By birth. Salk. 485. 1 Ld. Raym. 567. By parentage. lows: By birth, for wherever a child is first known to be, that is always prima facie the place of settlement until some other can be shewn. By parentage, being the settlement of the father or mother: all legitimate children being really settled in the parish where who are to make rules and regulations for the management of the poor and administration of the laws for their relief. Rules, orders, &c. are to be sent to overseers before they come into operation, and publicity to be given to them, s. 16. Parishes may be united and deemed a union. Each parish is chargeable for its own poor, s. 26. Justices may order out-door relief to aged and infirm persons wholly unable to work, but one of such justices must certify in the order, that of his own knowledge such person is unable to work, s. 27. In every union a board of guardians is to be chosen, and no guardian is to have power to act except at the board, s. 38. A single parish may be governed, and the laws administered by a board of guardians, s. 39. At elections of guardians the votes must be taken in writing, and owners as well as occupiers are to vote. The scale of voting by owners is that provided by the vestry acts, 58 & 59 Geo. 3. The rate payers at and under 2007. have one vote, under 400l. two votes, and at 400l. or more, three votes, s. 40. Overseers are to pass accounts quarterly, s. 47. Commissioners are to regulate the relief to able-bodied paupers and their families out of the workhouse. Relief contrary to their regulations is to be disallowed; but overseers may delay the operation of such regulations under special circumstances. In cases of emergency relief is to be granted in food, temporary lodging or medicine, and to be reported with other departures from the rules to the commissioners, s. 52. No relief is to be given except by the board of guardians; but any justice may give an order for relief in case of dangerous illness, s. 54. Poor persons are liable for relief to wife or children, s. 36. Husband is liable to maintain children of wife born before marriage, whether legitimate or illegitimate, s. 57. Power is given to owners and ratepayers to raise money on security of rates for purposes of emigration, s. 62. Settlement by hiring and service and serving a parochial office is abolished, s. 64. No settlement can be acquired by occupying a tenement without paying the poor's rates for one year, 8. 66. Nor by being apprenticed to the sea service, s. 67. Nor by possession of any estate or interest longer than the person shall inhabit within ten miles of the parish, 8. 68. The acts relating to the liability and punishment of putative father and punishment of mother of illegitimate children are repealed, s. 69. The mothers of illegitimate children are bound to maintain them until sixteen, s. 71. The quarter sessions, on application of overseers, may make an order on the putative father of the child to support it, but the evidence of the mother must be corroborated by other testimony, s. 72. The costs of relief are to be paid by the parish to which poor persons relieved belong, s. 84. Appeal against order of justices must be within four months, s. 103. Twentyone days' notice must be given of any action brought against any one for any thing done under the act, and defendant may give the act and any special matter in evidence under the plea of the general issue, s. 104. See the act for its further provisions, and see 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 69, to facilitate the conveyance of workhouses and other property of parishes and unions. 6 & 7 Wm. 4, to extend the period for the repayment of loans, and 7 Wm. 4 and 1 Vict. c. 50, extending the provisions of 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c, 76. By 2 & 3 Vict. c. 85, guardians may grant out-door relief in certain cases, and the petty sessions may order the putative father of child to support it, the evidence of the mother being corroborated, as required by s. 72, of 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76; and see the act 2 & 3 Vict. c. 84, amending the laws relating to the assessment and collection of poor's rates. their parents are settled until they get a new settlement for themselves (g). By marriage, a woman marrying a man, settled in another parish, changes her settlement for his. But if the man has no settlement, hers is suspended during his life, if he remain in England and is able to maintain her; but in his absence, or after his death, or during his inability, she may be removed to her old settlement (r). Salk. 528. 2 Ld. Raym. 1473. Stra. 554. By marriage. Foley, 249. 370. ment. Renting tene13 & 14 Car. 2, c.12. By forty days' residence and notice (s). By renting for a year a tenement of the yearly value of 10%. and residing forty days in the parish (t). Being charged to and paying the public taxes and levies of the parish, excepting those for scavengers, highways, and the duties on houses and windows (u). Ex- s.6. 