PARISH GOVERNMENT AND POOR RELIEF
The only parish book which survives for Magdalen
Laver contains vestry
minutes and summarized officers' accounts
for the period 1667-
1764 and detailed churchwardens' accounts down to
1869. (fn. 77)
Until 1691 vestry meetings seem to have been held
only at Easter in each year. From 1691 meetings were
held regularly at Easter to examine officers' accounts
and appoint or nominate fresh churchwardens, overseers, and constables, and at Christmas to nominate
fresh surveyors. Occasionally meetings were held in
September or October. Nearly every meeting was
attended, and its minutes recorded, by the rector or
his curate, who always signed first. Meetings were
seldom attended by more than six parishioners.
The vestry minutes seldom recorded corporate
resolutions as distinct from mere approval of the actions
of officers. Two of the most notable resolutions were
in 1708, when it was agreed that a cottage should be
leased for the use of the parish, (fn. 78) and in 1713, when it
was resolved that no officer should relieve a passenger
on a pass with parish money. (fn. 79) Occasionally there were
resolutions on matters relating to poor relief. Generally,
however, the officers seem to have been allowed to
act without guidance or interference from the vestry.
From 1667 until 1686 one churchwarden, one overseer, two constables, and two surveyors of highways
were nominated annually at Easter. From 1686 until
1690 only one surveyor was nominated each year but
from 1691 two were nominated annually at Christmas.
From 1706 only one constable was nominated. From
1732 two names appear 'in nomination for overseer'
but it seems that only one acted. There continued to
be only one churchwarden. A paid church clerk appears first in 1731 when the churchwarden accounted
for £1 paid to him as his annual salary. In 1797 the
clerk was receiving £2 a year. His status may be
deduced from the payment in September 1778 of 1s.
to 'the Clark for Cleaning the Churchyard'.
The surveyors do not appear to have levied a separate
rate but each of the other officers did so until at least
1766. The proceeds of an officer's rates were, however,
indiscriminately applied in settlement of other officers'
accounts. (fn. 80) The surveyors' small disbursements of
5s.-10s. a year were always paid by another officer.
Sometimes officers' own personal money was used to
provide the working funds of the parish. This occurred
for example in the case of the churchwarden during the
period 1713-15. No churchwarden's rate was levied
in 1713 or in 1714. At the end of 1713 the parish
owed the churchwarden £4 9s. 3d.; during the following year the debt rose to £7 14s. 6d. Not until 1715
was a rate levied to raise £8 5s. 6d. in partial settlement
of his account.
In 1682 a 1d. rate produced £5 12s. 4d. Later, only
the total product of rates was recorded. From at least
1680 a regular, and unexplained, source of income for
the churchwardens was 'money for the fair', always
6s. 8d. a year; it was last received in 1731.
There was a parish house in Magdalen Laver from
at least 1708. In October of that year the vestry
resolved to take a lease of a cottage, yard, and orchard
called Maggots for the use of the parishioners for 21
years at a rent of £2 5s. a year. The lessor, William
Cole, lord of the manor, covenanted to do certain
repairs. The vestry which met in October 1714
acknowledged the receipt of £5 from him in discharge
of this obligation which, it was stated, he had been
unable to perform since the cottage was occupied by
'several pensioners of the parish'. At the date of the
meeting the cottage was empty. The preceding Easter
vestry had resolved to have a chimney built and to have
an oven inserted and a new floor made 'in the same
room'. In September 1716 Francis Bowtell was
instructed to come to the 'little end' of the parish house
and Goodman Harrod to remain in the other end. In
March 1717 it was agreed that Goodman Storey and
his family should be removed into the house.
In most cases poor relief was given, in various forms,
outside the parish house. In each of the years 1813-15
there were 16-19 adults on 'permanent' outdoor
relief. (fn. 81) Provision for the poor was made in various
ways including the payment of rents and the provision
of wood, food, clothing, and medicine. All these forms
of relief were used in the first years of the period
(1670-1764) for which accounts have survived. At
a vestry held in October 1692 it was agreed that the
overseer should have full power 'to dispose and order
all things necessary and convenient for the poore as
hee in his prudence shall think fitt'. In March 1693,
however, a vestry meeting agreed that the same overseer should 'dispose of the goods of the widow King
for the use of the parish and remove Shipton into her
house and pay 40s. to Mrs. Wankford for Shipton's
rent and do all other things for the good of the poor
and the parish as shall seem expedient'. In the following September it was agreed that the overseer should
have 'full power to provide a house in this parish or
elsewhere for Richard Benton or so to agree with his
landlord that he may continue where he now is'. One
common form of parish relief, the weekly dole, was
mentioned in the parish book only once, in December
1693, when the vestry resolved that a man should have
a 'collection' of 1s. 6d., but the use of the common
word on this occasion suggests that it was well known
to the parish.
In 1614 the cost of poor relief was 48s. (fn. 82) Late in
the 17th century and early in the 18th century the cost
was in most years between £13 and £22. It rose considerably during the second quarter of the 18th century
and in the third quarter was usually above £60. In
1776 it reached £101. (fn. 83) At the beginning of the 19th
century there was a maximum of £595 in 1801-2 and
the cost did not again fall below £226 in the period
before 1817.8" (fn. 84)
In 1836 Magdalen Laver became part of Epping
Poor Law Union.