PARISH GOVERNMENT AND POOR RELIEF
Records of the courts of the manor of Stanford
Rivers exist for the years
1324-5 and 1327-9 and
also for 1534 (fn. 77) but they
are continuous only from
1560. (fn. 78) Between 1560 and 1624 the court met
annually, usually between July and November. (fn. 79) No
court appears to have met between 1624 and 1659.
The fact that constables began to be chosen by the
vestry in 1637 seems to confirm that no courts leet met
about this time. From 1662 courts were held regularly
about Eastertide until 1690. (fn. 80) There was a court leet
in 1710, another in 1714, and then no more.
Twelve to seventeen men were usually sworn as a
jury, the same men serving year after year. They were
chosen as tenants, (fn. 81) not necessarily resident within the
manor. (fn. 82) The jurisdiction of the court extended over
all residents within the manor. (fn. 83) Each court leet also
transacted court baron business, and courts after 1667,
although described as 'of the View of Frank-pledge' did
no true leet business except the election of constables.
The primary duty of the court-to view frank-pledge-
was occasionally discharged by early Elizabethan
courts. (fn. 84) The immediate extension of this duty-a
general surveillance of manners-frequently occupied
courts about this time. (fn. 85) But the commonest subjects
of presentment were failures to maintain roads and
bridges by those bound ratione tenure to do so. Statutory
offences presented in Elizabethan courts included
defaults under the first Highways Act (2 & 3 Philip &Mary, c.
8). (fn. 86) Disrepair of the stocks was sometimes
presented.
Most courts elected two constables and swore them
if they were present. In 1561 a constable was not
sworn because he was absent, and this, uncommon at
that date, became usual as the court declined. Of the
seven appointments made after 1675 three were made
in the absence of one or two of the men elected, who
were ordered to take their oaths before justices. (fn. 87) The
only reference to the constables' work is their presentment for not punishing
vagabonds, made in 1567. The
orders of the court were directed to the bailiff. The
court had one weapon, the amercement, which was
assessed or 'affeered' by two jurors appointed as
'affeerors'. It does not seem to have been very effective.
A principal cause of the decline of the court leet was
the rise, chiefly as the result of the Poor Law of 1598,
of the vestry. (fn. 88) In 1634-44 five courts (one court leet
and 4 courts baron) were attended by a total of 17
jurors. Of these 7 had served parish office during the
same 11 years. The man who served parish office most
frequently (5 times) attended 1 court. The man who
attended all courts served parish office 3 times.
The court and the vestry had a specific common
interest-the appointment of constables-and their
activities were closely co-ordinated. From 1637 constables were nominated in
the vestry while courts leet
were not being held. (fn. 89) After 1662 the vestry appears
to have nominated only when it knew that the court
was not to be held for some time. When the court was
to meet soon after the vestry (fn. 90) the vestrymen doubtless
knew this from the bailiff's summons and did not
nominate constables in the vestry. As late as 1734
constables were still being noted in the vestry book as
'chosen by Wm. Petre esq.' (lord of the manor and an
active vestryman) although no court leet had met for
20 years. (fn. 91) Occasionally the tenants in court were able
to assist themselves as parishioners in vestry, as for
example in 1684, when the court ordered John
Combers the younger to pay 2s. 6d.
a year to the poor
for a gate in Bowyers Lane. (fn. 92)
The earliest surviving vestry record is a brief churchwarden's
account of 1592. (fn. 93) Notes of the appointment
of officers begin in 1604 (f. 5) and are defective at
first. The earliest summary account signed by the
vestrymen as approving it is dated 1619 (f. 35).
