The Early History of English Poor Relief. of Girton College E. M. Leonard
to everybody[78].
8. Survey and employment of poor at Lincoln.
The surveying and licensing of beggars appears to have been very usual. Thus, at Lincoln in 1543, the constables were ordered to bring all the poor people in the city before the justices and it was provided that those who were to be allowed to beg should have a sign given to them. A similar order was made in 1546, and it was also decided that no one was to give alms to any beggar without a sign[79]. These orders are exactly parallel to the earlier measures of the rulers of London. Next year, in 1547, the citizens of Lincoln took a farther step. Not only were the beggars to be surveyed, but they were to be set to work, and in 1551 all the young people, who lived idly, were placed with the clothiers for eight or nine years and were to have meat, drink and other necessaries. All who refused this work were to be expelled from the town[80]. In 1560 a salary is paid to an officer who is to oversee and order all the poor and idle people in the town[81]. Special collections for the relief of the poor were also made in Lincoln before 1569, but apparently only in times of plague[82]. Grants were occasionally made to particular poor at other times and there was a more than usually definite amount of relief provided by the guild regulations for the poorer members of some of the Lincoln guilds[83].
9. Ipswich. Survey of poor, imposition of compulsory poor rate and foundation of Christ's Hospital.
But the measures of Ipswich resemble those of London more closely even than those of Lincoln. There the poor were not only surveyed and licensed, but before 1569 compulsory taxation was adopted and a municipal hospital was erected. As early as 1469 the burgesses had granted certain dues to lepers, but it was not until about 1551 that the municipal rulers began to make frequent and regular orders for the regulation of relief and beggary. In that year two persons were nominated by the bailiffs, "to enquire into the poore of every parish, and thereof to make certifficate to the Bayliffs[84]." Next year we find the burgesses anxious to increase the voluntary alms. The order of the guild festival was arranged, and it was agreed that the town officers should attend in their robes, and "they and all the Burgesses shall offer, and the offerings shall goe to the poore[85]."
In 1556 eight burgesses were appointed to frame measures "for the ordering of the maintenance of the poore and impotent people, ffor providing them work, ffor suppressing of vagrants and idle persons[86]."
We also find an attempt to decrease the number of beggars in an order worthy of an Irish town: "Noe children of this towne shall be p'mitted to begg, and suche as shall be admitted thereto shall have badges[87]."
A further step was then taken, and in Ipswich, as in London, compulsory payments were made for the poor. In 1557 it is ordered that "if any inhabitant shall refuse to pay suche money as shall be allotted him to pay for the use of the poore," he shall be punished at the discretion of the bailiffs[88].
Moreover, in 1569, we find the town hospital established. Christ's Hospital in Ipswich was built on the site of the House of the Black Friars and was a house of correction, as well as an asylum for the old and a training school for the young[89]. It was apparently no disgrace for the old to be admitted, for when it was provided that ships should pay certain dues to the hospital, it was also agreed that every mariner, who had lived in the town three years and should stand in need of assistance, should be allowed to go there[90]. At Ipswich therefore, in 1569, beggars were badged, the poor were organised, compulsory payments were exacted and a town hospital had been founded.
10. Survey of poor and regular assessment of parishioners in Cambridge.
At Cambridge also similar measures were taken. Some of the profits arising from Stourbridge fair had been left to the poor of Cambridge and was connected with a provision for the maintenance of "obiits." The funds belonging to the poor were preserved to them by the statute of chantries, but before 1552 it had not been paid. Complaint was then made, and it was decreed that the sum should be paid to the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses, and should be distributed by them as in ancient times: this order was confirmed by royal grant in 1557[91]."
It is possible that the passing of this money through their hands may have made the town authorities regard the care of the poor as especially their duty.
In any case, in 1556, there was great scarcity and, on Dec. 7th, "Dr. Perne, Vice-chancellor, Doctors Segewycke, Harvy, Walker and Blythe met the Mayor, Bailiffs and two Aldermen in St. Mary's Church[92]." They called before them the churchwardens of all the parisshes, and these "browght in the bylls what any parryshoner was cessed towardes the relyeffe of the poore." Two days later the churchwardens presented "bylles of the number of poore people in the parisshes," and they were told to make a report as to "three states of the poore sort" and to inquire who had come into the parish within three years. Later, four superintendents and four "watchers for straunge beggeres" were appointed, and collectors were chosen for the next Sunday. The Vice-chancellor moved the Heads of Houses to make provision for the poor, and the superintendents went about the different parishes and visited the poor and settled what each should receive. On December 24th the Mayor and Vice-chancellor met at St. Mary's to again settle what each poor person should be given and to give greater sums to some of them than had been before appointed[93].
In 1560 a set of ordinances was made for the purpose of raising funds to pay these pensions. Dues were to be paid for admission into the liberties of the town, for beginning actions in the Cambridge Law Courts, for the admission of attorneys to plead, for the surrendering of every booth and the signing of every lease. All these were to augment the funds for the poor. The attorneys were also to pay 1d. for every fee[94].
Thus in Cambridge also we have, first, the surveying and numbering of the poor; then, regular contributions from the parishioners, and regular payments to the poor who could not support themselves. At Cambridge there was no town hospital before 1569, and it was not until 1578 that a proposal to establish one there was made.
But attempts were already being made to found municipal hospitals in Norwich and Gloucester, and these we shall examine when we consider the events of the period between 1569 and 1597. Moreover, three of the old hospitals of York were refounded and placed under municipal management[95]. There the poor could be "set on worke" and the income derived from them was to be "ymployed to the maintenance of the powre." At Leicester also a municipal system for the poor had developed, and it seems that, in 1568, two collections were levied for this purpose, one of which provided the funds necessary for the relief distributed under the authority of the statutes, and the other met the expenditure incurred under the municipal regulations[96].
Thus in Lincoln, Ipswich, Cambridge, and York the order of development in matters concerning beggars and the unemployed is similar to that of London. Beggars are surveyed; the truly helpless are licensed; the others are forbidden to ask for any relief. Compulsory rates for their relief were levied in Ipswich and probably in Cambridge. At the same time provision is made for finding the able-bodied work in Lincoln, and hospitals are built or refounded for them in Ipswich, in York, and in Gloucester.
In Ipswich as in London all this was done before 1569, but other towns were much more backward, and in some the beggars were still unrestrained. There was thus no national system of poor relief, but only isolated municipal attempts to deal with the matter, all following the same general lines and becoming the rule, and not the exception, as time went on. It will be more convenient to consider the advantages of this system when we have also examined the doings of Parliament and Privy Council, and can consider the organisation before 1569 as a whole. The municipal system alone was not successful, in London or elsewhere; it was increasingly difficult to deal with new-comers and to provide funds.
But already before 1569 there were the beginnings of the succeeding national system in the doings of Parliament and Privy Council.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PRIVY COUNCIL AND PARLIAMENT.
1514–1569.