Many went from
parish to parish to build cottages and consumed all the wood there
and then went to another parish. So the parishes were allowed by
statute to remove any person coming to settle in any tenement
under the value of ten pounds who was likely to be chargeable to
it. They were then removed to the last parish were they had
resided for at least forty days. Excepted were people temporarily
moving to another parish to work at harvest time. The overall
effect was to decrease the mobility of people. But a later statute
permitted greater movement of poor people by allowing those who
were poor for want of work to go to another parish where labor was
wanted. They had to bring a certificate of their present parish
membership to the new parish, where they could settle if they
rented a tenement worth ten pounds a year or served in a parish
office. Later, settlement had to be given to inhabitants paying
its rates, and unmarried inhabitants hired for one year, and
apprentices bound by indenture. But parishes were displeased with
the requirement to give settlements to these people because they
feared they would become poor and need parish assistance, thereby
increasing the rates to be paid.
Parish poor houses were converted into spinning schools to obtain
an income. Parishes of large towns were combined to set up large
workhouses, where the poor could be set to unskilled manufacture,
but the managers lacked the character and education to make them
work.
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