The Vagabonds Act 1597 (39 Eliz. 1. c. 4) was an Act of the Parliament of England, which aimed to address concerns of vagrancy.
Background
The ninth Elizabethan parliament had opened on 24 October 1597, with Parliament concerned about the dearth of corn, high prices, rising homelessness, and "the lamentable cry of the poor, who are like to perish" causing considerable distress, rioting and even rebellion; with an estimated 10,000 vagabonds in London alone, and 2,000 more in Norwich; and despite local variations in provision, vagrancy continued to be a national problem.
Following the failed 1597 harvest, there was widespread suffering and hardship, with many thousands were made unemployed by the enclosures which compounded the effects of the famine. One Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Francis Hastings, called for 'vagabonds' to be arrested, whipped and returned to their place of origin where they would be set to work in a house of correction.
Parliamentary passage
The progenitor of the Act was most likely the Secretary of State, Sir Robert Cecil, who wrote his policy in Notes for the Parliament on the basis of a speech to be made on November 5. His promotion of the bill, along with two other similar bills, was supported mainly by Puritans.
However, due to certain social measures contained in the bill, a majority of the gentry in the House of Commons rebelled against the provisions; one of those opposed was Sir Walter Raleigh.
On 22 November 1597, the three bills were recommended to the House by the Chairman of the Grand Committee, Sir Robert Wroth, and seconded by Henry Finch: both of whom were Puritan. In December, the bill had a second reading before it was passed onto the House of Lords where, as in the Commons, it caused considerable debate. The bill received many amendments, both in the Grand Committee and House of Lords.
However, the Houses of Parliament could not agree how the categories of prisoners were to be described, with the Commons rejecting the bill by 106–66. Under Elizabethan procedure, the Lords drafted a compromise bill which passed both houses with ease.
The Act
The Act introduced penal transportation for the first time as a punishment and alternative to execution.
During the reign of Henry VIII, it has been estimated that 72,000 people were executed.
With the establishment of settlements in North America, an alternative practice (seemingly borrowed from Spain) began as a reprieve of the death sentence, should the condemned person consent to be transported to an American colony, and be entered into bond service. However, it is probable that this part of the legislation was never put into force. Another effect of the Act was to lessen the severity of a punishment meted out to strolling players imposed under a 1572 act wherein "all fencers, bearwards, common players of interludes, and minstrels (not belonging to any baron of this realm, or to any other honourable person of greater degree)," wandering abroad without the license of two justices at the least, were subject "to be grievously whipped and burned through the gristle of the right ear with a hot iron of the compass of an inch about."
Legacy
The Relief of the Parish Poor remained in force until the 20th century. The third act to pass was the Hospitals for the Poor Act 1597, which became the basis for the Victorian workhouse system; and another was the Act for "the punishment of rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars". Rogues who escaped were arrested, branded and then returned to the House of Correction until the governor could decide when to obtain their release. Since many vagabonds took refuge in these areas, the main change brought in by the act was Clause 3, the stipulation that vagrants or 'sturdy beggars' should be sent back to their place of origin. They were viewed by Parliament essentially as being migrants and therefore should be returned from whence they came.
The Act required every parish to keep a record of every resident, including potential vagrants, who might go wandering across the realm. Unfortunately most of this information was only available in the larger cities. The paucity of quality record-keeping meant it was difficult to interpret how population increases reflected upon rising vagrancy rates during 'The Dearth' of 1590s. The Act insisted the "wandering" and "loitering" was designated into two social groups of unskilled poor and unemployed economic migrants: however as no person was forced to "wander" it was thus interpreted as falling hardest on the poorest.