Poor Relief - Law Commission

(f) the Corporation authorised to make bye laws for the better government of
the Corporation and the poor; authority for the Corporation to buy a
hospital, workhouse or house of correction and to provide whatever was
required to set to work the poor of Crediton; power to compel the idle
poor to take up employment, including employment in the workhouse;
Corporation to have jurisdiction over poor children until they reach 16,
whereupon they might be apprenticed for a period not exceeding 7 years
(g) court authorised to punish the misbehaviour of any poor person in
Corporation premises
(h) Corporation authorised to assess the sum required to build and fit out a
hospital or workhouse, such sum (not exceeding £600) to be raised over
a 2 year period; Corporation also authorised to assess the weekly or
monthly sum required to maintain the poor in such hospital or workhouse,
such sum not to exceed the sums paid by the inhabitants to maintain the
poor in the last 2 years; all such sums to be raised by taxation of every
inhabitant of Crediton; churchwardens and overseers authorised to
collect the tax; penalty for non-payment; appeals against assessment
(i) Corporation authorised to confer the status of Assistant or Guardian on
anyone making donations of £50 or more to the Corporation
(j) Corporation to be responsible for the care and maintenance of all the
poor of Crediton except in cases where the poor were already sufficiently
provided for; power to apprehend vagrants or beggars and set them to
work in the workhouse for a period not exceeding three years; power to
obtain details from the churchwardens and overseers of every person in
Crediton who received poor relief, ensuring that those able to work were
sent to the workhouse and given such work as would be most
advantageous to the Corporation; provisions for checking misbehaviour
by workhouse inmates and Corporation officers
(k) Corporation authorised to employ such officers as are necessary for the
running of the Corporation’s premises
(l) accounts of the Corporation to be kept and made available for inspection;
penalty for neglect or refusal to produce accounts
(m) penalty for refusal by any Guardian or treasurer to take their oath of office
(n) penalties imposed by this Act to be recoverable by seizure of the
offender’s goods
(o) civil procedure; status of Act
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