During
the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the 1601 Poor Law Act was brought
in, requiring townships to financially support their own poor people,
and to raise money locally by taxes and from charities for this.
Overseers were appointed locally by the township to administer the
raising of the taxes and the distribution of the money.
The
Overseers levied a Poor Rate on the leaseholders and freeholders
of the township, based on the annual value of their properties.
This money was used to alleviate the hardships of the poor. The
Overseers were answerable to the township, clergy and the magistrates.
All details of the money paid out of the parish funds, and the reason
why, were recorded in the Overseers’ accounts.
The
home township of a claimant was obliged by law to support that family
in times of financial need. However, the main condition of entitlement
to Parish Relief was that the man of the household had to show he had a
legal right to settlement in that township. The rules, first introduced
in 1601, changed little over the following 250 years.
In order to qualify for legal settlement, a man had to show one
of the following:
1. That he was born in the township of legally settled parents
2. That he rented property in the township worth at least £10
a year, or paid taxes on such a property.
3. That he held a Parish Office
4. That he had been hired by a legally settled inhabitant for
a continuous period of 365 days,
5. That he had served a full apprenticeship to a legally settled
man for the full 7 years
6. That he had been granted relief previously
Women changed their legal settlement on marriage, adopting their
husbands legal place of settlement. If a couple lived in another
township and he died, she would automatically be removed to his
place of legal settlement along with any issue from the marriage.
This unfair situation is seen in the story of recently widowed AMANDA HAIGH where she was removed by order of the Magistrates to Todmorden,
a town she had never previously lived in, simply because her deceased
husband's ancestors had been "of Todmorden".
If
a person could satisfy one of the six requirements he could move
into a new parish using a settlement certificate providing his home
parish would issue one. This was virtually a form of indemnity issued
by the home parish stating that he and his family and future issue
belonged to them and they would take responsibility if he became
chargeable to the new parish. Because of the expense of removal
it would be unlikely his home parish would issue a certificate for
a parish a large distance away. A settlement certificate was only
valid if it bore the seals of the overseers of both parishes and
that of the local magistrates.
If a man or his family became, or threatened to become, reliant
on parish relief and he could not satisfy the strict guidelines
for legal settlement, then he was liable to be removed to the place
of his last legal settlement. If he possessed a settlement certificate
he would be carted back to his old parish at their expense but if
no settlement certificate was in force then a removal order was
applied for from the local magistrates. This would usually involve
an Examination as to Settlement carried out before the magistrate,
overseers and another ratepayer in order to ascertain his place
of last legal settlement . In tenuous cases others may have to be
examined also, parents, grandparents and siblings. These examinations
could run into many pages virtually the life story of the individuals
family. An example of this is the story of Thomas Law.
Thomas
Law, his wife Mary (Sutcliffe), and children Sally aged 8, Hannah
aged 6, Betty aged 4 and Abraham aged 2, were the subject of a Magistrate's
removal order. They were living on Square in Walsden in 1820. It
is thought that Thomas had been in prison for some 4 years during
which time his wife had been receiving 7 shillings a week from the
township. When Thomas came home the family was investigated as to
its true settlement. The township of Todmorden & Walsden applied
to have them removed to the adjacent township of Stansfield based
on a belief that Thomas inherited his great grandfather's settlement
in Stansfield. The township of Stansfield appealed against the order
and the following transcriptions from original documents shows the
extent to which the townships were prepared to go to establish true
settlement. They went back in history to his great grandfather,
William Law of Hazelgreave, who died in 1768, some 50 years before
the case in question. It is doubtful that Thomas Law the pauper
had lived anywhere other than in the township of Todmorden &
Walsden, but was made to remove over the border to Stansfield due
to his great grandfather having been settled there and never having
established his own right of residence in Todmorden & Walsden.
Examination
of Samuel Law of Square
(A
first cousin twice removed to Thomas.)
The
examination of Samuel Law of SQUARE taken this 14th day of April
1820, who sayeth that he was born in 1744, that his grandfather's
name was Robert Law and that he lived on Mellings Farm at about
£5 per annum when his father, whose name was also Robert Law,
was born. He says that he knew William Law, his uncle, when he lived
at Wadsworth Mill, that he heard his uncle William Law say that
he served an apprenticeship with George Stansfield of Holebottom
to learn the business of a shoemaker. He thinks he set up business
at HANGINGSHAW when he left Holebottom and from thence he went
to live at Hazelgreave and commenced the business of carpenter.
He says that he knew Samuel Law, son of the last mentioned William
Law, and when he first knew where he, the last mentioned Samuel
Law, lived, it was at GAUXHOLME STONES FARM. He thinks that the
rent paid by Samuel Law for Stones Farm was about £5. He does
not know that he, Samuel Law, had ever had Stones Farm leased to
him at £11 per annum, the interest in the latter part of which
he sold to ABRAHAM CROSSLEY of Knowlwood. He sayeth that Samuel
Law told him that his son, also Samuel Law, would have taken the
Stones Farm and stock upon it off him prior to his selling the lease
to Abraham Crossley, but that he, Samuel Law, refused to rent it
to his son doubting that he might not pay the rent regularly and
thinking that he might want all that the lease was worth for himself.
