THE POOR
1. From early Christian times in England to =relieve the poor= was
looked upon as a Christian duty, and every church and religious house
took its part in the work as a matter of course. You will remember that
in early days there was not much moving about of people from one manor
to another, so that it was not at first difficult to know the sick and
the needy in each place, whether in town or country. Many religious
houses or hospitals were founded for the purposes of relief. They
were not on a large scale, but there were a good many of them. In the
fourteenth century =pilgrimages= were very popular, and many pilgrims
were always to be found on the road.
2. We must remember that there was another side to a pilgrimage besides
the religious one. A pilgrimage was one way of travelling and seeing
the world. Indeed it was almost the only means by which a poor man
could travel and have change of scene. Permission was given for that
purpose because it was regarded as a religious act. It is not at all
surprising that folk who wanted to see the world often took advantage
of a pilgrimage from no very religious motive. Pilgrims could always
find food and lodging at a religious house on their way, and there were
scores of places in England to which pilgrimages might be made, to say
nothing of a journey to the Holy Land, or to the shrine of St. James of
Compostello, which were two grand pilgrimages.
3. In time pilgrimages became somewhat of a nuisance, for many of the
people taking part in them were anything but pious; and, towards the
end of the fourteenth century, strict measures were taken to prevent
beggars and servants from wandering from one hundred to another on
pretence of going on a pilgrimage. Each had to have a letter, properly
signed by an officer of the hundred, giving him leave.
[Illustration: Canterbury Pilgrims]
4. But beggars and wanderers increased. We find some towns, in Tudor
times, taking steps to put down =beggars=. In the early part of the
sixteenth century vagabonds found in London were to be "tayled[12]
at a cart's tayle", and collections were made for the poor weekly,
and distributed at the church door. In the year 1536 there were
fifteen hospitals and four lazar-houses in the city of London. At
the dissolution of the religious houses all these were seized, but
the city managed to save St. Mary Spital, St. Thomas's Hospital, and
St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The city found that it could not get
enough money to keep even one of these going, so a tax was levied for
the purpose. Bishop Ridley and others tried to draw up a scheme for
finding work for the poor, teaching them to make caps, feather-bed
ticks, nails, and iron-work.
5. Other towns tried the same plan, and the king and Parliament issued
many orders about the treatment of the poor and vagabonds. But it was
much easier to issue these orders than to carry them out, and the
beggars increased in numbers and in impudence in spite of all. In 1547
it was ordained that a sturdy beggar might be made a slave for two
years, and if he ran away, then he was to remain a slave for life. The
sons of vagabonds were to be apprenticed till they were twenty-four
years old, and their daughters till they were twenty years of age, and
if they rebelled, they were sent to slavery. The idea was to train them
to work.
6. In all this the difficulty was, how to find the money to carry out
these schemes. The king had swept away all the goods and gifts which
had been made to monasteries, churches, and hospitals; the free-will
offerings of many generations had gone into the pockets of the king;
the institutions which had been founded to help the poor had become
the private property of the king's favourites. It was not likely that
people would be very keen to offer their money for the relief of the
poor, and though urged to give what they could, they were very backward
in doing so. Later on, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, the dwellers in each
parish were urged to find work for the labourers in their parish; but
the beggars still wandered and the poor still abounded.
7. In the year 1572 some very =severe laws= were made concerning
vagabonds. A man who was convicted a third time of being a vagabond was
to be punished with death. Habitations were to be found for all the
poor belonging to a parish; no strangers were to be allowed to settle
in a parish; and each parish was to be taxed for the relief of the
poor. At the same time, every parish was to find something to do for
all the poor who were able to work. Usually a stock of wool, hemp, and
flax was bought, and the poor were supposed to be taught to spin. Each
county was also to provide a House of Correction, where those who would
not work should be forced to do so.
8. To keep down the number of poor people in a parish, order was given
that only one family might live in one house, and no new house might be
built in the country unless it had 4 acres of ground attached to it. In
the cities of London and Westminster, and for three miles round them,
no houses were to be built except for persons worth a specified amount.
Houses might not be divided into tenements, nor might lodgers be taken
in.
9. All this was to keep people as much as possible in the places where
they belonged. The =churchwardens and overseers= had to attend to the
relief of the poor. There are, belonging to a good many parishes in
England, =old account-books=, showing how these officers raised and
spent money on the =relief of the poor=. Some of these books go right
back to this time, though most of them begin a good deal later. These
officers had to keep a very sharp look-out. Of course they did not want
the poor-rate to be any higher than they could help, so strangers
coming into the parish were quickly tracked and hindered from gaining a
settlement there. Vagabonds and strolling players were hurried out of
the parish, and in some cases whipped. The stocks, the whipping-post,
and the cage were set up near the churchyard gate, and they were in
pretty constant use.
10. The officers were very anxious, too, to prevent any =travellers=
from falling ill in their parish. Those who were sick, and could
possibly be moved, they shifted on to the next parish, lest they should
become chargeable to the parish. Some parishes spent a good deal of
money, and the officers much time, in conveying people out of their
bounds. That led, we may imagine, to many disputes between parishes,
and gave the court of Quarter Sessions a lot of work to do; for amongst
the many things which Quarter Sessions had to attend to was the
carrying out of the Poor-Laws.
11. Parishes had to look after and to support their own poor in much
the same way right down to the early part of the nineteenth century,
less than a hundred years ago.
=Summary.=--_Relieving the poor_ was, in early times, a Christian
duty. The poor belonging to a place were then easily known.
Wandering from place to place was discouraged. _Pilgrimages_
became very popular, as it was the chief way by which poor people
could travel and see the world. In later times pilgrims were often
idle vagabonds.
In the sixteenth century some attempts were made to restrain
vagrants, and to find work for the poor. After the religious
houses had been got rid of, the duty of doing this was thrown on
the parishes, and gradually _rates for the relief of the poor_
came into being. The officers who specially looked after the
poor were called _overseers_. Most parishes have still the old
account-books, which show how the money was raised and spent for
about two hundred years. Our present poor-law came into being less
than 100 years ago.