A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



In 1637 the Assizes were ordered to be held at Ipswich instead of 

 Bury, on account of the plague, and Ipswich Fair on St. James's Day was 

 discontinued lest the influx of pedlars and people might infect the town.'"* 

 In 1665 the Corporation of Bury, 'conceiving it very necessary in these 

 dangerous times of God's visitation timely to provide a pest-house,' set apart 

 for the purpose the great barn called Almoners' Barn, as they had no other 

 use for it that year.'"* 



In the latter part of the reign of Charles II Suffolk stood twelfth among 

 the counties of England in the average amount of its poor rate."" CuUum '" 

 gives some details of the sums of money expended on the relief of the poor 

 in Hawstead over a term of years : 



Raised by Collection 



I u d. £ i. d, 



1671 3 18 o 1676 822 



1672 470 i68o ID 15 8 



1672-4 13 19 3 1681 13 8 6 



1675 16 3 8 



Under the latter year occurs the account for a pauper's funeral."* 



z. d. 



Laid out for woollen and bread for Edward Goodwin's burial ... 76 



For a cheese for the funeral ........13 



For beer at the funeral ......... 2 6 



Beside this may be placed the provision of clothing for another pauper, 



'Mother Codnam,' in 1701."* 



I. d. 



For a gowne ...........4^ 



More for a pair of bodies ......... 2 2 



For a shift 20 



For a petticoat . . . . • . • • . • iio 



For a pair of stockings .........18 



For a mantle ........... I 8 



For a hat ........... 10 



For a pair of shoes .......... 2 4 



The expenditure upon poor relief in Hawstead continued very small till 

 well on in the i8th century. For some years after 1724 it did not exceed 

 ^10 a year; till 1735, £zo. By 1767 it had reached £100, and by 1774 



In Glemsford, a parish of 2,400 population, the poor rates rose from 

 ^678 in 1772 to yri,ioo in 1792, and ^z^\zc) in 1796."" 



The feeling appears to have been general that the reorganization of 

 poor relief which took place all over Suffolk about this time led to an 

 increase of dependence on parochial support."' But at the same time this 

 very reorganization had been rendered necessary by the working of economic 

 causes. Suffolk a second time had passed through the severe trial of the 

 decay of a staple industry, though one less acutely felt than at the first owing 

 to her advance in agricultural prosperity. The making of the new draperies, 

 ' bays, says and calimancoes,' introduced into Suffolk by Dutch refugees in 



"" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1637, pp. 282-3. 



"• Min. Bks. of Corp. of Bury, Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. xiv, App. viii, 145. 



'" Rogers, Hist. ofJgric. and Prices, iv, 122. "' Op. cit. 158. 



'" Cullum, op. cit. 162. '" Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. i, 358. '" Cullum, op. cit. 186. 



"' Young, op. cit. (ed. 1797), 18. "' Cullum, op. cit. 168. 



678 