In the early 17th century the vestry apparently
met only at Easter, to pass accounts and appoint
officers. After 1673 there was a regular additional
meeting at Christmas, at which the surveyors of highways were nominated. Other meetings, rare in the late
17th century, became more common in the early 18th
century, and at a meeting in November 1724 it was
agreed, as one of ten standing orders, that a vestry
should meet once a month, every first Thursday at
3 p.m. (fn. 94) This order was followed and the meeting in
February 1786 was entitled, as something uncommon,
a '2 month vestry'. (fn. 95) Standing orders enjoined the
vestry to meet in the church and prescribed that any
expenses incurred if it adjourned to a public house
should be borne by individuals. Nevertheless the
Easter vestries of 1728 and 1744 charged the parish
with £1 and £2 2s. respectively, the latter for dinner
and punch. The Easter vestry of 1782 held a dinner 'at
Mr. Sammes'. (fn. 96)
In the 17th century the vestry was often attended
by fewer than six men. Numbers rose in the next
century. In the three periods 1725-7, 1750-2,
1800-2, for example, about 12 attended the Easter
vestries and 6-9 the other meetings. The chairman
was never named as such in the minutes but members
of the Petre family always signed first when they were
present, during the first half of the 18th century; in
their absence the rector signed first. About 1740 the
curate sometimes appears to have written the minutes
but did not sign. When neither a Petre nor the rector
was present one of the churchwardens signed first.
Committees were occasionally appointed. In 1769
one of five members was appointed to negotiate with
a builder for the erection of a workhouse, and in 1805 one
of seven was set up to reassess the parish rating. The
Easter vestry of 1824 adopted the 2nd Sturges Bourne
Act (59 Geo. III, c. 12) and appointed a select vestry
consisting of five men in addition to the rector, churchwardens,
and overseers. Each successive Easter vestry
appointed a select vestry, usually of 10-15 men, until
1834.
The usual officers were nominated and appointed
by the vestry. Three overseers of the poor were appointed until 1642,
when it was decided that two were
sufficient. Before this they were usually called 'collectors'. In 1642 it
was noted that the constable should
be chosen first. Between 1624 and 1634 there were
opportunities for 93 men to serve parish office. (fn. 97)
Thirty-nine actually served. In 1750-60 there were
88 opportunities and 30 men served. Allowing for the
fact that one churchwarden served throughout the later
period it appears that the incidence of office changed
little, although in the 18th century the office of overseer
was more widely shared than it had been in the
17th century, when the responsibilities were lighter.
A paid overseer was appointed in 1810 at an annual
salary of £10 10s., and he was reappointed every year
until 1822, when he became a constable. Women
were twice chosen as overseers in the 18th century.
This indicates a rota of substantial landowners from
which overseers were picked. A woman overseer's
responsibility seems to have ended with providing by
her 'substance' financial security for the operations of
her male deputy, who attended vestry for her.
It is possible that one churchwarden was customarily
chosen by the parishioners and one by the rector, and
an explicit statement of this first occurs in 1763.
The standing orders of 1724 provided that an officer
with an account to pass who did not appear should be
prosecuted. This order was applied capriciously. In
1725 it was resolved to apply for a warrant against a
defaulting overseer, who subsequently returned. In
1735 Mr. Webb, a surveyor, came to the vestry without his accounts
but declared 'to the best of his knowledge' that he had spent £6. In fact he had spent
slightly less, as appeared later, but there is no hint of
censure. After 1750 the totals of each overseer's disbursements were
recorded monthly and were presumably examined by each monthly vestry.
Income from parish property and charities went far
to meet the expenses incurred during the 18th century
and rates were not often required. Money was raised
for special purposes by loans (e.g. £250 to build the
workhouse in 1769), the interest on which was paid
from the rates. In 1806 the parish debts were paid by
the sale for £120 of parish lands in Shonks Mill
meadow and the sale of timber worth £80 'in the field
adjoining the workhouse'.
In the 17th century and the first half of the 18th
rates were granted to each officer as required. In
1732 the surveyors were ordered to pay the surplus on
their account to the repair of the church bells. In 1741
the last separate surveyors' rate was levied. Thenceforth all
rates were levied by the overseers who reimbursed other officers. (fn. 98) The product of a 1d. rate
in 1731 was £9. By a resolution of 1749 there was a
reassessment, probably stimulated by a sharp rise in
the cost of poor relief. In 1748 a 1d. rate produced
£10 15s., and in 1749, £11 4s.
