Settlement and Removal

Settlement

Each person had a place of settlement where they belonged and were entitled to poor relief. However it was often necessary to move around the country to obtain work. Up to 1662 it was possible to re-establish settlement in a new parish by living there for three years. By 1687 the rules had been tightened up and newcomers to the parish had 40 days to give notice of their arrival (those who rented a house worth £10 were exempted). In practice most parishes threw out strangers as soon as they arrived as a precaution against providing relief in case they became paupers. There were five ways in which it was possible to obtain or change settlement :

1. Birth in a parish of a settled father.

2. Apprenticeship to a settled man for seven years.

3. Employed to work for a settled inhabitant for a whole year.

4. Payment of taxes on a property in the parish.

5. Service as a parish officer (usually chosen from the rate     payers).

From 1697 entrance to a new village could only be obtained by producing a Certificate of Settlement from their old parish. This certificate could be used as proof of settlement for removing unwanted paupers from the parish and so save unnecessary time and expense. The certificates typically include :

Names of those wishing to leave the parish
(sometimes the wife and children are lumped together as 'and family')

Name of the settlement parish
(not necessarily where a person was born)

Name of the parish to which the person was moving

Date of certificate -
not always the same as the date on which the people moved.

Removal

The court of Quarter Sessions dealt with such cases and the orders had to be signed by two Justices of the Peace. Copies were made for each of the parishes concerned. The existence of a removal order does not necessarily mean that removal took place.

Each case would have an Examination as to Settlement in which evidence was given as to how legal settlement was gained. Detailed information may be recorded about a person's age and birthplace, parentage, career and arrival in the parish. These useful documents only tend to survive from the 18th century to as late as the 1860s.

Up to 1743 illegitimate children were considered to belong to the parish they were born in. After this date they took their mother's settlement. The overseers often ejected a pregnant single woman, who did not belong to the parish, to her place of legal settlement before the child was born. From 1732 women were forced to name the father who could be pursued and either made to marry the woman or at least provide financial support. Records may survive amongst parish archives such as warrants for arrest, examinations, or bonds. Often the only record of illegitimacy is in the child's baptism entry in the parish register.

Settlement and removal records were normally preserved by the parish in case a person should try to re-enter the parish. For the Wolverhampton area parish records are held at
Staffordshire Record Office. Very few records are held by Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies.