Poor Relief - Law Commission

of the town; 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 may be
apprenticed for a period not exceeding 7 years
(h) court authorised to punish the misbehaviour of any poor person in
Corporation premises
(i) Corporation authorised to assess the sum required to build and fit out a
hospital or workhouse, such sum (not exceeding £5000) to be raised
over a 3 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 town to maintain the poor
in the last 3 years; all such sums to be raised by taxation of every
inhabitant in the town; churchwardens and overseers authorised to
collect the tax; penalty for non-payment; appeals against assessment
(j) procedure for the Corporation collecting the taxes itself in the event of
delay; penalties for bureaucratic delay
(k) Corporation authorised to confer the status of Guardian on anyone
making donations of £100 or more to the Corporation
(l) Corporation to be responsible for the care and maintenance of all the
poor of the town 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; this Act
not to affect almshouses, hospitals or other charitable donations made
within the town
(m) Corporation authorised to employ such officers as are necessary for the
running of the Corporation’s premises
(n) accounts of the Corporation to be kept and made available for inspection;
penalty for neglect or refusal to produce accounts
(o) penalties imposed by this Act to be recoverable by seizure of the
offender’s goods
(p) civil procedure; status of Act
(q) no apprenticeships within the town to be given to poor children resident
outside the town without the consent of the Governor; no weaver to take
on more than two apprentices at any one time
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The provisions of the 1697 Act are not identified by reference to section numbers because the Act
itself was not divided into sections.
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