Confined labourer?

[Anne in Carlisle]

We just got the Settlement Examination of OH's 3x great grandfather. Everything we had worked out agrees with the events listed on there which is great! This was Lincolnshire in 1812 to 1816.

We are unsure of one term. Does anybody know what a "confined labourer" was? Robert East had let himself as a confined labourer to two Graziers for a yearly wage of £28.10shillings plus accommodation in the farm house, use of a milch cow and enough land to grow 100 pecks of potatoes. (which sounds quite good in 1814).

I Googled it and there was just two references, one in Germany(!) and one in Lincolnshire. The Lincolnshire one didn't say what the term meant, just mentioned someone who was one!

I'll have to go out - be back later.
Anne

[Elaine ..Spain]

Have found a definition in google books - a farm labourer hired by the year.

[GrandmaSilver]

Whats a Settlement Examination ?

[Christine in Herts]

Whats a Settlement Examination ?

It's to do with which parish had the responsibility of looking after someone destitute.

Before there was a national welfare system, your parish had to pay if you were unable to support yourself. The Settlement Proceedings were intended to discern just which was your parish - where you'd been baptised? where you'd lived and worked for more than (?)12 months...

Christine

[Little Nell]

My gt x 3 grandfather Robert Chowns was the subject of a settlement dispute in 1819 between Stoke Poges (where he'd moved to) and Aston Rowant (where he was born).

The records provide very useful information about how much rent he paid, how the ceiling of his house fell down, who is father-in-law worked for, the names of his children, etc.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Thanks for the replies. A farm labourer hired by the year fits perfectly - thanks Elaine!

Settlement examinations were part of the Poor Law regulations whereby each parish had to support its own poor. they wanted to be sure that the person belonged to the parish. I think there were also certificates issued, and as Nell says, sometimes disputes about settlement. Many such records do not survive so we were lucky to find this one indexed in Lincoln Archives.

I'll paste my transcription here so anyone can see what sort of thing they might find. In our case it was only confirming what we already thought correct but also adding 'meat to the bones' with wages etc. The signature seems to be that of the Justices of the Peace and Robert East himself.

Parts of Lindsey County of Lincoln
The examination of Robert EAST of Burgh in the
Marsh in the said parts labourer touching those
places of his last legal settlement taken upon oath
before His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the
said parts this twelfth day of February 1816.
Who saith that four years ago Old May Day last he let
himself for a year to John KELK of Burgh in the Marsh
aforesaid Grazier. That he entered on his service served two
whole years and received his full wages. After which he
married Susanna WESTERBY, spinster, by banns in the
Parish Church at Welton in the Marsh in the said parts
his present wife. Then let himself for a year as a Confined
labourer to William DAWSON and Thomas Carr BRACKENBURY
of Mumby cum Chappel in the said parts Graziers at the
wages of twenty eight pounds and ten shillings a year, the
Liberty of living in a part of the Farm House, the use of a
Milch Cow and about as much land as grow’d one
hundred pecks of Potatoes. That he entered on his service
served a whole year and received his full wages. That he is
Twenty four years of Age and hath not since done any other
Act whereby to gain a settlement in any manner whatever.
Taken and Sworn
before us Robert EAST (signed)
C BRACKENBURY (signed)
G STREET (signed)

[Christine in Herts]

Anne, would you be kind enough to change the letters for surnames in your transcription into upper case? It makes them easier to spot, in case anyone has an overlap of interests.

Christine

[Anne in Carlisle]

OK, Christine - I've done that. I just copied and pasted my transcription as I had done it. Naturally I wanted it to look tha same as the original, which is why the lines are shorter!

I thought people may want to see what sort of thing was on a settlement examination. Never thought anyone might be searching for rellies in this little Lincolnshire village!!!

Anne

[Guest]

thanks for that Anne makes fascinating reading.

[GrandmaSilver]

How do you find out if any one in the family has been on a settlement dispute?

[Phoenix]

Start by looking at the county where they lived, Grandma Silver. Look at the website for the relevant archives office: some have put these on-line. Part of Sussex has, Norfolk has useful stuff, so has Devon. Some family history societies have published indexes or have transcripts they can search for you. West Surrey FHS have produced a cd for rural Surrey. East Surrey FHS has masses of info for places like Lambeth.

