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Since the statute 35 Geo. III. parties are often turned round for not being able to prove that the pauper was chargeable.

Whenever an order is set aside upon a special ground not affecting the settlement, it is very desirable that a special entry should be made of the reason, so as not to shut out the justice of the case, or to leave it open to subsequent alteration, as to the ground and reason of the decision. I have not unfrequently, however, known an application for the purpose refused, although I think that, in point of professional fairness, it ought not to be even resisted.

It is established, that an order reversed is not material as affecting a removal from third parishes.

In Honiton v. South Beverton, Comb. 401, it was laid down, that after the reversal of an order, two justices of the county to which the removal was made might remove the pauper back to the removing township, for it was but an execution of the order of sessions; which could not otherwise be done, because it was out of the jurisdiction of the court of sessions. In the subsequent case of Rex v. Milverton, 2 Bott. 712, the sessions having reversed the order, and directed the party to be sent back, it was held that they had only power to affirm or quash, and not to make a new order; and the latter part of the order was quashed. I apprehend that the case in Comberbach has not been acted upon, and is not law; and that the want of jurisdiction in the sessions would apply, a fortiori, to the acts of justices out of sessions.

[No. III.] S William and Mary, c. 11.-An Act for the
better Explanation and supplying the Defects of the for-
mer Laws, for the Settlement of the Poor *.
WHEREAS one Act of Parliament made in the thirteenth and four-

No. III.

3 William

c. 11.

teenth years of his late Majesty King Charles the Second, intituled, An Act for the better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom, (except what relates to the corporation therein mentioned, and constituted there- and Mary, by) was revived and continued with some alterations, by one other Act, 'made in the first year of the late King James the Second, and have been 'found by experience to be good and wholesome laws, but may shortly ex- 13 & 14 Car. 2. pire:"

c. 12.

II. Be it therefore enacted by the King's and Queen's most excellent Ma- 13 & 14 Car. 2. jesties, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Tem- c.12. & 1Jac.2. poral, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by authority c. 17. revived. of the same, That the said Acts, as to what relates to the settlements of

the poor, shall be in force from the first day of March one thousand six hundred ninety-one.

III. But forasmuch as the said Acts are somewhat defective and doubt- The note of ful;' For supplying and explaining the same, Be it further provided and settlement enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the forty days continuance of such must be read person in a parish or town, intended by the said Acts to make a settle- in the church, and registered ment, shall be accounted from the publication of a notice in writing, which in the poor's he or she shall deliver, of the house of his or her abode, and the number of book. his or her family, if he or she have any, to the churchwarden or overseer of the poor, which said notice in writing the said churchwarden or overseer of the poor is or are hereby required to read, or cause to be read publickly, immediately after divine service in the church or chapel of the said parish or town, on the next Lord's day when there shall be divine service in the same; and the said churchwarden or overseer of the poor is or are hereby required to register, or cause to be registered, the said notice in writing in the book kept for the poor's accounts.

IV. Provided always, and be it enacted, That no soldier, seaman, shipwright, or other artificer or workman employed in their Majesties service, shall have any settlement in any parish, port town, or other town, by delilivery and publication of a notice in writing as aforesaid, unless the same be after the dismission of such person out of their Majesties service. V. And be it further enacted, That if any churchwarden or overseer of the

As to all matters relating to settlements, see notes to the preceding number, ad finem.

No soldier,
&c. to have
settlement be-
fore dismis
sion.

Penalty upon
churchwarden
refusing to
read or regis-

ter.

No. III. 3 William

and Mary, c. 11.

Serving as of ficer, or paying parish duties, a settlement.

Service for a

without wife

poor shall refuse or neglect to read or cause to be read, such notice in writing as aforesaid, in such manner, place, and time as aforesaid, he or they for every such offence (upon proof thereof by two credible witnesses upon oath, before any justice of the peace for the same county, riding, or division, city, or town corporate, where complaint thereof shall be made) shall forfeit the sum of forty shillings to the use of the party grieved, to be levied by distress and sale of the offender or offenders goods, by warrant under the hand and seal of any justice of the peace within the said jurisdictions respectively, to the constable of the parish or town where such offender or offenders dwell, the overplus, if any be, to be returned to the owner or owners; and for want of such sufficient distress, the said justice shall commit him or them to the common gaol of the said county, city, or town corporate, there to remain without bail or mainprize for the space of one month; and if any churchwarden or overseer of the poor shall refuse or neglect to register, or cause to be registered, such notice in writing as aforesaid, he or they so offending, upon the like conviction, shall forfeit the sum of forty shillings to the use of the poor of the parish or town where such offender or offenders dwell, to be levied as aforesaid, the overplus, if any be, to be returned to the owner or owners; and for want of such sufficient distress, then the said justice shall commit such offender or offenders as aforesaid, for the time aforesaid.

