A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



orders against begging on the Saints' days and the great feasts, but there was to be no such exception in 

 the future ' because it savoureth of popery.' Begging at the Minster door was also prohibited. 

 Great care was enjoined on those who had the handling of the money, lest 'it turne to the great 

 grudge of them that pay ther money.' One clause has a very modern ring. 



That labourers wyfes and children may be barred from going a begginge and that there 

 husbands who get sufficient to maintayne them withal may be restrained from the ale house where 

 they drink all that should mayntene ther poore wifes and children at home. " 



Up to the last decade of the i6th century the only work provided by the municipal authori- 

 ties for the employment of the paupers was spinning and weaving ; but in 1590 Robert Hall, a poor 

 man, was given 5i. out of the common chamber to buy silk for making buttons,"" and the following 

 October a house was taken in St. Saviourgate where poor children were taught to knit.^^ The 

 lord mayor seems to 'have interested himself greatly in developing this new branch of relief. A 

 special messenger was sent to Lincoln to the knitters there in order to buy ;^I0 worth of wool best 

 suited for the purpose.'' Francis Newbie was given a reward of lOs. ' in respect of the paynes to 

 be taken in the Knittinge scole amongst the scollers.' '' The school must have been of consider- 

 able size, for three teachers were employed. Francis Newbie received a quarterly wage of 16;. 8d. 

 The overseers of the school certified to the aldermen that Newbie's ' scollers sytt in a cold rawe 

 hall,' and desired that ' a lowe parler with a lowe galarye for his scollers to work in ' should be 

 provided.^' The request was granted, and it was also agreed 'That such of the poore children at the 

 Knittinge scole as stand neede of Coots shall have coots of the cheapest graye that can be gotten.'"" 



On the whole there is little evidence in the court book to show any great difficulty in 

 collecting the poor-rate. Eleven people were summoned in 1593 *^ °"^ time, and paid. There 

 is a hint that those who paid willingly were protected against the importunity of the insolent 

 wastrels, for in the case of William Hewell, a pauper who had been generously treated while he 

 was sick, but had turned into a haunter of alehouses, a valiant beggar, ' threatening or reviling with 

 unseemely and evill words not only such as deny or refuse to give him money of whom he craveth, 

 tut alio some others within this cittye who pay weekly in their parishe towards the relief of the pore.'' ^ 



Thomas Mayson, obstinately refusing to pay his contribution amounting to "js. id,, * is comyt 

 to ward ther to remayne until he do pay the same.' 



But relief was not solely confined to inhabitants of York. In 1593 '^° applications " for relief 

 were made by the lord mayor of a very romantic kind ; both met with a ready response. Thirty shillings 

 were given to ' a German, a stranger late corned to this Cittie, who as it is reported to this Court is a 

 student in divinitee, brother to a prince in Germany, and since he came into England was robbed 

 of his money and Jewells.' ' A very strong appeal was also made to all the justices of 

 the peace, mayors, sheriffs, and churchwardens in Yorkshire on behalf of Martin Lascaris, 

 who, 'a Christiane and a Greciane, borne of a verie good house in the Cittie of Phillip 

 in Macedonia,' was together with 'his father, mother, bretherin, sister, uncle, and aunts, with all 

 their parentage and familie,' taken prisoner by 'the great Turke.' The sole crime brought against 

 these unhappy creatures, if the petition were correct in its details, was that they ' Harboured and hid 

 in their houses many Christians that were under the tirannie of the Turke.' By the intercession 

 of the Patriarch of Constantinople and many Christian ambassadors, Lascaris had been released in 

 order to try to beg the ransom of his relations.'' 



Towards the end of the 1 6th century the harvests failed, the price of corn rose to an unpre- 

 cedented height, and famine stalked the land. The Government tried to minimize the disaster by 

 admitting foreign corn custom free, but they attributed the universal distress to another cause. 

 The Council wrote an urgent letter to the Archbishop of York, in which they emphasized the 

 moral aspect of the visitation. 



It is thoughte meete that generall warninge should be given and speciall order taken that all 

 sortes of persons may be contented and restrayned to use more moderate dyet, and especiallye her 

 Ma"' in regarde of greate scarsetye would have order taken for the forbearinge of suppers on fastinge 

 dayes and on 'Wednesdayes and Fridayes at nighte.' ' 



The money due to this abstinence was to be given to the poor, and as a sign of the time when 

 poor relief was to become more a national than a municipal undertaking, the names of those who 

 disregarded the order were to be sent by the churchwardens to the bishop, who was to pass them 

 on to the archbishop, who gave them in to the Privy Council.'* 



" York Munic. Rec. xxx, fol. 4, 5, 6 ; 9 Feb. 1587. '' Ibid. fol. 147a, 28 Nov. 1590. 



« Ibid. fol. 196a, 2 Oct. 1590. w Ibid, xxx, fol -ja, 19 Mar. 1592. 



» Ibid. 6 Apr. 1593 fol. 8a. M Ibid, xxxi, fol. 24/7, 17 Aug. 1:9}. 



™ Ibid. fol. 31a, 25 Sept. 1593. 1 Ibid. fol. 38a, 29 Oct. 1593. 



' Ibid. ^ Ibid. fol. 573, 16 Feb. 1593. • Ibid. fol. 127^, II July 1595 



" Ibid. fol. 241, 19 Jan. 1596. »> Ibid. fol. 241^. 



468 