9 Geo. 1, c. 7, Paying taxes. (q) A son shall follow the settlement of his father unless emancipated; Burr. S. C. 806; but the settlement by parentage continues only so long as the child remains a member of the family; 3 B. & A. 337. When the father is dead, and his settlement cannot be found, the children follow the settlement of the mother; Burr. S. C. 278. Proof of the father's settlement is sufficient to establish the settlement of the son in the same parish if nothing appears to contradict it; 6 T. R. 56. (r) The maiden settlement of a married woman is not suspended during coverture; but she and her child may be removed thither if the husband have no settlement of his own; Burr. S. C. 367. (8) Abolished by 35 Geo. 3, c. 101. (f) By 6 Geo. 4, c. 57, s. 2, such tenement must be rated at 107. a-year at least, and occupied a year, and the rent paid; but it is not requisite to prove the annual value. By 1 Wm. 4, c. 18, no person can gain a settlement by a yearly hiring of a tenement or land, unless he shall actually occupy the same; and by 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, s. 66, the person occupying the same must be assessed to the poor rate, and pay the same in respect of such tenement for one year. (u) The tenement in respect of which such taxes are paid, if not the party's own property must be rented at 107. at the least, and occupied a year, and the rent paid ; but it is not necessary to prove the annual value, 6 Geo. 4, c. 57, s. 2. By 1 Wm. 4, c. 18, reciting 6 Geo. 4, c. 57, no person can acquire a settlement by reason of paying parochial rates for any tenement, not being his or her own property, unless such tenement shall consist of a separate and distinct dwelling-house or building, or of land, or of both, bona fide rented by such person in such parish or township, at 10l. a-year, at least, for the term of one whole year. The property must be occupied under the hiring, and the rent paid for one year, but the annual value is not material, In a very late case, R. v. Stoke Dameral, (6 Ad. & E. 308; 1 N. & P. 453, S. C.) where the occupation of a tenement of 107. yearly value was such as to satisfy, 6 Geo. 4, c. 57, it was held, that though as the hiring had taken place after the passing of 1 Wm. 4, c. 18, and after the underletting of a part, no settlement could be gained under that act by renting the tenement, still it might be acquired by payment of the parochial rates in respect of it. This important decision appears by a sidewind to render nugatory the strict enactments of 1 Wm. 4, c. 18, as in nearly every case the householder who lets lodgings has been rated to and paid parochial rates.-Dickinson's Quarter Sessions, by Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, 4th ed. p. 734. 3 & 4 Wm. & M. c. 11. By apprenticeship. Ibid. Having an estate and residence. c. 10. ecuting for a year any public parochial office (v). Being hired for a year when unmarried and childless, and serving a year in the same service (w). Being bound an apprentice gives the apprentice a settlement in that place wherein he served the last forty days (x). The having an estate of one's own, and residing thereon forty days, however small the value, if it be 8 & 9 Wm. 3, acquired by act of law, or of a third person, as by descent, gift, devise, &c., but if acquired by purchase (in its popular sense) then, unless the consideration be 30%. at least, it is no settlement for any longer time than the person shall inhabit 9 Geo. 1, c. 7. thereon (y). All persons not so settled may be removed to their own parishes, on complaint of the overseers, by two justices of the peace (z), if they shall adjudge them likely to become chargeable to the parish into which they have intruded, unless they are in a way of getting a legal settlement (a). 31 Geo. 2, c. 11. Salk. 524. (t) Abolished by 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, s. 64. (w) Abolished by 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, s. 64. (x) No settlement can now be acquired by being apprenticed in the sea service, or to a householder exercising the trade of the seas, as a fisherman or otherwise, 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, s. 67. (y) The restriction in the statute 9 Geo. 1, c. 7, s. 5. is limited to purchases for a money consideration; 4 B. & Adol. 156. A grant of a copyhold is a purchase within the stat; 1 T. R. 241. A residence for forty days in the parish is necessary; Burr. S. C. 307. Such residence need not be on the estate or successive; Burr. S. C. 125. But by 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, 8 68, residence within ten miles of the parish is now necessary to retain any settlement gained by possession of any estate or interest. (2) By 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, no person is to be removed till after notice of his being chargeable has been sent to the parish to which the order of removal is directed. Such person may be removed if the order be submitted to, but not in case of appeal, s. 79. In case of appeal, the overseers are to have access to the pauper to examine him touching his settlement, s. 80. The grounds of appeal are to be stated in the notice, s. 81. The parish losing appeal, are to pay the costs to the other parish, if court should direct, s. 82. Either party making a frivolous or vexatious statement in the order or notice, is liable to costs, s. 83. Costs of relief are to be paid by the parish to which poor persons belong. Relief, under suspended order, is not recoverable unless notice be sent of such order, s. 84. (a) See