Thrale history

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wholesale poor relief from the rates, destroyed all incentive. All labourers lived on the brink of starvation for no effort of will or character could improve their position. "The most worthless were sure of something, while the prudent, the industrious, and the sober, with all their cares and pains obtained only something, and even that scanty pittance was doled out to them by the overseer”.¹² The rent roll of the parish was £2,800 a year, more than half of which was received by the Duchess of Marlborough.

By an Act of Parliament passed in 1673 every parish in which a man tried to settle could send him back to the parish where he was born, for fear that if he stayed he might at some future date become chargeable on the rates. Parish went to law against parish to decide where the possible paupers really belonged. Accordingly in 1718 Sandridge won an appeal and did not have to move George Tilcock from Flamstead¹² but in 1727 they were compelled to remove John Laundy and Rebecca his wife from Hatfield.¹³ Money was spent on hurrying undesirable tramps through the parish for fear they should fall ill or die within its bounds, and so become chargeable to the rates. Women in pregnancy were frequently given small sums to get them away.

Another class of people who had to be dealt with were known as Turkey slaves. These were men who had escaped from the Turkish galleys In the Mediterranean and on reaching England found themselves destitute. These poor people were constantly making an appearance in Sandridge demanding relief and it was impossible to discover whether they were genuine or not. This kind of relief was paid by the churchwardens, as was money for the destruction of vermin. In 1729 the churchwardens had to pay for a number of varied items:

In order to curtail expenses the following resolutions were passed at a vestry meeting in 1732:

It is resolved and agreed that no churchwarden or other parish officers shall after ye date hereof give or allow to any person or persons whatsoever any of ye parish money for any foxes polecats or hedgehogs or any suchlike vermin as has heretofore been done nor for any persons pretending to be Turkey Slaves or for any wandering persons claiming relief without due authority and also that no churchwardens or other parish officers shall claim or demand any extravagant fees or payments for executing any parish orders not withstanding any former custom to ye contrary and also that there shall be allowed two shillings and sixpence apiece to each churchwarden at each visitation and no more and ten shillings a year to ye Minister and no more.

The parish officers chiefly concerned with the relief of poverty were the overseers, who held office for one year at a time. They had to keep the accounts and hand over any balance at the end of the year to their successors. Richard Pilgrim of Waterend was overseer In 1735, when Robert Branthem, a labourer of Sandridge, was apprehended for taking one trout value twelve pence out of the river at Sopwell the property of Samuel Grimston Esq.¹⁴ Mr. Pilgrim was again overseer in 1740, and at the end of that year he had £3. 9. 0 in hand, which he failed to hand over as he should have done. Twenty months later this money was still owing and so the Vestry agreed unanimously that he "be arrested for ye money due and owing from him to our parish". What the sequel to this resolution was we do not know, but two years later Mr. Pilgrim was overseer for the third time.

The children of unmarried mothers were liable to be a charge on the poor rates, so steps were taken to prevent this when possible and make the father pay up or marry the girl, if he was not already married. Jeremiah Lattimore, the village wheelwright and a married man, was made to sign the following document written out for him by someone whose spelling was not his strong point:

were as I have Own’d this day att a Vestre held for ye relief of ye said poor of our said Parish of Sanderidge, Dew own, and Confess, that my servant Mary Gardener is at this present instant with Child by me, I therefore for a satisfaction to ye Perrishoners all this Vestre and for ye affections that I bear for ye said Mary

Footnotes

11. Poor Law Commission of 1834, p47.↩︎
12. Record Of The Hertford County Sessions. Nine volumes edited by W. J. Hardy, F.S.A, and Colonel William Le Hardy, M.C., F.S.A. Vol.7, p.166.↩︎
13. Record Of The Hertford County Sessions. Nine volumes edited by W. J. Hardy, F.S.A, and Colonel William Le Hardy, M.C., F.S.A. Vol.7, p.209.↩︎
14. Record Of The Hertford County Sessions. Nine volumes edited by W. J. Hardy, F.S.A, and Colonel William Le Hardy, M.C., F.S.A. Vol.2, p.72 and Vol.7, p.255.↩︎