUeyners child " is ambiguous, but in 1602 the overseers were confronted with a " parish bastard." In that year there is an entry among the list of parish poor " Pettits bastard kept whoUy by ye poore stock which may be remedied by your worship." Apparently " your worship "• did not choose to remedy this matter, or the remedy proved useless, for in the foUowing years there are entries hke those in 1604 " It. to Goodwife Bhchard for nursing of one Pettit base born thirtie weekes xls. " It. to Thomas Blackford for keeping Pettits chfld aforesaid xxi weekes xxjs. and the child is kept by different people at the parish expense during the remainder of the period of the accounts. 83 AN EARLY POOR LAW ACCOUNT All the foregoing is, of course, closely chcumscribed parish history, and only here and there does one find a reference to the outside world. There were, however, three regular annual payments to outside authority " I t to ye queens bench the 11th August It to ye marshalsea even ye same time I t to ye gaole and house of correction and maymed souldiers xvijs. iiijd." In one form or another these items appear in each account. The money was apparently paid to the constable of the Hundred and does not seem to have been very popular in parochial chcles. At any rate after the entries in 1600 the antipathy between the local and central government comes out strongly when the Overseers add after the entry of payment " We pay this mony wholy to ye constable and theh and their (sic) acquittances can show. How it is distributed we know not." There are, of course, many other entries of a routine nature in these accounts, but they belong to a ftdler study of poor law in general rather than a note upon what must be one of the earhest rural poor law accounts in existence. Perhaps sufficient has been said to justify the claim that a document of some importance in local, social, and economic history lies otherwise unrecorded in the parish chest of Shorne. 84