Such bequests were also sometimes in the hands of parochial officials.
St Mary, Aldermary. John Kemp in 1569 gave £100 to the churchwardens that they might lend the same to ten poor occupiers without interest.
Anthony Sprott in 1607 gave £20 to the churchwardens and parishioners to be lent by them to a young occupier at 16_s._ a year. _Rep._ VI., p. 201.
[573] _Dom. State Papers_, Chas. I., Vol. 349, No. 70.
We thus see that many different methods were employed to relieve the old, to train the young and to give work to the able-bodied. The examples we have already given afford some evidence that legal poor relief had become well established in many districts, but it was not equally well administered at all times and in all places. We will now inquire when and how the administration of the law was improved, and the answer to this question may suggest the reason why the history of the English Poor Law is different to that of the rest of Western Europe.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE POOR LAW AS A WHOLE.
1. Importance of the period 1597 to 1644. (_a_) Because it was the period when the relief of the impotent poor became established. (_b_) Because it is the only period in which many efforts were made to set the unemployed to work.
Administration of the Poor Law as a whole.
2. Negligent administration of the Poor Law in the North and extreme West. 3. The administration of the Poor Law in the rest of England varied with the action of the Privy Council. 4. Action of the Privy Council and administration between 1597 and 1605. 5. Action of the Privy Council and administration between 1605 and 1629. 6. Action of the Privy Council and administration between 1629 and 1644. (_a_) State of affairs in 1631. (_b_) Improvement effected in 1631 and 1632. (_c_) Improvement maintained between 1631 and 1640.
7. The improvement effected in 1631 especially concerned the unemployed. 8. The detailed report from Bassetlaw. 9. Provision of work: (_a_) in the North and extreme West, (_b_) in the towns, (_c_) in the Western counties, (_d_) in the Eastern counties. 10. Summary.
[Sidenote: 1. Importance of the period 1597-1644.]
We have already examined both the machinery which existed for the execution of the poor law and the different methods which were used for relieving the impotent, for training the young and for [Sidenote: 1. (_a_) Because it was the period when the relief of the impotent poor became established.]