Poor Law

Settlement Act
The Poor Relief Act 1662 (13&14 Car. II c.12) was an Act of the Cavalier Parliament of England. It was an Act for the Better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom and is also known as the Settlement Act or, more honestly, the Settlement and Removal Act. The purpose of the Act was to establish the parish to which a person belonged (i.e. his/her place of "settlement"), and hence clarify which parish was responsible for him should he become in need of Poor Relief (or "chargeable" to the parish poor rates). This was the first occasion when a document proving domicile became statutory: these were called "settlement certificates".

After 1662, if a man left his settled parish to move elsewhere, he had to take his Settlement Certificate, which guaranteed that his home parish would pay for his "removal" costs (from the host parish) back to his home if he needed poor relief. As parishes were often unwilling to issue such certificates people often stayed where they were – knowing that in an emergency they would be entitled to their parish's poor rate.

The 1662 Act stipulated that if a poor person (that is, resident of a tenancy with a taxable value less than £10 per year, who did not fall under the other protected categories) remained in the parish for forty days of undisturbed residency, he could acquire "settlement rights" in that parish. However, within those forty days, upon any local complaint, two JPs could remove the man and return him to his home parish. As a result, parish bosses frequently dispatched their poor to other parishes, with instructions to remain hidden for forty days before revealing themselves. This loophole was closed with the 1685 act (1 Jam II c.17) which required new arrivals to register with parish authorities. But sympathetic parish officers often hid the registration, and did not reveal the presence of new arrivals until the required residency period was over. As a result, the law was further tightened in 1692 (3 & 4 Will & Mar, c.11), and parish officers were obliged to publicly publish arrival registrations in writing in the local church Sunday circular, and read to the congregation, and that the forty days would only start counting from thereon.


The Settlement Act was repealed in 1834 (under the terms of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which introduced the Union Workhouse), although not fully. The concept of parish settlement has been characterised as "incompatible with the newly developing industrial system", because it hindered internal migration to factory towns. [Wikipedia]

Unfortunately, no documentation concerning settlement seems to have survived for Bubwith. However, the settlement records for some neighbouring parishes do survive, particularly for Seaton Ross and Eastrington, which do contain settlement certificates from Bubwith residents.

The following is a list of settlement documentation from the East Riding Archives in Beverley (and one at the end from Bradford Archives), that relate to Bubwith folk:

Parish Reference Document Date Details
Beverley, St. Mary PE1/691/72 Settlement Examination 26 Mar 1764 Mark Fleming, 28, bricklayer.
Settlement: Bubwith.
Apprenticed to George Elmer, bricklayer of Bubwith
Eastrington PE150/T18/20 Settlement Certificate 12 Mar 1756 Settlement certificate of Alexander Scott, his wife Alee and children George, Mary, Ann and Hannah of Gripthorpe.
Settlement: Eastrington
Eastrington PE150/T18/30 Settlement Certificate 5 Apr 1770 Margritt Graves, widow of Spaldington, Bubwith.
Settlement: Eastrington
Eastrington PE150/T18/31 Settlement Certificate 17 Sep 1770 Robert Graves of Spaldington and his wife Jane.
Settlement: Eastrington
Eastrington PE150/T18/34 Settlement Certificate 3 Feb 1781 William Wood, his wife Mary and child William of Spaldington.
Settlement: Eastrington
Eastrington PE150/T19/4 Bond of Indemnification 6 Oct 1781 Bond to indemnify the township account by Edward Ellis and Thomas Clark of Spaldington. Re: Mary Wade of Spaldington, singlewoman.
Eastrington PE150/T18/48 Settlement Examination 15 Oct 1788 Examination of George Graves of Eastrington. States that he was hired at Howden to Thos Kemp at Foggathorpe for one year
Eastrington PE150/T19/13 Settlement Examination 22 Feb 1819 Margaret Procter of Eastrington, singlewoman.
Father: John Jackson of Spaldington, Bubwith, labourer
Eastrington PE150/T19/13 Settlement Examination 22 Feb 1819 Examination of Margaret Procter of Eastrington, singlewoman.
Father: John Jackson of Spaldington, parish of Bubwith, labourer
Elloughton, St Mary PE101/43/6 Settlement Certificate 15 Oct 1776 James Tinall, labourer. Settlement: Willitoft, Bubwith.
Seaton Ross PC7/6/4 Settlement certificate 8 Apr 1731 George Sanderson and wife. Settlement: Foggathorpe.
Seaton Ross PC7/3/2 Bastardy bond 5 Nov 1735 Mother: Ann Sanderson, spinster, Seaton Ross.
Other parties: inhabitants of Foggathorpe
Seaton Ross PC7/7/2 Removal order 16 Oct 1735 Ann Sanderson Junior. Settlement: Foggathorpe
Seaton Ross PC7/7/4 Removal order 25 Jul 1749 Ellen Battle. Settlement: Foggathorpe
Seaton Ross PC7/6/13 Settlement Certificate 1 Jan 1756 John Sissons, wife Sarah. Settlement: Spaldington
Seaton Ross PC7/7/5 Removal order 10 Apr 1756 John Sissons, wife Sarah. Settlement: Spaldington
Seaton Ross PC7/6/28 Settlement Certificate 13 Nov 1775 Thomas Watson. Wife Sarah.
Seaton Ross PC7/6/30 Settlement Certificate 23 Feb 1780 William Buttle, wife Ada.
Settlement: Gribthorpe and Willitoft, Bubwith
Seaton Ross PC7/4/16 Bastardy order 15 Feb 1828 Mother: Elizabeth Clarkson, singlewoman, Seaton Ross.
Father: Thomas Dales, farmer's servant, Foggathorpe.
Other particulars: son born Seaton Ross 21 Dec 1827
Seaton Ross PC7/7/40 Removal order 2 Mar 1831 Thomas Moor. Settlement: Foggathorpe
Woodmansey DB3/C56/A/383
Copy Letter 30 May 1836

