[416] "A true coppy of the charge given to the overseers of every towne," Dec. 19, 1623. Tanner MSS. LXXIII. II. f. 390.
[417] See justices' reports, Appendix XII.
[Sidenote: 5 _c_. After the issue of the Book of Orders.]
We have seen that in a few of the justices' returns the reports of the overseers were enclosed. The justices of the Liberty of St Alban's sent their answers in this manner. They were responsible for the parishes of Chipping Barnet, East Barnet, Elstree and Northaw. In 1637 they still held monthly meetings, and the overseers' accounts returned at them will give us some idea of the work often done by overseers when they were supervised in the special manner ordered in 1631 and continued until 1640. At the January meeting of 1637 the justices gave "charge that the presentments should be better and more fully certified[418]"; at the February meeting, therefore, fairly detailed reports were returned from three of the four parishes[419]. At Chipping Barnet we hear they have no Popish recusants or non-churchgoers. They have not put forth any apprentice during the month, but are about to bind a certain fatherless child. One of the magistrates undertook to see the boy was bound before the next meeting. One family had apparently been stricken with plague, and had been paid eight shillings before they were shut up; eight weekly pensions were paid to impotent people, one to a "Mad Tib," and two people receive payments for taking care of children. The report also states that "we have in towe and yarne and cloath xx^s and in money to buy more xx^s." From this account it is clear that the poor were actually set to work in Chipping Barnet and that not all the funds available for the purpose were utilised. From Northaw the constables only report, but their return concerns poor relief as well as vagrants. They say all the impotent poor are relieved while the poor that can work are "sett on work and doe not refuse the same." In this virtuous parish also none disorder themselves with drinking or frequent alehouses during divine service on the Lord's day and no idlers could be found though the constables had diligently searched for them. From Elstree we have an account of the pensions paid to certain poor people, and we have also the statements that "we have in stocke for the poore remayning forty shillings," and "we set such on worke as want uppon euery occasion." East Barnet makes no return, and a warrant is sent for the overseers to answer the contempt. On April 9th, 1639, they send a report, and then relieve only one impotent person, but have eight pounds in hand for setting the poor to work[420].