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155
Tuesday, 8th November, 1774. Ordered that Mr Drake the
Receiver of the Watch Money do Pay to Robert Browne of
Abingdon Buildings Esqr., the sum of Ten Pounds as the
Reward for his apprehending and taking in St. Margaret's
Street in this Parish on the 27th day of July last, William
Griffiths, who in the Night of the preceeding Day Committed
a burglary in the parish of St. Anne, Westminster, for which
the said William Griffiths was tried and convicted at the Old
Bailey last September Sessions
Mention may here be made of the fact that prior to 1696
the inhabitants of Westminster were liable to serve as
jurors at Quarter Sessions, but by an Act passed in that
year (7 Will. III.) they were specially exempted from that
duty*
Beggars and
Vagabonds.
In addition to the relief of the poor of the
parish out of the rates and benevolences, of
which a fragmentary sketch has already been
made, the Vestry exercised considerable powers for the
punishment of vagrants and "sturdy beggars," more particularly
when the constables, acting under the direction of
the justices, failed to prevent the assembling of beggars and
vagabonds in the parish. The severity of the law on this
subject, indeed " man's inhumanity to man," is shown by
the following extract from an Act of Parliament of
22 Henry VIII, cap 12 (1531). Attached to this extract is
a copy of the licence given to impotent beggars to beg
within certain limits, as also a copy of the warrant for
passing the offender back to his parish of settlement:—
Whereas in all places througheout this Realme of Englande, Vacabundes
& Beggers have of longe tyme increased & dayly do
increase in great & excessyve nombres by the occasyon of
ydelness, mother & rote of all vyces, whereby hathe insurged
& spronge & dayly insurge the & spryngeth contynuall theftes
murders & other haynous offences & great enormytes to the
high displeasure of God the inquetacon & damage of the Kynge
People & to the marvaylous disturbance of the Comon Weale of
this Realme. And whereas many & sondry goode lawes, streyte
statute & ordenance have ben before this tyme devysed & made
as well as by the Kyng our Soveign Lorde as also by divers his
most noble pgenytours Kynge of Englande for the most necessary
*The exemption has since been removed by the Local Government Act, 1888.