a-year, or could give such security for the discharge
of the parish where he was then living,
as those justices should judge sufficient.
Some frauds, it is said, were committed in
consequence of this statute; parish officers
sometimes bribing their own poor to go clandestinely
to another parish, and, by keeping
themselves concealed for forty days, to gain a
settlement there, to the discharge of that to
which they properly belonged. It was enacted,
therefore, by the 1st of James II. that the
forty days undisturbed residence of any person
necessary to gain a settlement, should be
accounted only from the time of his delivering
notice, in writing, of the place of his abode
and the number of his family, to one of
the church-wardens or overseers of the parish
where he came to dwell.
But parish officers, it seems, were not always
more honest with regard to their own
than they had been with regard to other parishes,
and sometimes connived at such intrusions,
receiving the notice, and taking no proper
steps in consequence of it. As every person
in a parish, therefore, was supposed to have
an interest to prevent as much as possible their
being burdened by such intruders, it was further
enacted by the 3d of William III. that
the forty days residence should be accounted
only from the publication of such notice in
writing on Sunday in the church, immediately
after divine service.
"After all," says Doctor Burn, "this kind
of settlement, by continuing forty days after
publication of notice in writing, is very seldom
obtained; and the design of the acts is not so
much for gaining of settlements, as for the
avoiding of them by persons coming into a
parish clandestinely, for the giving of notice
is only putting a force upon the parish to remove.
But if a person's situation is such,
that it is doubtful whether he is actually removable
or not, he shall, by giving of notice,
compel the parish either to allow him a settlement
uncontested, by suffering him to continue
forty days, or by removing him to try the
right."
This statute, therefore, rendered it almost
impracticable for a poor man to gain a new
settlement in the old way, by forty days inhabitancy.
But that it might not appear to preclude
altogether the common people of one
parish from ever establishing themselves with
security in another, it appointed four other
ways by which a settlement might be gained
without any notice delivered or published.
The first was, by being taxed to parish rates
and paying them; the second, by being elected
into an annual parish office, and serving in
it a year; the third, by serving an apprenticeship
in the parish; the fourth, by being hired
into service there for a year, and continuing
in the same service during the whole of it.
Nobody can gain a settlement by either of
the first two ways, but by the public deed of
the whole parish, who are too well aware of
the consequences to adopt any new-comer,
who has nothing but his labour to support
him, either by taxing him to parish rates, or
by electing him into a parish office.
No married man can well gain any settlement
in either of the two last ways. An apprentice
is scarce ever married; and it is expressly
enacted, that no married servant shall
gain any settlement by being hired for a year.
The principal effect of introducing settlement
by service, has been to put out in a great measure
the old fashion of hiring for a year;
which before had been so customary in England,
that even at this day, if no particular
term is agreed upon, the law intends that
every servant is hired for a year. But masters
are not always willing to give their servants
a settlement by hiring them in this manner;
and servants are not always willing to be
so hired, because, as every last settlement discharges
all the foregoing, they might thereby
lose their original settlement in the places of
their nativity, the habitation of their parents
and relations.
No independent workman, it is evident,
whether labourer or artificer, is likely to gain
any new settlement, either by apprenticeship
or by service. When such a person, therefore,
carried his industry to a new parish, he
was liable to be removed, how healthy and industrious
soever, at the caprice of any church-warden
or overseer, unless he either rented a
tenement of ten pounds a-year, a thing impossible
for one who has nothing but his labour
to live by, or could give such security
for the discharge of the parish as two justices
of the peace should judge sufficient.
What security they shall require, indeed, is
left altogether to their discretion; but they
cannot well require less than thirty pounds,
it having been enacted, that the purchase even
of a freehold estate of less than thirty pounds
value, shall not gain any person a settlement,
as not being sufficient for the discharge of the
parish. But this is a security which scarce
any man who lives by labour can give; and
much greater security is frequently demanded.
In order to restore, in some measure, that
free circulation of labour which those different
statutes had almost entirely taken away,
the invention of certificates was fallen upon.
By the 8th and 9th of William III. it was enacted
that if any person should bring a certificate
from the parish where he was last legally
settled, subscribed by the church-wardens
and overseers of the poor, and allowed by two
justices of the peace, that every other parish
should be obliged to receive him; that he
should not be removable merely upon account
of his being likely to become chargeable, but
only upon his becoming actually chargeable;
and that then the parish which granted the
certificate should be obliged to pay the expense
both of his maintenance, and of his removal.