POOR'S RATE. 



kept by the parish where they happen to 

 be. 



Certificates. This head is almost done 

 away by the salutary law which will be 

 noticed under. 



Removals. So much of 13, 14 Charles 



II. c. 12, as enables justices to remove 

 persons likely to become chargeable, is 

 repealed ; and no person can now be re- 

 moved till actually chargeable. 35 George 



III. c. 101, s. 1. 



Justices may suspend removal of per- 

 sons ill, either under a vagrant pass, or 

 order of removal; expense attending the 

 suspension to be paid by the parish offi- 

 cers of the place to which the pauper is 

 to be removed ; on refusal to pay within 

 three days, II. distress and sale, with 

 costs, not exceeding 40s. J. 1. If out 

 of the jurisdiction, warrant of distress to 

 be backed by a justice havingjurisdiction. 

 Ap. to the sessions, if charges and costs 

 exceed 20/ Ibid. s. 2. 



Every person convicted of larceny or 

 felony, or deemed a rogue and vagabond, 

 or disorderly person, or who shall ap- 

 pear to two justices, on oath of one wit- 

 ness, to be a person of evil fame or a re- 

 puted thief, and shall not give a satisfac- 

 tory account of himself and way of living, 

 and every unmarried woman with child, 

 shall be deemed actually chargeable, 

 and be removed as such. Ibid. s. 6. 



Person refusing to go with an older of 

 removal, or returning when removed, P. 

 commitment as a vagabond. J. 1. 13, 14 

 Charles 11. c. 12, s. 3. 



Parish officer refusing to receive a per- 

 son so sent, P. bound to the assizes or 

 sessions, to answer the contempt. J. 1. 

 Ibid. 



If removed into another county or ju- 

 risdiction, and the parish officers refuse 

 to receive, P. 5/. A. to the poor of the 

 place from which the pauper is removed. 

 II. distress, and, in default, commitment 

 for forty days. J. 1. of the jurisdiction to 

 which removed. W. 2. 3 William, c. 

 11. s. 10. 



Appeal from orders of removal to the 

 sessions of the county from which the 

 pauper was removed. 8, 9 William, c. 

 30, s. 6. It must be to the sessions of 

 the county, and not of any corporate 

 town. 



POOR'S rate, an assessment raised 

 throughout England and AVales, for the 

 temporary relief, or permanent main- 

 tenance, of all such persons, as, from 

 age, infirmity, or poverty, cannot them- 

 selves procure the means of subsistence. 

 The first statute, or law made in Eng- 



land, which gives any particular direc- 

 tions concerning paupers, was 11 Henry 

 Ml. c. 2. It directs, " that every beg"- 

 gar, not able to work, shall resort to the 

 hundred where he last dwelt, is best 

 known, or was born : and shall there 

 remain, upon pain of being set in the 

 stocks, three days and three nights, 

 with only bread and water, and then 

 shall be put out of town." The insuf- 

 ficiency of this regulation soon became 

 evident, and in 1531 an act was passed, 

 whereby the justices of every county 

 were empowered to grant licences to 

 poor, aged, and impotent persons, to 

 beg within a certain precinct ; but if 

 they were found begging without li- 

 cence, or beyond the limits specified, 

 they were either to be whipped or set in 

 the stocks. This, however, was a very 

 inadequate mode of providing for the 

 poor ; and in 1536 an act was passed, di- 

 recting the governors and magistrates of 

 counties, towns, and parishes, to provide 

 for every aged, poor, and impotent per- 

 son, who should have dwelt three years 

 in any place, by means of the voluntary 

 alms of charitable persons, which were to 

 be collected for this purpose, in every 

 parish. The act likewise directed, that 

 sturdy vagabonds should be compelled to 

 work, and that chidren from five to four- 

 teen years of age, who lived in idleness, 

 and were found begging, should be put 

 to service. 



Upon the destruction of the monaste- 

 ries, from the charities of which the poor 

 had derived their principal support, some 

 further ineffectual attempts were made 

 for their relief, by means of voluntary 

 donations ; but it was at length found ne- 

 cessary to stimulate public charity by a 

 compulsory clause, in an act passed in 

 1563. This act directed, that if any 

 parishioner shall obstinately refuse to pay 

 reasonably towards the relief of the poor, 

 or should discourage others, the justices 

 of the peace, at their quarter-sessions, 

 might tax him to a reasonable weekly 

 sum, which if he refused to pay, they 

 might commit him to prison. This may 

 be considered as the origin of the poor's 

 rate, which was rendered more general 

 by an act passed in 1572, which directed 

 that assessments should be made of the 

 parishioners of every parish, for the re- 

 lief of the poor of the same parish ; which 

 was the first regular and effectual parochial 

 assessment for the poor in England. In 

 1601, further regulations were adopted 

 on this subject ; it being enacted by 43 

 Elizabeth, c. 2, that every parish should 