Mr. Hovendon's note on the late alterations in the poor laws, and particularly on the policy of the constitution of an unlimited establishment of paid commissioners, in the nineteenth edition of Blackstone, vol 1, p. 365, n. 67. CHAPTER X. OF THE PEOPLE, WHETHER ALIENS, DENIZENS, OR NATIVES. The first and most obvious division of the people is into Of the people. aliens and natural born subjects. Natural born subjects are Natural born such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England; subjects. that is, within the legiance or the allegiance of the king; and aliens, such as are born out of the kingdom. Allegiance is the tie or ligamen which binds the subject to the king, in return for that protection which the king affords the subject. The oath of fealty, required by the feodal law to be taken by Allegiance. all tenants to their landlord, is couched in almost the same terms as our ancient oath of allegiance, except that in the oath 2 Feud. 5, 6,7° of fealty there was frequently an exception of the faith due to a superior lord under whom the landlord himself perhaps was only a tenant or vassal. But when the acknowledgment was made to the superior himself, who was vassal to no man, it was called the oath of allegiance, and therein the tenant swore to bear faith to his sovereign lord, in opposition to all men, with- 2 Feud. 99. out exception. Land held by this species of fealty was called feudum ligium, a liege fee; the vassals homines ligii, or liege men; and the sovereign their dominus ligius, or liege lord. It being a settled principle of tenure that all lands in the kingdom are holden of the king as lord paramount, no oath but that of fealty could be taken to inferior lords, and the oath of allegiance was confined to the king alone. By an easy analogy the term of allegiance was brought to signify all other engagements due from subjects to their prince, as well as those duties which were simply territorial. The oath of allegiance, which binds the subject "to be faithful and bear true allegiance to 7 Rep. the king," was introduced by the convention parliament at the Calvin's case, Revolution. The oath of supremacy is calculated as a renunciation of the pope's pretended authority (a); and the oath of abjuration(b), introduced in the reign of William the Third, recog- 13 W. 3, c. 6. nizes the right of the king derived under the act of settlement, engaging to support him, to disclose all traitorous conspiracies (a) See post, note (c), p. 66. 7. (b) See post, note (c), p. 66. 6 Geo. 3, c. 53. 2 Inst. 121. against him, and renouncing the pretender. This oath must be taken by all persons in any office, trust or employment, and may be tendered, by two justices of the peace, to any person 1 Geo. 1, c. 13. whom they suspect of disaffection; and the oath of allegiance (c) may be tendered to all persons above the age of twelve years, whether natives, denizens or aliens, either in the court leet or sheriff's tourn. But there is an implied allegiance owing from every subject to his sovereign, antecedently to any express allegiance in form, in the same manner as the king, by the descent of the crown, is bound to all duties of sovereignty before his coronation oath. 1 Hal. P. C. 64. 1 Hal. P. C. 61. Natural and local allegi ance. 7 Rep. 7. Local alle- Relative rights subjects and aliens. Co. Litt. 2. 7 Rep. 17. Allegiance, both express and implied, is distinguished by the law into natural and local allegiance, the former being perpetual, the latter temporary. Natural allegiance is due from all men born within the king's dominions immediately upon their birth, and continues universal and permanent. Local allegiance is due from an alien whilst he continues within the king's dominions, and ceases the instant he transfers himself from them. The rights of natural born subjects are acquired by being of natural born born within the king's legiance, and can never be forfeited by any distance of place or time, but only by their own misbehaviour. The rights of aliens are more circumscribed, being acquired only by residence here, and lost whenever they remove. If an alien born purchase lands in England, the king is thereupon entitled to them; yet an alien may acquire a property in goods, money, or other personal estate (d), or may hire a house for his habitation. Aliens may also trade as freely as other people. They may bring actions concerning personal property, and may make wills and dispose of their personal estate. These privileges, however, apply to alien friends only; for alien enemies have, during war, no rights, unless by the king's special favour. All children born out of 13 Geo.3, c.21. the king's legiance, whose fathers or grandfathers, by the father's side, were natural born subjects, are declared to be natural born subjects themselves, unless such ancestors were attainted or banished for high treason, or were at the birth of such children in the service of a prince at enmity with Great Britain. Yet the grandchildren of such ancestors are not 7 Ann. c. 5. 4 Geo. 2, c.21. (c) Another form of oath was substituted for Roman Catholics by (d) If he take a lease for years of lands the king shall have it. habitation, he may take a lease for years as incident to commerce. 10 Geo. 4, c. 7. But of a house for Co. Litt. 26, 2 b. |