Tag: Poor Law

Thinking of moving to a different town? No problem if you were well off. If you were down on your luck, the Poor Relief Act of 1662 specified that the parish where you lived would have to support you out of the rates, so the place you were trying to move to might not want you. A further Act of 1692 introduced a system of Settlement Certificates. If you wanted to leave your parish, the church wardens could issue a Settlement Certificate recognising you as a settled inhabitant. The certificate was authenticated by two Justices of the Peace and then handed over to your new parish to notify it that if you fell on hard times there, your original settled parish accepted a liability to support you.

Continue reading “Moving house in the eighteenth century”