SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



various restrictions on tradesmen in the town. No person weaving or 

 fulling was to occupy more than one such trade ; he must have been either 

 apprenticed in the borough, or else brought up in his youth with craftsmen of 

 the same occupation ; no c occupyers of the crafts of wevyng, fullyng, or 

 clothyng ' were to * put forth any of their work to dy or full otherwise than 

 to craftsmen of the same boro' occupying that trade.' This was the earliest of 

 many orders to craftsmen of all kinds, limiting their freedom in their trades, 

 and though undated was probably due to the crisis in the wool trade brought 

 about by Wolsey's foreign policy in 1527- 8, m since its object was to protect 

 the established weavers and fullers in the borough from the competition 

 of new comers driven to the town by the loss of work elsewhere. 



The distress arising from the various causes enumerated led to the 

 passing of a series of statutes terminating in the Poor Laws of 1597 and 

 1 60 1, and simultaneously the Privy Council, by means of orders to the 

 magistrates of various counties and towns, attempted to alter and amend the 

 economic condition of the country. 



Between 1514 and 1569 there are many of the Council's proclamations 

 to be found amongst the state papers of the time. The commission on 

 inclosures has already been dealt with in its relation to Buckinghamshire, 

 but otherwise there are no returns of the justices of the peace in answer to 

 the letters of the Council, until the letter written by William Tyldsley, in 

 I562, 178 apparently in answer to the instructions of 1561."* 



The statutes dealt mainly with vagrancy, and the compulsory apprentice- 

 ship of poor children, but important steps were taken for the collection of 

 funds in each parish. No.t until 1572, however, was any advance made 

 towards a compulsory poor rate. 



In 1547 an Act was passed ordering cottages to be erected for the 

 impotent poor, and in 15512 alms were to be collected in every parish 

 by collectors nominated by the householders of each parish. There was 

 no compulsion, however, on the givers of the alms, but their generosity was 

 to be encouraged by the exhortations of the parsons and the bishop. 



The poor box is mentioned in 1562 in Tyldsley's report, and those who 

 made default in coming to church were to be presented by the church- 

 wardens, the collectors of the poor-men's box, or two of the best men 

 in every parish, once a month to the grand jury. The fines arising from 

 these presentments were to go to the poor box, but evidently regular 

 collectors were not to be found in every parish at this time : at Wing 18 in 

 the churchwardens' accounts they do not appear until 1577. The only 

 entries before that year record payments to the poor of varying amounts 

 on All Souls' Day. 



In 1572 the justices and mayors were empowered to assess the poor rate 

 and appoint overseers and collectors. Those who resisted the exhortations of 

 the bishop to contribute to the rate might be taken before two magistrates 

 and imprisoned, but there was still no distraint on non-payment. 



The necessity for a compulsory poor rate arose in the first place owing 

 to the vagrancy laws, 181 which had ordered, that after a vagrant had been 



"' The town of Buckingham luffcred when the staple for wool was altered to Calaii and sought relief 

 by an Act of Parliament 1535; Browne Willis, H'ul. of Borough and HunJrtJ of Buckingham. 

 "* S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 19, No. 13. " Sloane MS. 152, foL 16. 



'" Churchwardens' Accu. " ai Hen. VIII. 



2 73 10 



