Hi Matthew,
The Poor Law Act 1601 provided for relief to be granted to paupers only in their parish of legal settlement. The restriction was intended to prevent an influx of poor labourers into parishes where there was often temporary work but which were already heavily burdened with paupers. Sickness, unemployment etc could burden a family at any time and from the point of view of the individual it was imporant to ensure that they had a legal settlement where they were living. The 1601 Act provided that a person became legally setled in a parish after they lived in that parish for more than one month.
However, the Poor Relief Act 1662 (also known as the Settlement Act) altered the 1 month requirement and laid the basis of the law of settlement which lasted for about 2 centuries.
In order to have a legal settlement, a person had to fulfil one or more of the following conditions:
1. be born into a parish where the parents had a settlement
2. up to 1662, live in a parish for more than three years; after 1662 a person could be removed within 40 days of arrival and after 1691, a person had to give 40 days' notice before moving into a parish
3. be hired continually by a settled resident for more than a year and a day
4. hold parish office
5. rent property worth more than £10 p.a. OR pay taxes on a property worth more than £10 p.a.
6. a woman who married into the parish
7. previously have received poor relief in that parish
8. apprenticed to a master in the parish
Almost everyone born in England & Wales began with a settlement in their place of birth, but this was usually overridden when a settlement by inhabitancy was acquired as set out above. Women and children suffered the most from the settlement system because they could rarely acquire settlement in their own right but automatically took that of their husband or father.
The rules were often strictly enforced. People would be forcibly ejected from a parish if they did not have legal settlement in that parish and they became or were thought likely to become a financial liabiiity to the parish. The parish officials or Justices of the Peace could examine newcomers on oath, as to their place of settlement. It is these examinations which are known as 'settlement examinations' and they often contain much information about a person, such as their place of birth, their employment history, places where they have lived since they were born and references to relatives. They can be extremely useful if you cannot find a baptism for someone.
A person could voluntarily present themself to obtain a legal settlement for a parish as well as be compelled to attend for an examination. A removal order would be issued against a person if the Justices found that a person needed or was likely to need relief and was not entitled to settlement. A removal order directed that a person or family be returned to their parish of legal settlement.
Nigel
