POOR’S RATE. 
removal ; expense attending the suspension 
to be paid by the parish officers of the place 
to which the pauper is to be removed ; on 
refusal to pay within three days, R. distress 
and sale, with costs, not exceeding 40.s. 
J. 1. If out of the jurisdiction, warrant 
of distress to be backed by a justice having 
jurisdiction. Ap. to the sessions, if charges 
and costs exceed 201. lUd. s. 2 . 
Every person convicted of larceny or fe- 
lony, or deemed a rogue and vagabond, or 
disorderly person, or who shall appear to 
two justices, on oath of one witness, to be 
a person of evil fame or a reputed thief, 
and shall not give a satisfactory account of 
himself and way of living ; and every un- 
married woman with child, shall be deemed 
actually chargeable, and be removed as 
such. Ibid. s. 6. 
Person refusing to go with an order of 
removal, or returning when removed, P. 
commitment as a vagabond. J. 1. 13, 14 
Charles II. c. 12, s. 3. 
Parish officer refusing to receive a per- 
son so sent, P. bound to the assizes or ses- 
sions, to answer the contempt. J. 1. Ibid. 
If removed into another county or juris- 
diction, and the parish officers refuse to re- 
ceive, P. 51. A. to the poor of the place 
from which the pauper is removed. R. dis- 
tress, and, in default, commitment for forty 
days. J. 1. of the jurisdiction to which re- 
moved. W. 2. 3 William, c. 11, s. 10. 
Appeal from orders of removal to the ses- 
sions of the county from which the pauper 
was removed. 8, 9 William, c. 30, s. 6. It 
must be to the sessions of the county, and 
not of any corporate town. 
Poor’s rate, an assessment raised through- 
out England and Wales, for the temporary 
relief, or permanent maintenance, of all such 
persons, as from age, infirmity, or poverty, 
cannot themselves procure the means of 
subsistence. The first statute, or law made 
in England, which gives any particular di- 
rections concerning paupers, was 11 Henry 
VII. c. 2. it directs, “ That every beggar, 
not able to work, shall resort to the hun- 
dred where he last dwelt, is best known, 
or was born ; and shall there remain, upon 
pain of being set in the stocks, three days 
and three nights, with only bread and wa- 
ter, and then shall be put out of town.” 
The insufficiency of this regulation soon 
became evident, and in 1531 an act was 
passed whereby the justices of every coun- 
ty were empowered to grant licences to 
poor, aged, and impotent persons, to beg 
within a certain precinct ; but if they were 
found begging without licence, or beyond 
the limits specified, they were either to be 
whipped or set in the stocks. This how- 
ever was a very inadequate mode of pro- 
viding for the poor ; and in 1536 an act was 
passed directing the governors and magis- 
trates of counties, towns, and parishes, to 
provide for every aged, poor, and impotent 
person, who should have dwelt three years 
in any place, by means of the voluntary 
alms of charitable persons, which were to 
be collected for this purpose, in every 
parish. The act likewise directed, that 
sturdy vagabonds should be compelled to 
work, and that children from five to four- 
teen years of age, who lived in idleness, 
and were found begging, should be put to 
service. 
Upon the destruction of the monasteries, 
from the charities of which the poor had 
derived their principle support, some fur- 
ther ineffectual attempts were made for 
their relief, by means of voluntary dona- 
tions; but it was at length found necessary 
to stimulate public charity by a compul- 
sory clause, in an act passed in 1563. 
This act directed, that if any parishioner 
shall obstinately refuse to pay reasonably 
towards the relief of the poor, or slioiild 
discourage others, the justices of the peace, 
at their quarter-sessions, might tax him to 
a reasonable weekly sum, which if he re- 
fused to pay, they might commit him to 
prison. This may be considered as the ori- 
gin of the poor’s rate, which was rendered 
more general by an act passed in 1572, 
which directed that assessments should be 
made of the parishioners of every parish, for 
the relief of tire poor of the same parish ; 
which was the first regular and effectual 
parochial assessment for the poor in En- 
gland. In 1601, further regulations were 
adopted on this subject; it being enacted 
by 43 Elizabeth, c. 2. that every parish 
should be bound to provide for its own 
poor ; and that overseers of the poor should 
be annually appointed, who, with the 
church-wardens, should raise, by a parish 
rate, competent sums for this purpose : the 
mode in which the assessment was directed 
to be made was, that the justices of the 
peace of every county or place corporate, 
or the major part of them, at the general 
sessions to be held after Easter following, 
and so yearly, as often as they should think 
fit, should rate every parish to such a 
weekly sum of money as they should think 
convenient; which sum, so taxed, was to 
be yearly assessed by an agreement of the 
