A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



that year an attempt to economize was made by abandoning the system of 

 paying rents for paupers' cottages, and the vestry decided that the almshouses, 

 which were in the course of rebuilding, should have lodging chambers built 

 over them, with chimneys in them, ' for receiving such poor into them to 

 dwell in as may discharge the said parish from payments of any rents after 

 the Michaelmas quarter following.' 



In 1722 a further attempt was made to ensure greater economy by a 

 statute enacting that parishes might provide workhouses for the reception of 

 paupers, and that no one who refused to live in the house should receive 

 parochial relief. The building of workhouses followed quickly on this Act. 

 At Wing the repair of the workhouse becomes a frequent charge in the 

 accounts, and for some time the workhouse test seems to have been adopted 

 there as elsewhere. At Aylesbury it is possible that the almshouses had 

 taken the place of such a workhouse at this time, for the latter institution is 

 not mentioned till 1758, when it was resolved at a vestry meeting ' that under 

 no pretence whatever should the overseers pay or cause to be paid any sum 

 or sums of money for the relief of persons who refuse to come into the work- 

 house, and that after Michaelmas no rents will be paid or allowed.' How 

 long the workhouse with living-rooms had been in existence does not appear, 

 but the resolution shows that the old order of 1702 forbidding the payment 

 of rents had become obsolete. 



The maintenance of the poor in the workhouse was carried out by 

 contracts, but the contractor lost to such an extent that it was decided to 

 pay him 95 over and above his contract by way of compensation. The 

 proceeding seems to have been exceedingly unbusiness-like and savours a 

 good deal of undue influence exercised by the contractor in the vestry. The 

 next year the overseers, apparently to get out of the difficulty, undertook 

 the management of the workhouse themselves. 



Provision was made in various ways for the children in the workhouse ; 

 at one time twelve catechism books were bought ; at another payments for 

 schooling, only for boys, are entered at the rate of zd. a week for each boy. 



The inmates of the workhouse were still provided with work, but 

 sewing and lace-making had taken the place of spinning. A considerable 

 number of silk lace-makers seem to have been regular employees at the 

 workhouse, since entries are made of payments of id. each to lace-makers 

 when they cut off; at another time they received 3^. to keep ' Caterin.' 

 The master or governor of the Aylesbury workhouse does not appear under 

 that name, but Isaac Wheeler, who in 1788 and the succeeding years 

 received a salary ' to look after the workhouse,' probably occupied some such 

 position. The question of the settlement of vagrants also involved a great 

 deal of expense. Appeals to quarter sessions were continual, and the object 

 of each parish was to prevent the settlement of anyone likely to become 

 chargeable on the poor rate. Since the Restoration the Settlement Acts 

 were made terribly severe, and the same tendency is shown in the orders of 

 quarter sessions. In 1680 any persons taking a tenement of small value in 

 any parish in the county, with the intent to become inhabitants, could be 

 removed to their last place of settlement, by the court, if they had been 

 warned to depart by the churchwardens and overseers. In fact if there was 

 the least future possibility of a newcomer becoming chargeable to the parish,. 



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