SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



GUTHRUM WARD— ««/. 



Monkward to pay every week accordingly. 



St. Sampsons ........••• 3'- 



St. Crux S-f- 



Trinitie in Guthrumgate ^ 



John le Pyk 



St. Margaret 



St. Cathryne ? . 



[Omnium Sanctorum] ... in peseholme .... 



St. Cuthbert 



St. Elene ad Muros 



MIKELLYTH WARD 



St. Johns ad finem pontis 



Martins in Mik 



St. Nich. voc Trinitie 



St in North Stret 



St. Marie vet 



St. Marie de novo . 



St. Michil ad bnem pontis 



St. Marie 



. . . ? . 



Crux 



St. Denis 



St. Margaret 



St. Lawrence 



WALMGATE WARD 



iJ. 



The money was to be paid every Sunday to the wardens of the ward ; in case of non-payment 

 a distress was to be taken, and if the wardens were negligent they were to be imprisoned until 

 double the money was paid.™ Stringent measures were enacted by the City Council to prevent 

 anyone slipping through the meshes of the poor rate net. ' It is agreed that all thoes that ar gone 

 or hereafter shall go furth of this citie shal pay all maner of dewties as well to the Relief of powre 

 people as otherways orels they to be dysfranshesyd.' '^ 



St. Thomas's Hospital, where many of the poor of York were housed at the beginning of the 

 reign of Mary, had fallen into the greatest distress, so the lord mayor, in drawing up instructions 

 for the members who were to attend the new Parliament, requested them ' to be suters to the 

 Quenes Grace to give to the said hospitall all those lait chaunter lands in Yorke for releif of the 

 sayd power which doe for the moste part lie wastyd rewynous and out of reparaton to the grete 

 defacyng of the city of York.' '^ Fresh regulations had to be made, for poverty increased and 

 paupers abounded. The council, in order to encourage the four head beggars to be more 

 * paynful and dyligentlie and ready to informe the sayd constables of all newe vagabonds,' agreed to 

 give them, as well as the liveries which they had been accustomed to have, an annual fee of five 

 shillings a year each. 



The heavy national taxation was eating into the very heart of York ; the mayor, in a piteous 

 letter to the burgesses, describes the straits to which people had been driven to pay even the small 

 part that had been raised and sent to London. 



Yea it would pitied a man's hart to see what hard shift a powre man and woman made for some 

 wer fayne to sell theyr pott or theyr panne and other implements some laid their apparrell to pledge 

 to pay with their tax and of certayne vacant howses in the decaied paroches the collectours had 

 nothynge to distrayne but toke of the doores and wyndowes to make up stake with." 



So hopeless was the outlook that the lord mayor appealed to the various trade gilds to know 

 what contributions their occupations and mysteries would be willing to give to stem the tide of 

 pauperism. They were especially asked to support the poor bedesfolk in St. Antony's house.''* 



'' York Munic. Rec. xx, fol. 9, 16 Feb. 1551 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. iia,l>, 31 Oct. 1556. 



3 



465 



™ Ibid. fol. lOij, 4 June 1 55 1. 



" Ibid, xxi, fol. 11a, 25 Sept. 1553. 



" Ibid, xxii, fol. 66, June 1557. 



59 



