The Settlement Laws 3
Removal of a pauper widow
A further illustration of the hounding of the destitute members of society from parish to parish is shown below. This is a document from the Radnorshire Quarter Sessions of 1784, instructing the officials of a parish in Warwickshire to accept responsibility for a pauper widow who was being sent back to their parish.
She had been caught begging in Glasbury, and was to be taken on to Hay and despatched over the county border into England and on to Birmingham.
From the
records of the
Radnorshire
Quarter Sessions
Midsummer
1784
Powys County
Archives
R/QS/R/73
The
part of the document shown here reads:
"To the Constable, Tythingman, or other Officer of the
Peace of the Parish of Glasbury in the said County; and also
to the Constables and other Officers whom it may concern, to
receive and convey:
And to the Churchwardens, Chapelwardens, or Overseers of the
Poor of the Parish of Derriton in the County of Warwick or either
of them, to receive and obey:
Whereas Elizabeth Rowlands widow was apprehended in the Parish
of Glasbury in the said County of Radnor as a Rogue and Vagabond,
viz. wandering about and begging and upon Examination of the
said Elizabeth Rowlands taken before me John Hughes Clerk one
of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace in the said County of
Radnor upon Oath (which Examination is hereto annexed) it doth
appear, that the settlement of the aforesaid Elizabeth Rowlands
is in the Parish of Derriton in the Town of Birmingham in the
aforesaid County of Warwick. These are therefore to require you
the said Constable, Tythingman or other Officer of the Peace
of the said Parish of Glasbury to convey the said Elizabeth Rowlands
to the Town of Hay in the County of Brecon that being the first
topwn in the next Precinct, through which she ought to pass in
the direct Way to the said Parish.."
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