He does not consequently remember ever hearing of Samuel Law paying
any rates or taxes during his occupation of Stones Farm.
Signed
Samuel Law
Submission of the Magistrates
On
the part of Todmorden it has been shown in evidence that William
Law, great grandfather of Thomas Law, with his wife Susan and Martha
their daughter were removed from Todmorden to Stansfield by order
of 2 magistrates. The hearing date was June 10th 1718. On the 15th
July following the said family brought a certificate from Stansfield
to Todmorden in which the said certificate acknowledged the said
William Law, wife and child, to be legally settled in the said township
of Stansfield, and promising that if they should become chargeable
to Todmorden they would leave, and provide for them according to
law.
On
24th July 1718, that is 9 days after the certificate, the Quarter
Sessions were held at Manchester at which, no appeal being made
by Stansfield, the sessions confirmed the order and filed the same
upon the records of the court.
Todmorden
have also identified the same William Law, Susan his wife and Martha
their child, to be the same named in the certificate by the testimony
of their grandchildren. They state their father was Samuel Law of
Gauxholme Stones, that their grandfather was William, their grandmother
was Susan, and their aunt was Martha Law. By the register of baptism
of the said Martha Law at Heptonstall as daughter of William Law,
March 3rd. 1716, about 2 years before the date of the certificate,
and by the register of baptism for Samuel Law at Todmorden and son
of William Law, shoemaker, December 25th 1720, and by the baptism
at Todmorden of several other children, issue of William and Susan
Law, who were all known by the 3 descendants of Samuel Law attested,
and by the further concurrences circumstances of relief to Susan,
widow of said William after his death. His burial is registered
at Todmorden April 3rd . 1766 and hers at the same place 3rd March
1769. And by the books in which the accounts of returns to the poor
of Stansfield is impeached. Which said books were produced at the
last meeting by Messrs. Stokes and Crossley. It appears that the
said Susan Law, widow, was registered as a reliefee by them from
the period of the death of her husband even to the month in which
she was buried and while she was residing in Todmorden where she
died.
Todmorden
have also evidence that Samuel Law, the father of the pauper, Thomas
Law, was baptised Aug 26th 1749 and married Susan Dec 3rd 1772 and
the date of which marriage, Law's settlement would be with that
of his father and as his emancipation then the place, with no subsequent
alteration to settlement, the settlement of the father could change
the settlement of his son. Todmorden have also proved in evidence
that Betty Law, daughter of Samuel the first, removed from Todmorden
to Stansfield to bear her bastard child in 1774, which child was
named Susey Law and baptised at Cross Stones Jan 5th 1775, and also
that Betty Law, now Fielden, daughter of Samuel the second removed
from Todmorden to Stansfield to have her bastard child in 1797 and
that the township of Stansfield have been relieving the family of
William Law, son of Samuel the
second and brother of the pauper for now more than 11 years and
that in 1809 the said William's family were removed from Todmorden
to Stansfield by an order of the magistrates, which said order was
never appealed against. Also the family of Thomas the pauper have
now been receiving relief for nearly 4 years and the last 3 years
at 7 shillings a week. Which said relief appears (?) to these 4
different branches of the descendants of Samuel the first, embracing
a period of more than 45 years and given by Stansfield to the paupers
while they were residing in Todmorden.
The
township of Todmorden contends that this is sufficient to counterveil
any settlements in Todmorden if some had been proved, and to have
been gained by Samuel the first and by him communicated to his son
prior to his emancipation in 1772 and in support of this they have
produced and rely on the cases of............ but in this case,
they humbly concede the original settlement has never been altered
but is continuing in full force to this day. On the part of Stansfield
nothing has been brought forward to prove any change of settlement
with respect to the family in question, and which they themselves
(?) a lease of a small part of ground to build a house upon at Stones,
from John Hardman to Samuel Law bearing the date 20 Aug 1748.
The
family was ordered to remove in May 1820.
There
were five classes of people needing relief from the parish: the
sick, the aged, widows, deserted wives and orphans and unemployed
able-bodied inhabitants. There were also destitute wanderers and
temporary residents. For those who could satisfy one of the conditions
of entitlement he could apply for relief and this would be granted
by the Overseer at an amount determined by the Overseer. It was
usually paid as cash, but sometimes as food or goods. The Poor could
also obtain help towards baptisms and funerals.
Emergency
payments mostly went to the sick, and in the eighteenth century
it was frequently Small Pox that caused the problems. The Overseer
of Todmorden & Walsden paid out:
1740
to Robert Hardman when his children had the pox-3 shillings
1740
to John Law when his wife and children were in pox-5shillings
1741
to Abraham Feber when his child had small pox-2 shillings
1747
to Thomas Newall when his wife and children were all badly of the
pox-15 shillings
1747
to John Wilde when his children were all badly with the small pox-5
shillings
(information
from A History of Todmorden by Malcolm & Freda Heywood and Bernard
Jennings)
Private
charities relieved the burden of finance on the Overseer to
some extent. One such charity in Todmorden & Walsden was Gartside's
Charity. This was money to enable the provision of cloth with which
to make sheets and clothing. It was allocated each Christmas Day
to the township for distribution to the poor. Each January Todmorden
received about 50 yards of linen, which was distributed as follows: |
