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an exemption enjoyed by them for upwards of fifty years
from payment of poor rates. The claim had been admitted
on the passing of the Statute of 11 & 12 William III.,
wherein certain existing concessions were reserved to
watermen in respect of the moneys earned on the Lord's
Day. The Vestry consulted Counsel on the construction
of the particular Section, and on the question whether the
watermen of the parish were thereby relieved from the
payment of rates. In reading the section, which is here
reprinted, it will be necessary to bear in mind that Sunday
labour was at the time a penal offence : —
"Provided always that this Act or anything therein contained shall
"not extend to hinder or prevent the Watermen of the parish
"of St. Margaret, Westmr from plying or working across the
"River of Thames from Westminster Bridge to Standgate, and
"from the Horseferry to Lambeth Bridge on every Lords day
"in there severall turns, as they have lately accustomed and
"used to do; and that the moneys earned by them or any of
"them on that day, is hereby Directed to be from time to time,
" Imployed for the use of the Poor, Aged, Decayed, and maimed
"Watermen and their Widows of the Parish of St. Margaret
"Westmr "
In the statement of case laid before Counsel, a point was
made of the large rents paid by the watermen for their
houses in the parish, and that men having other trades and
callings followed sufficient business on the river to enable
them to adopt the description of "watermen." In a full
review of the law and facts, Counsel advised in effect that
the watermen were simply allowed to follow their calling
at the Lord's Day upon their presenting the gains therefrom
to a private charity, and that the justices ought to grant
distress warrants in default of payment when applied for.
Anxious as the Vestry were for the relief of the poor in
their own parish, they exhibited practical sympathy more
than once with the misfortunes of the inhabitants of other
parishes and towns in distant parts of the country, of
which the subjoined may be taken as an illustration:—
March 17, 1742. William Lowndes, Esq., on behalf of the Poor
Sufferers by the late dreadful ffire at Stony Stratford in the