Wiltshire Quarter Sessions 



91 



the Mannor of Stert at the Court Baron of the same Mannor that all under ten ts 

 shall depte there houses wi th there families albeit as the saide Browne further 

 shewed that as well he himself and the said other inhabitants being under 

 tennts there have dwelt w th in the fores d pishe of Stert by the space of xx ty yeres 

 past and upwards and duringe all the saide term have behaved them selves well 

 and honestly and ben of good behaviour all wch not w th standinge by reason of 

 the fores d order made in the said Court Baron the saide poore peticon r s are day lye 

 thretned to be turned out of there houses and like to lye in the streets as by the 

 said peticon maye appeare Yt is ordered by the Court that the matter of the' 

 saide peticon shall be referred to the consideracon of the Churehe wardens and 

 ov r seers of the poore of the saide Pishe of Sterte to the intent that they mayo 

 examine the truthe thereof and take such course therein as shalbe fitt^ or other- 

 wise to certifie there opinions and doings therein at the next gene'all Sessions of 

 the Peace to be held w th hin this Countie that thereupon the Court of Sessions 

 may take such order therein as shall stande w th law and justice." p cur. 



There may have been a touch of bravado in this threat of the* 

 steward's. Already, and upon this very subject, some little conflict 

 of jurisdiction had arisen between the Court Baron and Court of 

 Quarter Sessions, for at the Easter Sessions 44th Elizabeth, the- 

 latter court had ordered : — 



" That the Lord of the Manor of Stert and the inhabitants of the same shall 

 permit and suffer Anthony Swanborowe to inhabit and dwell in Stert aforesaid 

 yf he procure and obtayne an house for his habitation and dwelling at a rent of 

 any of the said inhabitants any order of the Court of the said Mannor- 

 to the contrary notwithstanding e." 



But even this chivalrous intervention on Swanborowe's behalf is 

 guarded by a careful proviso " that he shall not erect any newe 

 cotage there contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm, &c/* 



The resolute opposition (of which the foregoing is an example) 

 offered to the localization of any inhabitant likely to establish a claim 

 on the rates, was equalled by the solicitude with which the tithing, 

 parish, or hundred, sought to avoid any liablity for the sustenance 

 and support of base-born children, and no pains were spared to trace 

 the person rightly chargeable with the cost of their maintenance i 

 when discovered, the erring parents were not infrequently treated 

 with the favourite prescription of a flogging, and wherever it was 

 possible an order was made on the father for the maintenance of the 

 infant. The age of twelve years was that to which such orders 

 were limited and the weekly payments vary from fourpence to a 



