OF NORFOLK. 



l 57 



ton, on one fide of me, they are ten j and in the 

 parifh of Marfham, on the other fide, they are fif- 

 teen; fo that, in the latter place, more is paid to 

 fupport the poor, than the landlords put in their 

 'pockets : for, after they have paid land-tax, and 

 kept their buildings in repair, they do not get 

 above fifteeen millings. The obvious confe- 

 quence of this is, that where an acre of land would 

 be worth twenty {hillings, if there were no poor 

 rates, it can only be worth ten fhillings fubject to 

 them. 



There is one material reafon, however, to be 

 affigned why the poor rates are fo very high in 

 the parifh of Marfham, and many other panfhes, 

 not far diftant from Norwich. In the year 1712, 

 an a 61 of parliament paifed, for regulating the 

 workhoufes in that city, in which a£t, there is a 

 claufe which prevents any apprentice, taken from 

 any country village, from gaining any fettlement 

 in Norwich. — This was evidently done to encou- 

 rage the manufactory, when it was upon a pros- 

 perous and flourifhing footing — but it has had 

 a cruel effect upon the parifhes, which, origi- 

 nally, furnifhed the city with thefe apprentices ; 

 many of them married in Norwich aiui clle- 

 jvhere, and, upon the decline of the trade, the 

 city preferring its own poor, thefe R ranger , for 

 want of w ; ji k, were obliged to return 10 their ori- 

 ginal place of refidence, and many () ' them 



brought 



