View report page

106
"do demand and Collect of all and every Person and Persons
"rated and Charged in the present Assessment made for
"the Belief of the poor of the said parishes, and that the
"said Overseers where they find any New-comer or any
"Person Living in any House not charged in their proper
"Names or any person omitted in the said Assessment, that
"they note the same in the Margin of their Collecting
"Books in order to their being Assessed, and that Copies of
"this Order be delivered to the said Overseers.
"by Order of the Justices,
"JOHN FEARY, Clerk
Resolved unanimously,
That it is the opinion of this Vestry that the Contents of the
said paper are Unprecedented, without Foundation in Law,
and not proper to be Complied with, and as the Collecting
of all persons Rated without distinction is contrary to
custom, and may be attended with great Inconveniencies by
making many persons and their Families who have no
Settlemt in these parishes burthensome to the same and
Consequently Increase the poors Rate, It is the desire of
this Vestry that the Overseers would not comply therewith
but Collect only of those persons who are not likely to
become Burthensome to the said parishes and this Vestry
will Indemnify them from all Charges on Account thereof
And it is further Ordered that a Copy of this Resolution be
immediately served on the several Overseers.
Upon the adoption of the window tax, the inhabited house
duty, and the tax on watches and clocks, in 1798, as aids
and contributions for the prosecution of the war, the Commissioners
called upon the Vestry to assist them in relation
to the assessment of properties for the purpose, and to investigate
and settle the securities to be given by the
collectors of the taxes.
On an Act being passed in 43 Geo. III. (1804) for the
relief of those unable, through poverty, to discharge the
heavy fiscal burthens of the day, the Vestry were entrusted
with the examination of the Assessors' reports on such cases,
and with the issue of certificates of discharge from the
taxes, a duty which was performed for many years in
succession.
Maintenance
of Highways
and Bridges.
By Statute of 22 Henry VIII. Cap. 5 (1531)
the Justices of the Peace were constituted the
highway authority in "every shire, franchise, cittie, or