SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the part of the clothier, i.e. the cloth dresser, who was rebated ^4 of his salary for his neglect."* 

 Obviously the York Municipal Council did not intend forcing inferior goods on the market on the 

 plea of charitable intentions. 



But while York had been busy in its provincial court with schemes of poor relief and attempts to 

 eliminate the sturdy beggar and alleviate the lot of the deserving poor, the national legislature had, as 

 the result of endless discussion, produced a bill dealing with the whole subject.*^ Practically the bill 

 followed the lines on which York had worked for years. A comparison of the Act of 1572 with the 

 regulations drawn up by the York Aldermen's Court in 1551*' brings out clearly that legislation was 

 undertaken rather to meet the wants of the rural districts than to force a new policy on the 

 corporate towns. Still, the general interest which the parliamentary discussions of 157 1-2 excited 

 reacted on the York people, for there was a demand for greater accommodation for the poor, 

 and the court order in 1574 that ' Saynt Thomas Hospitall, Saynt Antony's Hospital, Trynitie 

 Hospitall, and Saynt Johns Hall shall be viewed with all convenient spede by the Lord Mayour 

 and Mr. Wardens to see if the same places or howe many of theym be mete places for settyng 

 of the said poore.'** 



The system of parish apprentices, which later assumed such large proportions and under 

 which such appalling enormities were to be committed, was inaugurated in York under 

 Elizabeth. The first entry in the Records bearing on the subject shows a somewhat compli- 

 cated arrangement. 



Hugh Barton taylar shall have to apprentice Willm. Sutton a poore boye for terme of tenne yeares 

 from Candlemas last and that the same Hughe shall have v/«. lent hym of the Common Chamber 

 money for a yere soe that he putt in sufficient sureties for repayment thereof. And nowe Mr. Recorder 

 the aldermen shyrfFes and twenty-four were assessed by the presens to pay for the clothing of the said 

 poore boye as followeth., viz., Mr. Recorder viii^. Mr. Appleyard and Mr. Bean either of theym xii(/. 

 and the rest of the aldermen viii<^. apece and the sheriffs and tvi^enty-four vid. apece.'^ 



Truly the 16th-century civic dignitary found his office no sinecure. The aged, the impotent, 

 and the lame poor were all housed in Saint Antony's Hall or Saint Thomas Hospital or Trinity 

 Hall, but in spite of their age and affliction they were put to work at the most toilsome and 

 disagreeable sort of employment, the spinning of ' lyne,' hemp and tow, ' to helpe to get some part 

 of their relief.' ^^ 



This period of activity with regard to the treatment of the poor was followed by a period of 

 inertia. But in 1583 the office of head beggars was abolished, the holders retiring on a small 

 pension.'^ 



In 1586 vagrancy had again increased to such an extent that St. Antony's Hall had to be 

 enlarged ' and a hows to be made there for the correcton of rooges and three chaynes and a clogge 

 to be made for punnyshment of such rooges as will not work.' '^ An Act had been passed by 

 Parliament in 1576" ordering houses of correction to be erected in every county, but this is 

 the first allusion to one in York. 



In 1587 a very comprehensive set of rules was drawn up by the city council. A general view 

 of the poor was ordered; they were to be divided into classes ; those not born in the city were to be 

 banished ; those who remained were to be classified. In the first division the aged, lame, and 

 impotent and those past work were placed; to these a minimum sum of i^d., ' under which some a 

 poore creator cannot lyve,' was paid daily. The second division included all those able to work. 

 The civic officials provided the work, the amount varying in proportion to the provider's 

 dignity. Each alderman had to keep four men at work, the twenty-four two men, and those who 

 had held the office of chamberlain had to provide for one or two. Into the last class went the 

 rogues, vagabonds, strange beggars, and such as would not work, who were to be sent to the 

 house of correction or banished from the city. An entirely novel feature was the appointment in 

 each street of two or three people whose business it was to punish the last class either by the 

 stocks or sending them to the house of correction, , 



because it is an infynitt truble to go to the Alderman of the ward with every beggar and 

 roge that wander abroade, and it wilbe a means that beggars and roges knowinge that in every street 

 there are suche men appoynted to punishe them they will be afrade to straye abroade. 



An embryo Elberfeld system, but punishment substituted for reward. 



Realizing the difficulty of restraining the injudicious giver, it was enacted that in every street 

 there should be secret spies to report those who served beggars. It had been customary to relax the 



" York Munic. Rec. xviii, fol. 246, 3 July 1571. '* Stat. 14 Eliz. cap. 5. " See above.. 



*» York Munic. Rec. xxv, fol. 114^, 15 Feb. 1574. «' Ibid. »" Ibid. fol. 124^7, 16 Apr. 15 74. 



" Ibid, xxviii, fol. 108, 23 Aug. 1583. "* Ibid, xxix, fol. 92, May 1586. 



" Stat. 18 Eliz. cap. 3. 



467 