It is a complete lucky dip - some parishes kept immaculate records, other binned the lot. Most of us will have at least one ancestor who fell upon hard times, or was likely to. If someone suddenly disappears from a parish, it may be that they were forced to move to another parish because they had say done an apprenticeship or worked for a full year as an annual servant, or owned property to a certain value many years earlier.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I found this one by looking in the indexes while I was in Lincoln archives. As Phoenix says some may be on line but don't rely on that. The Lincoln ones are not.

I THINK I looked at all the Poor Law indexes there but some were indexed by surname and some by Parish. I looked for all the surnames but have this niggling feeling I may not have looked at all the possible parishes. I'll probably have to go back again!

It seems to me that such a lot of papers have been lost. In the case if this one (Robert East) I think it is clear that he has been working full time and supporting himself and later his wife. That's really what the parish were checking on.

If you have Ag Labs in your family and the first one or two children are baptised away from the parish where they eventually 'settle' then the annual hiring is probably the reason.

Anne

[Phoenix]

Were any of Robert's children bp in Mumby?

He may be from Burgh, & clearly had negociated decent living terms for himself in the past, but if anything went wrong, Burgh was no longer his place of settlement.

I have a harrowing instance of a family - husband, wife & infant son - falling on hard times. They are removed to another parish & within six months husband & son are dead, leaving the widow alone in a parish where she has no friends.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Robert EAST's father, William, was married in Burgh le Marsh but he wasn't born there. Robert was their oldest child and he was baptised at Winthorpe (about 6 miles away). Later the family moved to, and stayed in, Burgh le Marsh.

When Robert married Susanna WESTERBY their first child, Joseph, was baptised at Mumby Chapel. (Joseph always put 'Chappel' on censuses and it later became Chapel St Leonards!) All Robert and Susanna's other 8 children were baptised at Burgh and Robert died there aged 88!

If Robert had fallen on hard times I wonder if they would have insisted he went back to Winthorpe? When he was baptised there his father was presumably working the year in just the same way as described.

If only more of these papers had survived!

Anne

[Phoenix]

As a child, Robert would have had his father's place of settlement. But by working for a year at Mumby Chapel, he acquired a settlement there which superceded any earlier ones.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Ah, right! That's interesting. So the fact that Robert was born at Winthorpe was irrelevant? When his father aquired settlement (no proof of this) at Burgh, his children would automatically have it as well?

Thanks Phoenix
Anne

[Christine in Herts]

OK, Christine - I've done that. I just copied and pasted my transcription as I had done it. Naturally I wanted it to look tha same as the original, which is why the lines are shorter!

I thought people may want to see what sort of thing was on a settlement examination. Never thought anyone might be searching for rellies in this little Lincolnshire village!!!

Anne

Thanks, Anne

It does help for people to pick out quickly if they have any name-overlaps.

Interesting reading!

Christine

[Olde Crone Holden]

I have one harrowing settlement paper - well, a removal order following a settlement exam actually - the breadwinner died leaving a widow and six children, all of whom had been baptised in different parishes.

The family was split up and each child returned to its place of birth, with the mother being bounced back to her original place of birth and then from there onto her (deceased) father's parish of settlement.

Equally, I have another, where the father had had each child baptised in each parish he had lived in, and there is an exasperated run of altered information as he changes his story about where each child was baptised (and I have seen the several baptisms of each child). In the end, they let them all stay - I think they were as confused as I was!

OC

[Anne in Carlisle]

The family was split up and each child returned to its place of birth, with the mother being bounced back to her original place of birth and then from there onto her (deceased) father's parish of settlement.
OC

Oh that's terrible :(. So it seems to have been up to the Parish overseers how they interpreted the rules.

Anne

[Heather Positive Thinker]

I wish I had a settlement examination of some of my earliest ones. I LOVE having the Old Bailey online stuff for my lot from 1844 as to hear the descriptions of them and hear their actual words is amazing stuff isnt it.

All I have for my elusive GGPx4 is the Settlement Cert when they moved half a mile to the next parish in 1760.