It produced £9 in
1805 and 1817. In 1824, after a new reassessment, the
product was £17. (fn. 99)
An entry in the churchwardens' accounts in 1626
'for writeinge 1s. 6d.'
is the first surviving record of
payment to a servant of the parish. In 1674 Richard
Cox bequeathed to the parish a black shroud, directing
that the parish clerk should have custody of it and that
he and succeeding sextons or clerks should be paid 1s.
by each person using it. In 1744 a church clerk was
appointed at a salary of £2 a year. A new vestry book
was started in 1775 and most of the records of meetings
in it are signed by the clerk. Previously, from the mid
17th century, minutes seem to have been written by
the best penman present. In 1817 the salary of the
clerk was raised to £4 4s. a year.
It was easy to relieve the poor in the 17th century.
Income came from Easter communion collections,
from Green's Charity, and from casual bequests to the
parish poor. In 1617, for example, the first source
yielded 8s., the second £2,
and the third 10s. Fifteen
persons shared this income. They included five
widows, and three men who appear from the Register
of Baptisms to have been aged 70, 58, and 52. The
recipients of poor relief were such old and infirm people
as these, some children, and travellers along the
London road. Relief was by money doles, boarding
out, apprenticing of poor children, providing clothes,
and apparently also by providing accommodation. In
1652-3 the sum of £6 17s.
6d. was laid out towards the
building of a cottage for the poor. No other reference
has been found to the use of this cottage.
The administration of poor relief during most of
the 17th century was entrusted not to the overseers of
the poor but to the churchwardens and constables. All
the examples quoted above come from the churchwardens'
accounts except those relating to travellers,
which are from the constables' accounts. Records of
the overseers handling money appear first in 1670.
During the 18th century the duties of the overseers
became increasingly heavy as the cost of poor relief
rose. Between 1724 and 1754 the average cost was
about £130 a year. In 1754-64 it was over £180, in
1764-74 it was £260, in 1774-84 it was £360, in
1784-94 it was £440, and in 1794-1804 it rose to
£840. The parish spent ten times as much in 1800-1
as in 1726-7. The poor rate levied between 1801 and
1817 was rarely below £1,000 in any year. (fn. 1)
The two overseers acted independently and rendered
separate accounts. When the balance of both accounts
had been struck at the Easter vestry the surplus in the
hands of the outgoing officers was shared between their
successors. Each overseer apparently acted for a different 'end' of
the parish, either Toot Hill or Hare Street.
The poor in the 18th century formed two classes.
About two dozen received regular weekly doles, and
the rest, varying in number with the season and the
price of food, received casual aid. The recipients of the
regular doles were enjoined by the orders of 1724 and
1732 to wear badges. (fn. 2)
Until the building of the workhouse the expedients
of the previous century seem to have been adopted for
the relief of the poor. Medical attention was perhaps
new. In 1741 an account for medicine of £4 8s. was
passed, and in 1746 there was payment of £4 4s. for
medical services. Paupers' rents, and from 1764 the
cost of their firing, were often paid and in many cases
the money went to prominent vestrymen. (fn. 3)
In 1769 a workhouse was built on parish land near
the church. From 1770 payments for wool and spindles
indicate that the inmates were engaged in spinning.
From 1771 this work brought income; the weekly
sums recorded were usually greatest in the winter.
This income later declined. Another source of income
was the hiring of paupers' labour. From 1810 until
1815 regular statements of account between the
governor of the workhouse and the parishioners were
recorded. The overseers made monthly or fortnightly
cash payments and supplied flour to the governor. He
kept the paupers at an agreed rate for each person, and
received extra for fuel, potatoes, and 'hair cutting,
shaving, mops, brooms, thread, worsted, tape, oil &c.'
In 1809 there were 12 beds in the workhouse and in
1830 there were 13. (fn. 4)
In 1829 Stanford Rivers joined with nine other
parishes in a voluntary poor law union. (fn. 5) The parish
raised £300 on £50 bonds at 4 per cent., dated 1830-1,
to defray its contribution towards the cost of the new
incorporated workhouse, (fn. 6) and in 1831 sold its own
workhouse for £420. (fn. 7)
The new incorporated workhouse was built (probably in 1830-1)
at Little End in Stanford Rivers, on land formerly owned by Capel Cure.
(fn. 8) After the formation of the Ongar Union in 1836 it became the
property of the new union and served as its workhouse
until the union came to an end in 1930.
Stanford Rivers became part of the Ongar Union in 1836.