295 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



suid, That it shall and may be 

 lawful, upon complaint made by 

 the church-wardens or overseeis 

 of the poor of any parish, to any 

 justice of the peace, within forty 

 days after any such person or per- 

 sons coming to settle, as afore- 

 said, in any tenement under 

 the yearly value of 10/. for any 

 two justices of the peace, whereof 

 one to be of the quorum, at the 

 division where any person or per- 

 sons that are likely to be charijea- 

 ble to the parish shall come to in- 

 habit, by their warrant to remove 

 and convey sucli person or persons 

 to such parish where lie or they 

 were last legally settled, either as 

 a native householder, sojourner, 

 apprentice or servant, for the 

 space of forty days at the least, 

 unless he or they give suilicient 

 security for the discharge of the 

 said parish, to be allowed of by 

 the said justices." 



But as a settlement would be 

 thus gained byfortydays residence, 

 and that residence might not be 

 matter of notoriety, when such a 

 natural inducement would exist to 

 ccmceal it, by a subsequent act the 

 forty days residence is to be reck- 

 oned, not from the day of the 

 person coming to inhabit, but 

 from the time at which he gives a 

 notice in writing to one of the 

 parish oflicers f>f his abode, and 

 the number of his family. But 

 even this precaution against a clan- 

 destine residence was not enough 

 to prevent such notice being de- 

 feated by the inattention and mis- 

 concUict of the ofRcei s ; anil it was 

 therefore further pp.vided, that 

 s\ich notice should be j)uhlishcd in 

 the church and rr gistered ; it was 

 felt necessary, howevei , to provide 

 that the foUowing persons should 



be deemed to have a legal settle- 

 ment in the parish, though no 

 such notice in writing be delivered 

 or published : 



1st. Any peison executing a 

 public annual office in tlie parish, 

 or paying parish taxes. 



"3(1. Any unmarried person, with- 

 out child or children, hired for 

 one year. 



3d. Any person bound an ap- 

 prentice by indenture. 



Notwithstanding these excep- 

 tions, the mischief of making the 

 labouring classes thus stationary 

 appears to have been soon felt, 

 and the expedient was adopted of 

 granting certiticates by the major 

 part of the parish officers, and 

 allowed by two justices, acknow- 

 ledging the persons lemoving to 

 belong to their parish, undertaking 

 to jirovide for them whenever they 

 may be forced to ask relief of the 

 parish to which such certificate is 

 brought ; in that case they weie 

 irremovable till actually chargea- 

 ble ; but in that event they might 

 be conveyed to their place of set- 

 tlement. By these means, it was 

 hoped, that those who were in 

 want of work in one parish niight 

 be enabled to seek it in another, 

 notwithstanding the provisions of 

 the 13ih and 14th, C. II. which re- 

 strained them from cafiying their 

 labour to the best market. 



By a subsequent act, care w as 

 taken that no settlement should be 

 gained by a residence under such 

 certificate, unless the party took a 

 lease of a tenement of the annual 

 value of lOi. or executed some 

 annual office, being legally placed 

 therein. And by the l2th Anne, 

 c. 18, an apprentice or a hiied 

 servant to a certificated [lerson, 

 could not by virtue of the appren- 

 ticeship. 



