90 



Extracts from the Records of the 



XIV. — Dwellings of the Poor — Maintenance of Infants. 



The unemployed were, as has already been stated, liable to be set 

 to work in a very unceremonious fashion, and the quest for employment 

 must have been rendered doubly difficult by the rigorous laws then 

 current concerning the dwellings of the poor. 



Among the many acts which could not be legally performed unless 

 under a magisterial licence, was that of building- a cottage. Forty 

 shillings per month was the penalty on any such unlicensed " habita- 

 tion or dwelling, whereunto four aeres of ground shall not be 

 assigned/' The statute regulating this matter was the u Act against 

 the erecting and maintaining of cottages ; and that it was faith- 

 fully observed in Wiltshire, the sessions minutes afford abundant 

 testimony. Licences are mentioned as having been applied for and 

 granted, in every part of the county. The consent of the lord of 

 the manor or lord of the soil, was generally stipulated for. The assent 

 of Edward, Earl of Hereford, is specified as a necessary condition for 

 licenses to build at Ambrosbury, and in the Manor of Titcombe, 

 (" ita quod dominus Hertford . . aggreaverit") , and the like of 

 Doctor Bilson as to Durnford, (si accordabit). The Manors of 

 Pewsey and Stert are only to be invaded with the sanction of their 

 lords. 



And if behind the back of the justices a man succeeded in running 

 up such a tenement, his adroitness availed him little. "If John 

 Hicks of Maddington,-" so ran the order of the court at the last 

 sessions of this reign, "will not assent to the pluckinge downe 

 of the cotage lately erected by William Giles at Maddington 

 aforesaid and remove the inmates by him placed and suffered to 

 inhabit contrary to the statute " then the overseers were to increase 

 proportionately their assessment on John Hicks to the relief of the 

 poor. And that such pluckings down and removals were seriously 

 proposed and at times sternly carried into execution, the following 

 memorial, entered shortly after the judgment on John Hicks, sets 

 beyond doubt. 



" Upon the humble peticion of George Browne and divers others inhabitants 

 within the Pishe of Stert in the fores d Countie exhibited unto this Court thereby 

 enf orminge that there is an order made by John Toppe gent and the Steward of 



