Extracts from the Privy Council Register. Copy of a letter sent to the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace in the Counties of Suffolk and Essex concerning the employment of the poor. Privy Council Register Dated the 22nd.
"Whereas wee by special direccons of his Matie did lately commend unto yor care the present state of those parts of yr county where the poore clothiers and their workmen at present destitute of worke might some other way be imployed or for the tyme be releeved till some obstructions to trade were remooved, as also to kepe in order those that are loose and ill disposed people. To wch end his Matie by advise of his Privie Councell and the Judges hath lately published a proclamacon declaring his pleasure and command; in what manner the truly poore and impotent should be relieved, those of able bodies should be sett on worke and imployed in honest labors and the sturdie, idle and dangerous roagues and vagabonds should be repressed and punished wch proclamacon you shall herewth likewise receive. Now, bycause wee understand that in yor countie there is more than ordinarie occasion to use all dilligence and industrie at this time, wee have thought fitt to putt you more particularlie in minde thereof, and in answere of yor l(ett)res to lett you know that it is the resolucon of all the Judges, that by the lawe you have sufficient power and ought to raise meanes out of the severall Parishes if they be of abilitie, or otherwise in their defect in their severall Hundrethes, Lathes or Wapentakes, and for want of their abilitie (to sett yor poore on worke and to relieve the aged and impotent not able to worke) in the whole bodie of the county, wherefore his Matie commands that the wayes provided by lawe in theise cases be duely followed wth all diligence and possible speede. You are required to understand the true state of the country from the Ut supra. A like warrant or lre to the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace in the Countie of Suffolk, dated and signed ut supra. |