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VI. Provided always, and be it enacted, That if any person, who shall come to inhabit in any town or parish, shall for himself and on his own account, execute any publick annual office or charge in the said town or parish, during one whole year, or shall be charged with and pay his share towards the publick taxes or levies of the said town or parish, then he shall be adjudged and deemed to have a legal settlement in the same, though no such notice in writing be delivered and published, as is hereby before required.

VII. And it is hereby further enacted, That if any unmarried person, year, of person not having child or children, shall be lawfully hired into any parish or town for one year, such service shall be adjudged and deemed a good setor child, a settlement therein, though no such notice in writing be delivered and published, as is herein before required.

tlement.

Apprentice. ship a settlement.

Appeal from justices of

peace to quarter-sessions, whose order

shall be final.

Churchwarden must receive a person removed by warrant of two justices of peace upon 51. penalty.

VIII. And it is hereby further enacted, That if any person shall be bound an apprentice by indenture, and inhabit in any town or parish, such binding and inhabitation shall be adjudged a good settlement, though no such notice in writing be delivered and published as aforesaid.

IX. Provided always, and be it hereby enacted, That if any person or persons shall find him, her, or themselves aggrieved by any determination, which any justice or justices of the peace shall make in any of the cases abovesaid, the said person or persons shall have liberty to appeal to the next general quarter sessions of the peace, to be held for the said county, riding, or division, city, or town-corporate, who, upon full hearing of the said appeal, shall have full power finally to determine the same.

X. And be it further enacted, That if any person be removed by virtue of this Act, from one county, riding, city, town corporate, or liberty, to another, by warrant, under the hands and seals of two justices of the peace, the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of the said parish or town, to which the said person shall be so removed, are hereby required to receive the said person, and if he or they shall refuse so to do, he or they so refusing or neglecting (upon proof thereof by two credible witnesses upon oath before any justice of the peace of the county, riding, city, or town-corporate, to which the said person shall be so removed) shall forfeit for each offence the sum of five pounds (1), to the use of the poor of the parish or town from which the said person was removed, to be levied by distress and sale of the offender or offenders goods, by warrant under the hand and seal of any justice of the peace of the county, riding, city, or town-corporate, to which such person was removed, to the constable of the parish or town where such offen

(1) They are also liable to indictment: R. v. Davis, 1 Bott. 338.

No. III.

3 William

and Mary,

c. 11.

der or offenders dwell; which warrant the said justice is hereby impowered and required to make; the overplus, if any be, to be returned to the owner or owners; and for want of sufficient distress, then the said justice shall commit the said offender or offenders to the common gaol of the said county, riding, city, or town-corporate, or liberty, there to remain without bail or mainprize for the space of forty days: Provided always, and be it hereby enacted, That all such persons who think themselves aggrieved with Persons agany such judgement of the said two justices may appeal to the next general grieved by quarter sessions of the peace to be held for the county, riding, city, town- such removal corporate, or liberty, from which the said person was so removed.

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may appeal to sessions.

XI. And whereas many inconveniences do daily arise in cities, towns'corporate, and parishes, where the inhabitants are very numerous, by rea'son of the unlimited power of the churchwardens and overseers of the 'poor, who do frequently upon frivolous pretences (but chiefly for their own private ends) give relief to what persons and number they think fit, 'and such persons being entered into the collection bill, do become after 'that a great charge to the parish, notwithstanding the occasion or pretence ' of their receiving collection oftentimes ceases, by which means the rates 'for the poor are daily increased, contrary to the true intent of a statute 'made in the forty-third year of the reign of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, 43 Eliz. c. 2. 'intituled, An Act for the Relief of the Poor;' For remedying of which, and A register to preventing the like abuses for the fututre, Be it further enacted, that from be kept of the and after the first day of March, there shall be provided and kept in every admittances of parish (at the charge of the same parish) a book or books, wherein the the poor. names of all such persons who do or may receive collection shall be registered, with the day and year when they were first admitted to have relief, and the occasion which brought them under that necessity: And that Parishioners yearly in Easter week (or as often as it shall be thought convenient) the yearly in Easparishioners of every parish shall meet in their vestry or other usual place ter week shall of meeting in the same parish, before whom the said book shall be produced, and all persons receiving collection to be called over, and the reasons of their taking relief examined, and a new list made and entred, of such persons as they shall think fit and allow to receive collection, and that no other person be allowed to have or receive collection at the charge of the said parish, but by authority under the hand of one justice of peace residing within such parish, or (if none be there dwelling) in the parts near or next adjoining, or by order of the justices in their respective quarter sessions, except in cases of pestilential diseases, plague, or small-pox, for and in respect of such families only as are or shall be therewith infected.

make a list of their poor.

