Term in overseer accounts

[Ili1133]

Thanks to a very useful text search tool which coombs posted recently (https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=891814.0) I have been looking through the overseer accounts for Foulsham, Norfolk. Foulsham suffered from a smallpox epidemic in 1711-14 and various parishioners, including my ancestor, received temporary parish support while they were sick and unable to work. The accounts also itemise specific items and services the parish covered and in the list for the same quarter is this entry:



What do you think he received? It cost 3/6 in 1712. I can’t find anybody else who received one of these.

Thanks, Helen

[Bookbox]

The word is c(er)tificate. (The backwards curve after the c indicates a suspended -er).

[Ili1133]

Many thanks for explaining Bookbox - this helps me improve my skills!

Could this be a settlement certificate, do you think? Why would the parish pay for this?

[Bookbox]

Impossible to say what sort of certificate out of context. Can you please supply a link to the page on FamilySearch, so that we can have a look at other items in the accounts?

[Ili1133]

Here’s the link, although I’m afraid it doesn’t add much to answer your question. At this point he was probably working on the land but not a tenant himself - he doesn’t appear on earlier lists of those paying rates, although the names are not included for 1713.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01tt5/

I suppose the broader question is under what circumstances would the parish pay for a certificate - I can see they needed to pay for declarations when they appointed new overseers, for example, but Shilo (my family member) doesn’t appear in these accounts again, so it’s difficult for me to imagine what he was doing to benefit the parish. Maybe I should post this as a more general question.

[Bookbox]

All I can suggest is that Shilo Parson was not settled in Foulsham but he applied for parish relief there, bringing with him a settlement certificate from his own parish, which he handed to the overseers, who gave him 3s. 6d relief.

[Ili1133]

Thanks for the suggestion - it’s certainly a possibility. His father had farmed in Foulsham 15 years previously when Shilo was growing up so perhaps there was some family connection.