suggested the subject to me, and also pointed out to me some of the printed sources of information. I also thank Mr Hubert Hall of the Public Record Office for the ready kindness with which he has always helped me. Mr Tigny of the Norwich muniment room, Dr Sharpe of the Guildhall Record Office, and the officials of the British Museum and Public Record Office have also courteously assisted me while I was investigating the manuscripts under their care. My thanks are also due to Mr S. H. Leonard of Lincoln's Inn, Mr J. L. Burbey of Exeter College, and Miss Maud Syson of Girton College. I desire also to express my gratitude to Mr Loch, Sec. of the C. O. S., who, on behalf of the Syndics of the University Press, made several suggestions of which I have been glad to avail myself.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNING OF THE SECULAR CONTROL OF POOR RELIEF.

§ 1. Anglo-Saxon times. § 2. The Labour statutes. § 3. The control

of charitable funds by the state. § 4. The control of charitable funds by the

towns. § 5. Summary of the main features of public control of poor relief

before the sixteenth century

pp. 1-10

CHAPTER II.

THE CAUSES OF THE REORGANISATION OF POOR RELIEF.

§ 1. Increase of vagrants. § 2. Reasons for increase of beggars. § 3.

Old methods of charity. § 4. Attempts to reorganise charitable funds on the

Continent. § 5. Three factors in the making of the English system of poor

relief

pp. 11-21

十

CHAPTER III.

1514-1569.

POOR RELIEF IN THE TOWNS.

§ 1. Importance of municipal government in Tudor towns. § 2. London

regulations for a constant supply of corn, 1391-1569. § 3. Regulations for

the repression of vagrants and the relief of the poor, 1514-1536. § 4. Re-

foundation of St Bartholomew's Hospital and imposition of a compulsory poor

rate, 1536-1547. § 5. Completion of the Four Royal Hospitals and establish-

ment of a municipal system of poor relief in London, 1547-1557. § 6. Failure

of the municipal system of London. § 7. Provision of corn in Bristol and

Canterbury. § 8. Lincoln. Survey of poor; and arrangements for finding

work for the unemployed. § 9. Ipswich. Survey of poor; imposition of

compulsory poor rate and foundation of Christ's Hospital. § 10. Cambridge.

Survey of poor and assessment of parishioners. § 11. Summary. pp. 22-46

CHAPTER IV.

1514-1569.

THE PRIVY COUNCIL AND PARLIAMENT.

§ 1. Efforts made by the Government to secure the employment of the

clothmakers during the crisis in the cloth trade of 1527—8. § 2. Regulations

for the supply of the markets with corn, 1527—8. § 3. Similar action in

regard to corn in 1548 and 1563. § 4. Letters of the Privy Council to par-

ticular local officials in connection with the relief of the poor. § 5. Legis-

lation concerning the relief of the poor during the reign of Henry VIII.

§ 6. The two earlier statutes of Edward VI. § 7. Legislation between

1551 and 1569. § 8. Summary.

CHAPTER V.

pp. 47-60

REVIEW OF THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC POOR

RELIEF, 1514-1569.

§ 1. The action of municipal rulers precedes the action of Parliament.

§ 2. Advantages of the municipal system of relief. § 3. Connection between

the municipal organisation of poor relief and the dissolution of the monasteries.

§ 4. Relation of beggary to the first schemes of relief. § 5. Parental govern-

ment. § 6. Bridewell, the key-stone of the system

CHAPTER VI.

1569-1597.

PARLIAMENT AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

pp. 61-66

A. Parliamentary History. § 1. Discussions, Bills and Statutes between

1566 and 1576. § 2. Parliamentary history between 1576 and 1597. § 3.

The Bills and Statutes of 1597. § 4. General features of the discussion in

Parliament. B. The action of the Privy Council. § 5. The chief charac-

teristics of the action of the Privy Council. § 6. The whipping campaign.

§ 7. The scarcity measures. § 8. The influence of the Privy Council on

county and municipal officials

CHAPTER VII.

1569-1597.

pp. 67-94

THE MEASURES OF THE TOWNS AND THE EVENTS OF THE

YEARS 1594-1597.

§ 1. The organisation of London with regard to the poor. § 2. The

organisation of Norwich. § 3. The action of other towns (1) concerning the

settlement of new comers; (2) concerning the unemployed; (3) concerning the

raising of funds. § 4. The events of the years of scarcity 1594-1597. § 5.

Summary of the period 1569-1597

pp. 95-131

CHAPTER VIII.

1597-1644.

PARLIAMENT AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

§ 1. Characteristics of the period.

§ 2. Legislation from 1597 to 1644.

Administrative machinery. § 3. Action of the Privy Council before 1629.

§ 4. Action of the Privy Council after 1629 with regard to the provision of

§ 5. Action of the Privy Council after 1629 with regard to the un-

corn.

employed.

§ 6. The Book of Orders as a whole and the royal commission of

1638. § 7. Interference with wages as a method of helping the poor. § 8.

Summary

pp. 132-164

CHAPTER IX.

1597-1644.

THE LOCAL MACHINERY FOR ADMINISTRATION.

§ 1. Powers of the justices. § 2. Work of the justices in first putting the

law in execution (a) in the West Riding during 1598, (b) in the North Riding

during the years immediately following 1605. § 3. Reports of the justices in

response to the Book of Orders.
§ 4. The work of the judges: (a) Authoritative

decisions on points of law; (b) Administrative work as the link between the

Privy Council and the justices. § 5. The work of the overseers (a) in 1599;

(b) when stirred to greater activity by scarcity measures; (c) after the issue of

the Book of Orders

pp. 165-183

§ 1. The methods by which the scarcity orders of the Privy Council were

executed in 1623 and 1630-1: (a) the suppression of alehouses and restriction

of malting; (b) the regulations for serving the markets with corn; (c) selling

corn to labourers under price; (d) other methods of providing food for the poor.

§ 2. Evidence as to the success or failure of the corn regulations. § 3.

Reasons for adopting them. § 4. Bearing of the scarcity measures on the

history of poor relief, (a) because of the growth of organisation; (b) as an

indication of the standard of life of the poorer classes. § 5. Provision of fuel

for the poor in winter. § 6. Help afforded in times of plague and sick-

§ 7. Contributions to sufferers from fire. § 8. Two characteristics of

seventeenth century poor relief: (a) little distinction between paupers and non-

paupers; (b) little distinction between relief afforded by voluntary contributions

and that provided by poor rates.

pp. 184-205

ness.