Farther provisions relating hereto, 9 Geo. 1. c. 7. sect. 1.

XII. And whereas many churchwardens and overseers of the poor, and 'other persons intrusted to receive collections for the poor, and other 'publick monies relating to the churches and parishes whereunto they do 'belong, do often mispend the said monies, and take the same to their own 'use, to the great prejudice of such parishes, and the poor, and other inha'bitants thereof; and because that many times the judges, when actions ' are brought against such churchwardens and overseer, to recover the mo'nies so mispent, taken, or misapplied by the persons aforesaid, refuse to 'admit the parishioners to be witnesses in such cases, who are the only per'sons that can make proof thereof:' Wherefore, to prevent all such evil Parishioners, and deceitful practices of churchwardens and overseers, and other persons, except almsBe it enacted and declared, that in all actions to be brought in their Majes- men, may be ties Courts of Record at Westminster, or at the assizes, for the recovery of evidence any sum or sums of money so mispent or taken by churchwardens or over- against seers of the poor, the evidence of the parishioners, or any of them, other than of such as receive alms or any pension or gift out of such collections or publick monies of such parish or parishes respectively, whereof the defendant or defendants is or are inhabitant or inhabitants, shall be taken and admitted in all such cases in the courts aforesaid; any custom, rule, order, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding.

[No. IV.] 8 and 9 William III. c. 30.-An Act for sup

churchwardens, &c. of their mispending the poor's

money.

No. IV.

8 and 9

c. 30.

43 Eliz. c. 2,

Persons coming to inhabit in any parish, are to bring with them a certificate under the hands of the churchwardens, &c. of the parish to which they belong.

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plying some Defects in the Laws for the Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom.

William III. FORASMUCH as many poor persons chargeable to the parish, township or place, where they live, merely for want of work, would in any other place where sufficient employment is to be had, maintain themselves and families, without being burthensome to any parish, township or place, but not being able to give such security as will or may be expected and required upon their coming to settle themselves in any other place, and the certificates that have been usually given in such cases having been oftentimes construed into a notice in hand writing, they are for the most part confined to live in their own parishes, townships or places, and not permitted to inhabit elsewhere, though their labour is wanted in many other places, where the increase of manufactures would employ more hands; Be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, That if any person or persons whatsoever, that from and after the first day of May, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred ninety-seven, shall come into any parish or other place there to inhabit and reside, shall at the same time procure, bring and deliver to the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of the parish or place (1) where any such person shall come to inhabit, or to any or either of them, a certificate under the hands and seals of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of any other parish, township or place (2), or the major part of them (3), or under the hands and seals of the overseers of the poor of any other place where there are no churchwardens, to be attested respectively by two or more credible witnesses, thereby owning and acknowledging the person or persons mentioned in the said certificate to be an inhabitant or inhabitants legally settled in that parish, township or place, every such certificate, having been allowed of and subscribed by two or more of the justices of the peace (4) of the county, city, liberty, borough or town-corporate, wherein the parish or place, from whence any such certificate shall come, doth lie, shall oblige the said parish or place to receive and provide for the person mentioned in the said certificate, together with his or her family (5), as inhabitants of that parish, whenever he, she, or they shall happen to become chargeable to, or be forced to ask relief of the parish, township or place, to which such certificate was given; and then, and not before, it shall and may be lawful for any such person, and his or her children, though born in that parish, not having otherwise acquired a legal settlement there, to be removed, conveyed and settled, in the parish or place from whence such certificate was brought.

Such witness to swear to the

execution of certificates,

&c.

3 George II.

c. 19. s. 8.

(1) The certificate need not to be directed to a particular parish, but it is only operative in respect of the parish to which it is first actually delivered; Lillington, 1 E. 438. Qy. if a particular parish must not be in contemplation; Lubbenham, 4 T. R. 251. It is not conclusive as to the settlement at the time of granting it in favour of a third parish; id.: and the parish to which the certificate is delivered may remove to a third parish where the settlement actually is; St. Martin at Oak, 16 E. 303.

(2) Certificate expressed to be by C. and O. of the parish of A. of settlement of S. in the said parish, may be shewn to have been granted by officers of the hamlet of S. maintaining its own poor; Samborn, 3 T. R. 609.

(3) A certificate by any number less than the majority of churchwardens and overseers, is not sufficient-as by two churchwardens out of six, and two overseers out of four; St. Michael's v. Tamworth, B. S. C. 770;

Margam, 1 T. R. 775: by a sole overseer; Clifton, 1 E. 168 (see Notes 13 and 14 Ch. II. c. 12, ante No. 2; 43 Eliz. c. 2, ante No. 1) nor by two persons (both churchward. ens) and one sole overseer; St. Margaret's, Leicester, 8 E. 332. Qu. as to the case where more than four are appointed; see Clifton, ub. sup.; Wymondham, 6 T. R. 552; and see Statute 54 Geo. III. c. 107, post.

