SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



give 2J. or zs. bd. a week more to the poor rate until they left the parish."" 

 No one at Lyme could enter the town without the consent of the mayor, 

 and no person could take any under-tenant into his house without the 

 same permission."^ There was a two-fold barrier against immigration into 

 the town. It was, no doubt, with the object of securing the artisan class 

 already in the town from becoming chargeable that 'no artificer or trader was 

 to take any apprentice from out of the town, if there be anyone fit in the town 

 to serve him,' without, as usual, the consent of the mayor and chief burgesses."* 

 Again, Henry Webb, the new tailor, had a day given him by which he was 

 to depart the town. Taken in connexion with a document at Weymouth, 

 giving the names of such tradesmen ' as have liberty to use their trade,' not 

 being freemen of the town, it would appear that even the number of tradesmen 

 was regulated, for fear, presumably, that some should fail and so become 

 chargeable to the town."' 



Side by side with this severity, and in accordance with the Elizabethan 

 Act of 1 60 1, local means of a more charitable nature were taken to prevent 

 persons eventually becoming chargeable to their parish. In 16 16 a 'Hospital' 

 was founded in Dorchester "* ' for the harbouring and setting to work of the 

 children of the poor,' who were to be taught ' to spin and burle,' "^ and 

 received wages every Saturday for the work which they had done during the 

 week. The overseer of the ' Hospital ' was to give a list, every three months, 

 of what each boy and girl had earned, so that the town authorities might have 

 some check upon its management. That the Elizabethan idea of providing 

 work for the poor still prevailed in the early part of the eighteenth century is 

 shown by the will of a certain Sir Samuel Mico of Weymouth, who left 

 property to enable three poor children to be apprenticed every year."' 



Apart from this provision of work for the poor, it was during the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries, with the increased distress, that many of the charitable 

 institutions were founded by private bequests. In 1559 Elizabeth gave a 

 licence for the erection of almshouses at Wimborne, in pursuit of the will of 

 the marchioness of Exeter. The almshouses were duly erected shortly after- 

 wards by Lord Mountjoy, to whom the charge was entrusted, and endowed 

 with a fixed rent."^ An almshouse was also established at Corfe Castle in 

 1 62 I, through a fund bequeathed by Sir Edmund Uvedale for that purpose."' 

 There was a large almshouse at Sherborne ' for twelve poor men and four poor 

 women ' ; it was governed by twenty of the most substantial inhabitants, but 

 when it was founded and whether by private or municipal enterprise is un- 

 certain."' 



Sometimes bequests, especially smaller ones, were funded and the pro- 

 ceeds distributed in annual doles. 'John Mathewe of Mynterne ' left /^2o in 

 trust to his wife, to pay 40J. yearly to the poor of Minterne."" John Browne 

 of Frampton, who died in 1670, left jr5o to the poor of Frampton."' 

 In one instance the minute capital of 40J. was bequeathed by a carpenter 

 of Buckland Newton for the poor of his parish. Eighteen years afterwards 

 the churchwardens of Buckland Newton received the comparatively large 



■»« Roberts, Social Hist, of the Southern Cos. 183. '" Ibid. 180-1. '«» Ibid. 187. 



'S' Ibid. 180, 183. "• Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 397. '" Ibid. 399. 



'** Petty Bag : Proceedings of Commissioners for Charitable Uses, bdle. 48, No. 1. 

 "' Ibid. bdle. 10, No. 2. '»» Ibid. "' Ibid. bdle. I, No. 5. 



'«' Ibid. bdle. 10, No. 2. '" Ibid. bdle. 36, No. 26. 



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