[1579/10/27]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Forasmuch as there are sundry lovable acts of parliament made by our sovereign lord's most noble progenitors for putting an end to masterful and idle beggars, putting away of sorners and provision for the poor, bearing that none shall be forced to beg neither to burgh nor to land between 14 and 70 years, that such as make themselves fools and are bards or other such vagabonds, being apprehended, shall be put in the king's ward and irons so long as they have any goods of their own to live on; and for those that have not whereupon to live of their own, that their ears be nailed to the tron or to any other tree and their ears cut off and banished from the country; and if thereafter that they be found again, that they be hanged. Item, that none be forced to beg in a parish that are born in another, that the head men of each parish make tokens and give to the beggars thereof that they may be sustained within the bounds of that parish, and that none other be served with alms within that parish but those that bear that token only, as in the acts of parliament made thereupon at more length is contained, which in time bygone has not been put to due execution through the iniquity and troubles of the times past. And by reason that there was not heretofore an order of punishment so specially devised as need required, but the said beggars, besides the other inconveniences which they daily produce in the commonwealth, procure the wrath and displeasure of God for the wicked and ungodly form of living used amongst them without marriage or baptizing of a great number of their bairns; therefore now, for avoiding of these inconveniences and eschewing of the confusion of sundry laws and acts concerning their punishment standing in effect, and that some certain execution and good order may follow thereupon to the great pleasure of almighty God and the commonwealth of the realm, it is thought expedient, statute and ordained, as well for the utter suppressing of the said strong and idle beggars, so contagious enemies to the commonwealth, as for the charitable relieving of aged and impotent poor people, that the order and form following be observed: that is to say, that all persons being above the age of 14 and within the age of 70 years that hereafter are declared and set forth by this act and order to be vagabonds, strong and idle beggars, which shall happen at any time hereafter, after 1 January 1580, to be taken wandering and disordering themselves contrary to the effect and meaning of this act shall be apprehended; and upon their apprehension be brought before the provost and bailies within burgh, and in every parish to landward before him that shall be constituted justice by the king's commission or by the lords of regalities within the same to this effect, and by them to be committed in ward in the common prison, stocks or irons within their jurisdiction, there to be kept without letting to liberty or upon bond or surety until they be put to the knowledge of an assize, which shall be done within six days thereafter. And if they happen to be convicted, to be sentenced to be scourged and burned through the ear with a hot iron, the process whereof shall be registered in the court books, except if that some honest and responsible man will, of his charity, be content then presently to act himself before the judge to take and keep the offender in his service for a whole year next following, under the pain of £20 to the use of the poor of the town or parish, and to bring the offender to the head court of the jurisdiction at the year's end, or then good proof of his death, the clerk taking for the said act 12d only. And if the offender departs and leaves the service within the year against his will that receives him in service, then being apprehended, he shall be of new presented to the judge and by him commanded to be scourged and burned through the ear as is said before; which punishment, being once received, he shall not suffer the like again for the space of 60 days thereafter, but if at the end of the said 60 days he be found to be fallen again in his idle and vagabond trade of life, then, being apprehended of new, he shall be judged and suffer the pains of death as a thief. And that it may be known what manner of persons are meant to be strong and idle beggars and vagabonds and worthy of the punishment before specified, it is declared that all idle persons going about in any country of this realm using subtle, crafty and unlawful plays, such as magic fast and loose, and such others, the idle people calling themselves Egyptians, or any other that feigns themselves to have knowledge of prophecy, charming or other abused sciences, whereby they persuade the people that they can tell their wards' deaths and fortunes and such other fantastical imaginations; and all persons being whole and stark in body and able to work, alleging them to have been harried or burned in some far part of the realm, or alleging them to be banished for slaughter and other wicked deeds, and others neither having land nor master, nor using any lawful merchandise, craft or occupation whereby they may earn their livings, and can give no reckoning how they lawfully get their living, and all minstrels, songsters and tale-tellers not avowed in special service by some of the lords of parliament or great barons or by the head burghs and cities for their common minstrels, all common labourers, being persons able in body, living idly and fleeing labour, all counterfeiters of licences to beg, or using the same knowing them to be counterfeit, all vagabond scholars of the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen not licenced by the rector and dean of faculty of the university to ask alms, all