(4) The justices may also be the witnesses; Boston, 2 Bott, 613.

(5) The effect of the certificate only extends to the persons named in it and their children, and not to the grandchildren, whose parents are not named; Darlington, 4 T. R. 797; Heath, 5 T. R. 583; Mortlake, 6 E. 397: but it extends to all children expressly named, and their children; Testerton, 5 T. R. 258; Batheaston, 8 T. R. 448. Where the certificate mentioned father, mother, and two younger children, and the eldest child, who got his own living, was purposely left

poor

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No. IV.

8 and 9

c. 30.

Persons receiving alms to wear a badge on the shoul

der of the

right sleeve.

II. And to the end that the money raised only for the relief of such as are as well impotent as poor, may not be misapplied and consumed by the idle, sturdy, and disorderly beggars; Be it further enacted by the authority William III. aforesaid, That every such person as from and after the first day of September, one thousand six hundred and ninety-seven, shall be upon the collection, and receive relief of any parish or place, and the wife and children of any such person cohabiting in the same house (such child only excepted, as shall be by the churchwardens and overseers of the permitted to live at home, in order to have the care of and attend an impotent and helpless parent) shall upon the shoulder of the right sleeve of the uppermost garment of every such person, in an open and visible manner, wear such badge (6) or mark as is herein after mentioned and expressed, that is to say, a large Roman P. together with the first letter of the name of the parish or place whereof such poor person is an inhabitant, cut either in red or blue cloth, as by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor it shall be directed and appointed. And if any such poor person shall Penalty on at any time neglect or refuse to wear such badge or mark, as aforesaid, and refusal. in manner as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace of the county, city, liberty, or town-corporate, where any such offence shall be committed, upon complaint to him for that purpose to be made, to punish every such offender for every such offence, either by ordering of his or her relief or usual allowance on the collection to be abridged, suspended, or withdrawn, or otherwise by committing of any such offender to the house of correction, there to be whipt and kept to hard labour, for any number of days not exceeding one and twenty, as to the said justice in his discretion it shall seem most meet; and if any such churchwarden or overseer of the poor, from and after the said first day of Penalty on September, shall relieve any such poor person not having and wearing such churchwarbadge or mark, as aforesaid, being thereof convicted, upon the oath of one den, &c. reor more credible witness or witnesses, before any justice of the peace of lieving poor the county, city, liberty, or town-corporate, where any such offence shall persons not be committed, shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of twenty shil- wearing such badge. lings, to be levied by distress and sale of the goods of every such offender, by warrant under the hand and seal of any such justice; one moiety thereof to be to the use of the informer, and the other to the poor of the parish where the offence shall be committed.

III. And, for the more effectual preventing of vexatious removals and Justices, on frivolous appeals; Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That appeal to them the justices of the peace of any county or riding, in their general or quar- concerning the ter sessions of the peace, upon any appeal before them there to be had, for settlement of and concerning the settlement of any poor person, or upon any proof any poor persons, to award before them there to be made, of notice of any such appeal to have been costs. given by the proper officer to the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of any parish or place (though they did not afterwards prosecute such appeal) shall, at the same quarter sessions, award and order to the party

out, and the certificate was held not to extend to him, as one of his father's family; Storrington, 7 T. R. 133.

The certificate extends to the children named therein, as being original parties, and to their families: Batheaston, 8 T. R. 448; Testerton, 5 T. R. 258: to children not named, leaving the certificated parish, and returning again to their parents or families, under age; Bedworth v. Keel, Caldec. 605; Ingworth, 8 T. R. 339: but not to children not named, who have become heads of families of their own; Darlington, 4 T. R. 797; Heath, 5 T. R. 583; Mortlake, 5 T. R. 258: or who are under circumstances amounting to an emancipation; Mosley, 2 M. and S. 417: notwithstanding the certificate engage to receive the parties named, and their child or children,

born or to be born; Thwaites, 1 M. and S. 669. It extends to a second wife of a person married to another woman at the time of granting the certificate, after her husband's death; Hampton, 5 T. R. 266: to a child, of which the certificate states, that a single woman was pregnant at the time of granting it: Ipsley, B. S. C. 650; but not to future illegitimate children, although so expressed Mathon, 7 T. R. 362. The certificate is conclusive evidence, as between the particular families, with respect to the marriage of persons therein acknowledged as husband and wife; New Windsor, v. White Waltham, 1 Str. 186; Hedcorn v. Maidstone, B. S. C. 253; Tostock r. Islame, B. S. C. 737; Ullesthorpe, 8 T. R. 372.

(6) Repealed 50 Geo. III. c. 52.

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