A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



in a lump sum of 6s. for the widows there. The recipients were all either 

 widows or children, the latter having been boarded out, but as their age is 

 not given no estimate of the cost of their maintenance can be formed. Their 

 clothes were also provided ; in the same year the entry under this head 

 included ' 2 aprons, 2 queafes, a paire of bodies, making two smocks,' for 

 3-f. i od. Clothes were bought for other paupers as well, linen for the poor 

 being a frequent entry, as well as outfits for boys who were apprenticed 

 i os. 6d. was paid for the clothes of 'Sam Bankes boy' when he went to 

 London as an apprentice. The overseers also attended to the repair of the 

 almshouses, but these do not seem to have provided house room for those sup- 

 ported, nor were rents paid out of the poor rates until 1670, when Mr. Diggit 

 received $s. 6d. ' for old Howes quit rent in Walton.' How the house room 

 was provided before this date does not appear, but the widows may have lived 

 as inmates or lodgers in other houses or with their children. In one case a 

 daughter was given zs. for looking after her mother, but this seems an 

 exceptional case, and relations were probably required to do something 

 towards supporting old people and children where possible. For instance, a 

 man named Anthony Todd died in 1677, and his children were provided for 

 by the overseers. Their father appears to have been fairly well off, since 

 the sale of his effects includes four mares, three cows, two heifers, seventy-three 

 sheep and lambs, a little corn and a wagon. William Todd (his relationship 

 is not specified) was required to pay 2os. per annum toward the maintenance 

 of the children, who appeared in the accounts as ordinary parish children. 



A certain number of those who received relief may have also been 

 earning some money by spinning, the only form of work provided by the 

 overseers at this time. 



In 1658, 1,493 lb. of hemp were bought at %d. a lb.,and the poor were 

 paid for spinning at the rate of \d. a Ib. Some of the yarn was then sent to 

 weavers, who received 3 4-f. \d. for their work, and finally the cloth and 

 the rest of the yarn were sold to various people, resulting in a loss on the 

 whole transaction for the year of 9 ijs. zd. The next year the spinning of 

 the yarn cost the same amount, \zd. a Ib., and some was sold at cost price, 

 the result being a greater loss. The overseers finally gave up providing the 

 work for the poor themselves, and contracts were entered into with two men, 

 apparently hemp-dressers, who employed the poor, receiving in all 8 IQJ. 

 from the overseers. The transaction still brought a small loss to the parish, 

 but only 8s. 8</., so that the contracting system must have been found far 

 more advantageous than the direct employment of paupers by the overseers. 



The custom of paying house rent increased very considerably towards 

 the end of the century, and repairs were also carried out at the ratepayers' 

 expense. The overseers rented cottages for the paupers who could 

 not live with their relations. The same system existed elsewhere, for 

 the churchwardens and overseers at Ilmer were ordered in i68o 199 to place 

 another inhabitant ' in the house where Emma Bigge dwelt,' a new door and 

 chimney being added to the house. At Hughenden leave was obtained from 

 the justices to build a cottage to provide accommodation for the poor, and 

 the lord of the manor had been petitioned for a vacant place on the waste 

 ground as a site. 



m Quart. Sess. Rec. 



