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89
first day of Michaelmas Term next, or so soon after as Councel
can be heard, for a Rule to shew cause why an information
should not be filed against you, for having on the 2nd day of
September Instant illegally discharged out of Custody two
Persons (being idle and disorderly persons) who were apprehended
under and by virtue of a Search Warrant regularly issued under
the hands and Seals of Edward Parker and George Ried Esquires
two of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of
Middlesex, thereby acting in defiance and opposition to the said
Magistrates, and contrary to Law.
Dated the 22nd day of September, 1788.
(signed) Frederick Smith, Solicitor,
No. 7, Grays Inn."
To James Loton.
Resolved that this Parish will defend the said Churchwarden.
In a review of the chronicles of nearly four centuries, the
discovery of repeated references to the office of Churchwarden
becoming vacant by death is not astonishing. In nearly all
such instances the Vestry appointed gentlemen to the office
for the unexpired portion of the parochial year. Only one
entry occurs of a Churchwarden having become incapacitated
during his term of office by loss of reason. In 1788-9
a report was made to the Vestry that one of the Churchwardens
had been conveyed "to a place for the reception of
Lunaticks at Clapton." The Vestry at once requested the
colleague of the afflicted gentleman to take upon himself all
the duties of the position until the close of year.
Abundant as are the materials at hand from
Relief of the Poor which an interesting history of the poor law
system might be compiled, the present notice is
necessarily confined to such information as the Minute
books of the Vestry contain; and nothing more than a
cursory selection from that source can be given in the
space available. A thoughtful perusal of the extracts
selected, will, however, throw light upon the manners and
customs and conditions of the people, upon the curious
means adopted to relieve the poor rate, and upon the
remarkable resemblance borne by the present system to the
principles recognised two centuries-and-a-half ago. With
this introductory observation, the extracts from the
Minutes must be left to "tell their plain unvarnished tale."