shipmen and mariners alleging themselves to be shipwrecked, unless they have sufficient testimonials, shall be taken, judged, esteemed and punished as strong beggars and vagabonds. And if any person or persons after the said 1 January 1580 give money, shelter or lodging, set houses or show any other relief to any vagabond or strong beggar, marked or not marked, wanting a licence of the provost and bailies within burgh or judge within that parish, the same being duly proven at the court, they shall pay such a fine to the use of the poor of the parish as by the judge at the court shall be modified so the same exceed not £5. And also if any person or persons disturb or hinder the execution of this act in any manner of way, or make impediment against the judges and ordinary officers or other persons travailing for the due execution hereof, they shall incur the same pain which the vagabond should have incurred in case he had been convicted; providing always that shipmen and soldiers landing in this realm, having licence of the provost or bailie of the town or judge in the parish where they were shipwrecked or first entered in the realm, shall and may pass according to the effect of their licences to the rooms where they intend to remain; and that the licences only serve in the jurisdiction of the giver, so that if the person travelling has further journey, he procure the like licences of the judge of the next parish or town through which he must pass, and so from parish to parish until he be at his resting place. And that there be certain persons, one or more, nominated in every parish and burgh by the officers and judge thereof for searching, receiving and convoying of the vagabonds to the common prison, irons or stocks upon the common charges of the parish, which persons so elected shall be held to do their duty diligently as the said judges will answer thereupon. And since charity would that the poor, aged and impotent persons should be as necessarily provided for as the vagabonds and strong beggars repressed, and that the aged, impotent and poor people should have lodging and abiding places throughout the realm to settle themselves into, it is therefore thought expedient, statute and ordained that the lord chancellor, according to the direction of sundry lovable acts of parliament heretofore made, shall call for the erections of all hospitals to be produced before him, and inquire and consider the present estate thereof, reducing them so far as is possible to the first institution as may best serve for the help and relief of the said aged, impotent and poor people. And also that the provost and bailies in each burgh and town, and the justice constituted by the king's commission in every parish to landward, shall between now and the said 1 January 1580 take inquisition of all aged, poor, impotent and decayed persons born within that parish or which were dwelling and had their most common resort in the said parish the last seven years past, which of necessity must live by alms; and upon the said inquisition shall make a register book containing their names and surnames, to remain with the provost and bailies within burgh and with the justice in every parish to landward. And to the effect that the number of the poor people in every parish may be known, statutes and ordains that all poor people within 40 days after the proclamation of this present act at the market cross of Edinburgh repair to the parish where they were born or had their most common resort or residence the last seven years past, and there settle themselves under the pain to be punished as vagabonds, contraveners of this present proclamation; and the said space of 40 days being past, that then the provost and bailies within burghs, and the judge constituted by the king's commission in each parish to landward, make a catalogue of the names of the said poor people, inquire of the men and women where they were born, whether they are married or unmarried, when and by whom they were married, and what bairns they have and where their bairns were baptized, and to what form and trade of life they address themselves and their said bairns, if they be diseased or whole and able in body, and what they get commonly in the day by their begging, and such as necessarily must be sustained by alms, to see what they may be made content of their own consent to accept daily to live on without begging and to provide where their remaining shall be, by themselves or in houses with others, with advice of the parishioners where the said poor people may be best lodged and to abide; and thereupon, according to the number, to consider what their needful sustentation will extend to in the week and then, by the good discretion of the said provosts and bailies and judges in the parishes to landward and such as they shall call to them to that effect, to tax and stent the whole inhabitants within the parish according to the estimation of their substance, without exception of persons, to such weekly charge and contribution as shall be thought expedient and sufficient to sustain the said poor people; and the names of the inhabitants valued together with their taxation to be likewise registered; and that at their discretion they appoint overseers and collectors in every burgh, town and parish for the whole year for collecting and receiving of the said weekly portion, who shall receive the same and deliver so much thereof to the said poor people and in such manner as the said provost and bailies in burgh and judges in the parish to landward respectively shall ordain and command; and that overseers of the said poor people that be appointed by their discretion to continue also for a year, and at the end of the year the taxation and valuation roll be always made of new for the alteration