Settlement Certificate
David Shaw’s particular interest is the history of print, particularly of leaflets, forms etc. During his research into items printed for use in the parish he studied the Settlement system.
David gave a brief background regarding support for people in hardship before the dissolution of the monasteries, when Henry VIII broke the church away from Rome.
During the Elizabethan era a parish-based system was set up to arrange poor relief. This was funded by taxes collected from those who owned or rented property and land above a certain value in the parish. These funds were then used to provide relief for parishioners in need.
The 1662 Settlement Act established that relief was only for inhabitants of a parish and, after 1697, anyone seeking work in another parish had to obtain a certificate to say where their place of settlement was. The parish of settlement being liable for the care of its dependant parishioners.
Upon marriage women took the parish of settlement of their husband, children their father’s parish of settlement or they might be granted settlement in the parish of their birth.
This resulted in an explosion of bureaucratic paperwork. Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor in each parish were instructed by the government to issue certificates of Settlement. Each certificate contained not only the names of the person(s) wishing to move parish, but also two churchwardens, two overseers of the poor and two witnesses who all signed and sealed the certificate. This was then countersigned by two Justices of the Peace. Despite the numbers of certificates issued and the multitude of names recorded on them, archives usually only index the name(s) of the person or family seeking permission to move.
Certificates were stored by the receiving parish, often for decades in the parish chest, just in case they were needed to return people to their ‘home’ parish. At which point a ‘Removal’ certificate was issued to return the unfortunate pauper to the parish where they last gained Settlement. These can be a goldmine for family researchers should you be lucky to find one relevant to your ancestry.
Further documents might concern the ‘Examination’ of a pregnant single women to name the father. He could be made to sign a ‘Bastardy’ bond, a promise to pay for the child’s upkeep should in future the child require aid from the parish.
Appeals from the receiving parish often meant people were shunted from one parish to another as supporting the poor was a drain on their resources.
David’s study of parish paperwork had found many other ‘Proformas’, as we would call them today. But, in their day, they were known as ‘Blanks’ because they had the basic information printed leaving blank spaces for names, dates and other details to be add later. David said he had found different types of ‘Blanks’ covering various nuances of the regulations. Hence, publishing these documents was quite a lucrative business. Printers added their name and address at the foot of the ‘Blank’ as a way of advertising. At first most ‘Blanks’ were printed in London. However, enterprising local printers were soon producing them. James Abree was printing from 1720-1768 in Canterbury. Whilst in Maidstone John Blake was operating from 1776-1814.
David’s talk finished with a few stories about where people settled. Some recorded long journeys, like that of Mary Price, described in 1757 as ’a rogue and a vagabond’, a legal term of the time. Found begging in Dingley, near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire, she was issued a pass to return to Deal in Kent, being her husband’s last place of settlement. She probably had no personal connection with Deal, and her husband may have died. The pass entitled her to subsistence as she was delivered by the local constable of each parish to the next on her way to Deal.
This was a very interesting and informative talk. David Shaw has a website and he writes a blog.
Both of which are well worth looking at.
Report by Viv Carter