From G Sumner, Overseer of Woodmansey, to William Stephenson of Willitoft near Howden that Robert Thompson has demanded from the Overseers the payment of a considerable sum of money for the maintenance of a child which Stephenson is the reputed father. Asks him to discharge the amount. Also asks him to ask his father to pay his rates. [Bradford Archives]


Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 established the Union Workshouses. Bubwith joined the Howden Poor Law Union upon its creation in 1837, and the workhouse was constructed in 1839. The Howden Poor Law Union records are held at the East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, under reference PUH.

Workshouse Censuses
Researches who fail to find a Bubwith resident in the censuses may need to check the censuses for the Howden Workhouse, in case they appear there. For example, the following Bubwith parishioners were in the Howden Workhouse in 1871 and 1891:

1871 Census, Howden Union Workhouse
Joseph Spring, Pauper Inmate, Unm,  9, Scholar, Yorks, Bubwith
William Daltry, Pauper Inmate, Unm, 64, Agr. Lab, Yorks Breighton
Henry Rushforth, Pauper Inmate,  Unm, 9, Scholar, Yorks, Harlthorpe
James Rushforth, Pauper Inmate,  Unm, 7, Scholar, Yorks, Harlthorpe

1891 Census, Howden Union Workhouse
Edith Yellah, Pauper Inmate, S, 14, Scholar, Yorks, Breighton
George Cass, Pauper Inmate, S, 66, Tailor's Assistant, Yorks, Spaldington
Ada Temple, Pauper Inmate, S, 18, Domestic Servant, Yorks, Spaldington
Sarah A. Temple, Pauper Inmate, S, 1, Yorks, Spaldington

Lunacy
From 1842, Poor Law Unions were required to submit an annual list of lunatics, either in an institution or in the community, to the Clerk to the Quarter Sessions. The Howden Poor Law Union, which covered Bubwith, has returns available in the East Riding Archives in Beverley, which show the parish of residence in the online catalogue, only up to and including 1866.

Returns of Pauper Lunatics
Reference
Year
Name/Age/Residence
QAL/2/3/4   QAL/2/4/4     QAL/2/5/4
QAL/2/6/4
QAL/2/13/3
QAL/2/14/3
QAL/2/15/3
QAL/2/16/3
QAL/2/17/4
QAL/2/18/3
QAL/2/19/4
QAL/2/23/4
QAL/2/24/4
1844
1846
1847
1848
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1865
1866
Ann Shepherd, 33, Spaldington; Hannah Young, 23, Bubwith
Hannah Young, 25, Bubwith; Ann Shepherd, 35, Spaldington
Hannah Young, 26, Bubwith
Hannah Young, 27, Bubwith
Hannah Brabbs, 24, Bubwith; William Hall, 15, Breighton
Hannah Brabbs, 25, Bubwith; William Hall, 16, Breighton; Mary Dibb, 28, Willitoft
William Hall, 17, Breighton; Hannah Hamson, 15, Spaldington
William Hall, 18, Breighton
Hannah Harrison, 21, Spaldington
Hannah Harrison, 22, Spaldington
Hannah Brabbs, 29, Bubwith; Hannah Harrison, 23, Spaldington
Ann Etty, 40, Breighton; Hannah Young, 45, Bubwith
Hannah Young, 46, Bubwith