LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
By 1489 a court for
Frampton manor was held twice a year, (fn. 39) and rolls
survive of nine courts in the period 1572-1603. (fn. 40) In
1842 it was said that the court was held occasionally, (fn. 41) and in 1852 that there was a manor court once
a year. (fn. 42) It seems likely that the court held in the
19th century was a revival, following the amalgamation of Frampton manor and the Frampton
Court estate. (fn. 43) No record has been found of the
manor court between 1614 and 1842, and the
usefulness of the court was limited by the fact that
the tenants holding directly of the manor were
outnumbered in the early 17th century by the
freeholders and tenants of other estates; the estate
of James Clifford, which had only one tenant fewer
than Frampton manor, (fn. 44) had its own manorial
court for copyhold business in 1581 and 1608. (fn. 45) In
1614 it was alleged that John Arundell and his
tenant, Giles Addis, had wrongfully exercised the
liberties of a free borough and of view of frankpledge
and wreck: (fn. 46) it may be that the failure to establish a
wide-reaching jurisdiction led to the abandoning of
all manorial jurisdiction. Certainly functions that
had once belonged to the manorial court were
performed by others in the late 17th century. In
1681 the common in Egrove was stinted by a
committee appointed by the inhabitants; (fn. 47) in 1692
the overseers of the poor saw to the provision of
gates. (fn. 48) The hayward's office in the same period
was endowed with an acre of meadow. (fn. 49) The office
of ditch-reeve, to which four men were elected in
the manor court, has not been found recorded
outside the period 1574-1603. (fn. 50)
Overseers' accounts survive from 1686 (fn. 51) and
churchwardens' accounts from 1722. (fn. 52) From the
late 17th century the parish provided poor-relief
by buying clothes and fuel, meeting medical bills,
apprenticing, and giving allowances to householders
for keeping paupers. From the early 18th century it
also paid paupers' rents, while weekly doles became
more usual. (fn. 53) By 1785 annual expenditure had risen
by one-third since 1776, when it was £158, and it
increased to nearly three times that figure by 1803. (fn. 54)
In 1786 the vestry tried to reduce the poor-rate by
letting the commoning rights on Twigmore, but had
to give up when some of the commoners established
their right to continue pasturing beasts there. In the
same year they established a parish workhouse, with
6 beds; in 1792 there were 9 inmates, and in 1795 a
workhouse-master was appointed. The next year,
however, the workhouse was farmed to a Gloucester
pin-maker, who was to teach the inmates how to
head pins. (fn. 55) By 1803 the vestry was again running
the workhouse, and the inmates' work at heading
pins brought in £37. (fn. 56) In 1804 an advertisement for
a workhouse-master conversant with linen manufacture (fn. 57) apparently had no satisfactory response,
and it was resolved to apprentice the children in the
workhouse; (fn. 58) in 1807, however, work done in the
workhouse yielded £41 to the parish, and £4 was
received for work done outside the workhouse. (fn. 59)
For the next 12 years the workhouse was evidently disused. (fn. 60) In 1820 the vestry agreed to farm
the poor, repairing and furnishing the workhouse
at the expense of the parish. In 1825 no offer for
the farm of the poor was received, and there was
difficulty in finding a farmer in 1826. From 1827
the parish instead appointed an assistant overseer
to manage the poor inside and outside the workhouse. (fn. 61) In 1832, following a rise in expenditure on
the poor, (fn. 62) the vestry tried unsuccessfully to farm
the poor once again, but had to fall back on the
continuation of the assistant overseer and, in 1833,
on the expedient of apprenticing all the children of a
suitable age who were relieved by the parish.
Although in 1832 the workhouse was still being used
for pin-heading, in 1833 it was described as a
poorhouse, not a workhouse. (fn. 63) In 1836, the year
after Frampton became part of the Wheatenhurst
Union, (fn. 64) the workhouse, south of Manor Farm, was
put up for sale. (fn. 65) In 1935 Frampton, with the rest
of the Wheatenhurst Rural District, became part of
the Gloucester Rural District. (fn. 66)