that may be through death or by increase or diminution of men's goods and substance. And that the provost and bailies in burghs or towns and the said judges in the parishes to landward shall give a testimonial to such poor folk as they find not born in their own parish or making residence therein the last seven years, sending or directing them to the next parish, and so from parish to parish until they be at the place where they were born or had their most common resort and residence during the last seven years preceding, there to be put in certain abiding places and sustained upon the common alms and weekly contribution as is before ordained, except leprous people and bedridden people who may not be transported, providing that it be permissible to the poor people so directed to their own abiding places with testimonials to ask alms in their passage, so as they pass the directed way, not resting two nights in any one place, unless occasion of sickness or storm impede them; and if any of the poor people refuse to pass and abide in the places appointed, or after the appointment be found begging, then to be punished by scourging, imprisonment or burning through the ear as vagabonds and strong beggars; and for the second fault to be punished as thieves as is before appointed. And if the persons chosen as collectors refuse the office, or, having accepted the same, is found negligent therein, or refuse to make their accounts every half year once at the least to the provost and bailies in burghs and the said judges in landward, and to deliver the surplus of that which rests in their hands at the end of the year or half year to such as shall be chosen collectors of new, then each one of the collectors so offending shall incur the pain of £20 to the use of the poor of that parish and imprisonment of their persons during the king's will, for which pains the said provost, bailies and judges shall poind and distrenzie. And if any persons being able to further this charitable work will obstinately refuse to contribute to the relief of the poor or discourage others from so charitable a deed, the obstinate and wilful person being called before the provost and bailies within burgh or judges in the parish to landward and convicted thereof by an assize or sufficient testimony of two honest and reputable witnesses, his neighbours, upon the supplication of the said provost, bailies and judges to the king's majesty and his privy council, the obstinate and wilful person or persons shall be commanded to ward in such part as his highness and his council shall appoint and there remain until he be content with the order of his said parish and perform the same in deed. And if the aged and impotent persons not being so diseased, lame or impotent, but that they may work in some manner of work, shall be by the overseers in any burgh or parish appointed to work and yet refuse the same, then first the refuser to be scourged and put in the stocks and for the second fault to be punished as vagabonds as said is. And if any beggar's child being above the age of 5 years and within 14, male or female, shall be liked by any subject of the realm of honest estate, the said person shall have the child by order and direction of the provost and bailies within burgh or judge in landward parishes, if he be a boy to the age of 24 years and if she be a girl to the age of 18 years; and if they depart or be taken or enticed from their master's or mistress's service, the master or mistress to have the like action and remedy as for their hired servant or apprentice as well against the child as against the taker and enticer thereof. And where collecting of money cannot be had and that it is too much of a burden to the collectors to gather victuals, meat and drink or other things for relief of the poor in some parishes, that the provost and bailies in burghs and the said judges in the parishes to landward, by advice of certain of the most honest parishioners, give licence under their hands to such and so many of the said poor people, or such others for them as they shall think good, to ask and gather the charitable alms of the parishioners at their own houses, so as always it be especially appointed and agreed how the poor of that parish shall be sustained within the same, and not to be chargeable to others nor troublesome to strangers. And seeing by reason of this present act and order the common prisons, irons and stocks of every head burgh of the shire and other towns are likely to be filled with a greater number of prisoners than of before has been accustomed, in so far as the said vagabonds and other offenders are to be committed to the common prison of the shire or town where they were taken, the same persons being in such towns where there are great numbers of poor people, more than they are well able to sustain and relieve, and so the prisoners are like to perish in default of sustenance, therefore the expense of the prisoner shall be paid by a part of the common distribution and weekly alms of the parish where he or she was apprehended, allowing to each person daily one pound of oatbread and water to drink; for payment whereof, the presenter of him or her to prison shall give surety or make present payment. And that the sheriffs, stewarts and bailies, lords of regalities and their bailies over all the realm see this present act put to due execution in all points within their bounds and jurisdictions respectively as they will answer to God and our sovereign lord thereupon, and whatever doubt or ambiguity shall happen to arise upon this present act, or any part thereof, our sovereign lord, with advice of his said estates, commits the interpretation, explanation and supplement and full execution thereof to his majesty with advice of his privy council.