A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



derived from an occasional additional dole out of the Common Chamber. So great were the demands 

 on the poor relief during times of plague that official salaries were stopped, 



for that the infeccon tyme was great charge to this cittye in releivinge of ^•^". P°°/= '°^ 'J'" 

 forced to borrowe muche money and to make great assessements to releevc them withall ana no 

 paide that yeare to anie officers. " 



But individual cases were often helped by the Council. 



Anthonye Cuthberte a poore lame man who is to goe to St. Anne of Buckstones hopeing ther to 

 gett recoverie of his health shaU have vs. given hym forth of some of the best stocks of the parishes m 

 this cittie. " 

 The sufferers who were in the pauper hospitals, such as St. George's House and St Katherine's 

 House, were frequently ordered additional relief ' in their great misery and disease. Doctors were 



often rewarded 'forth of the comon chambre ' if they had shown particular activity on behalf of the 

 poor," though occasionally the council lent its aegis to the quack. 'John Grai a trav.lor a 

 chirurgeon being skilfUl namelie esspeciallie as he saieth in fowre diseases,' was licensed to practise in 

 York He claimed that he could cure ' those that have wanted their sights this twentie yeares past 

 within neyne daies to recover ther sight.' " Again, in i6i I, there was more money m hand than 

 paupers to receive it.^' From time to time the saddest examples of people who have fallen from a 

 better position come before the court. Lady Creplinge, who has fallen upon evil days, is given 

 pasturage for two kine on Tanghall fields, and I ox. out of the Common Chamber, and Mr. George 

 Rosse, 'who now is much decayed in his estate,' but was formerly sheriff of the city, was 

 given 'an annuity of ^^5." Money is fairly often given by the council to people taking their 

 children to London to be touched for the king's evil.^^ 



In 1614 a municipal medical officer was appointed at the annual salary of j^3 6s. 8d. This 

 payment was 'as well for his medicines or salves as for his paynes to be taken in cureing of such 

 poore people of this cittie which shall be sent unto hym by the Lord Maior.'^' 



Nor were the pauper lunatics neglected. ' Katherine Lee, distracted,' was given into the care 

 of a surgeon, to minister the best help according to his judgement ' by giving her physick for the 

 curing of her, and that he shall have xxj. nowe at this instant and xh. more at Candlemas or when 

 he hath cured her.' ^* 



In 16 1 5 Alexander Carey approached the lord mayor and aldermen. He was willing to 

 teach twelve children to make bone lace, if in return he could have the use of their work for two 

 year>, and a fee of ioj. for each apprentice; he was, however, willing to return the fees at the 

 end of the two years. The Court eagerly accepted his offer, and the following Candlemas the 

 twelve children were set to work." In 1619 the Court discussed the advisability of putting the poor 

 to work as agricultural labourers on the fields anJ closes that were kept open between Michaelmas 

 and Lady Day, but nothing came of the discussion.*' 



A more important step was taken during the year 1 61 9; alien immigrants had introduced 

 into Norwich the manufacture of what was called in 16th-century phraseology new stuffs; that 

 is, worsted goods. York, which always watched Norwich with a jealous eye, induced one of the 

 Norwich citizens, Edward Whalley, to settle in the city. He was given room in St. George's 

 House to set up his looms, and the looms at St. Antony's House were examined with a view to the 

 making of Norwich stuff there also." Whalley was made a freeman without paying any fine."* 



This setting of the Norwich man on work caused a great scandal in the city council. When in 

 1620 Alderman Dickenson, who had been appointed to look after the business, was called upon to 

 give an account of the expenditure of the municipal money, there was found to be a deficit for the 

 year of ^^105, ;^28o having been spent, towards which the city had contributed /^126 ; and to 

 represent this capital expenditure there only remained looms, jersey, yarn spun, and other goods to 

 the value of ;{ji4i, 'and yet but a fewe poore children set on work.' Alderman Dickenson was 

 also said to have acted without the consent of the court, and to have allowed it to be generally 

 rejxjrted that the works were his and at his charge. In view of these considerations, the lord mayor 

 and aldermen came to the conclusion that ' to erect a newe manual occupation in this citty of 

 makinge Norwich stuffes would be to burdensome to this citty,' that they already had sufficient on 



"* York Munic. Rec. xxziii, fol. 73J, 23 May 1607. 



" Ibid. fol. 1653, 23 June 1609. " Ibid. fol. 169J, 14 July 1609. 



" Ibid fol. izi, 30 Apr. 1606. " Ibid. fol. 132J, 12 Sept. 1608. 



"Ibid. fol. 250a, 5 June 1611. " Ibid, xxxiii, fol. 162^, 23 May 1609, 



" Ibid, xxxiv, fol. 35^, 25 May 1614. " Ibid. fol. 78^, 20 Oct. 161 5. 



" Ibid, xxxiv, fol. 473, 16 Dec. 16 14. " Ibid. fol. 169a, 1 1 June 161 9. 



" Ibid. fol. 793, I Dec. 1615. »« Ibid. fol. 177^, 13 Oct. 1619. 



" Ibid. fol. 177J, 13 Oct. 1619. " Ibid. fol. 178^, 12 Nov. 1619. 



470 



