PARISH GOVERNMENT AND POOR RELIEF
Parish books survive for Stapleford Tawney from
1723 and detailed overseers' accounts from
1745 to 1836. (fn. 47) Before
1781 vestry meetings
were usually held twice a year, at Easter and Christmas,
for the election of officers and audit of accounts. After
that date additional meetings were called at irregular
intervals each year to pass the overseer's accounts. The
average attendance, inclusive of parish officers, was
from 4 to 6, and most of the parishioners who attended
usually served at some time as parish officers. Some
rectors attended regularly, notably Parson Parkes between 1723 and 1732, William Smijth between 1754
and 1775, and Richard Smijth between 1781 and
1793. Thereafter, except in 1831-2 when the rector,
another Richard Smijth, presided at nine meetings,
neither the rector nor the curate often attended vestry
meetings. In their absence the churchwarden generally
presided. It was stated in 1823 that a vestry dinner
was held every year at a cost of about £6, which was
charged to the overseer's account.
There was a tendency from an early date to use the
poor rates for all purposes and after 1784 this became
the general practice. In 1749, for example, the surveyor's and constable's accounts were paid by the overseer, and in 1778 the overseer's disbursements included
the payment for a bottle of wine for the sacrament.
From 1784 the overseer levied one general rate for the
whole parish out of which he paid other officers' bills
and was responsible for the final annual balance. This
practice was abandoned in 1823 after an investigation
into the keeping of accounts between 1810 and 1822. (fn. 48)
A rate of 1d. in the pound produced £3 11s. 2d. in
1727. A century later a rate of 1s. brought in between
£53 and £54. (fn. 49) A new valuation was made in 1839,
when the approval of the Board of Guardians was
sought for the payment of £36 out of the poor rates
towards the expense of making it. A further valuation
was made in 1861, when the rateable value was fixed
at over £2,658.
The parish officers served unpaid until 1817, when
Charles Clark, overseer for the two years 1817-19,
was allowed a salary of £15 each year. This practice
was apparently not continued with his successors.
Other parish officers tended to serve for long periods
at a time but the overseer was usually changed each
year. Women were appointed as overseers on two
occasions in the 18th century, and of these Mrs.
Haddon of Tawney Hall served for two consecutive
years 1725-7. The overseer was responsible for levying rates and keeping accounts but he was relieved of
some of the labour of attending to the wants of the
poor during the years when this duty was most pressing. Between 1798 and 1830 the task of paying weekly
doles was delegated to others, principally to John
Shuttleworth, who periodically submitted an account
to the overseer.
Occasional bills for medical attention for the poor
were included in the overseer's accounts from at least
1757, but a regular medical attendant was not appointed until 1791, when the apothecary's salary of
£5 5s. was first recorded. A note was entered in the
parish book in 1726, just after the parish school (see
below) was founded, stating that the schoolmaster was
to pay the church clerk 30s. a year for life, but it is not
clear whether the clerk was to give any assistance in
return. The pound stood in the road about 120 yds.
north of the church. (fn. 50)
Rents for two parish houses were received in 1723.
In 1767 repairs were carried out at two parish houses,
described as the Parish House and the Church House.
In 1826 a bill was paid for the erection of a cottage on
Tawney Common. All the parish property, then
described as consisting of cottages on Tawney Common
and two adjoining the church, was offered for sale in
1837 and the proceeds were used to repay to Lady
Smith the money borrowed by the parish for their
share in building the incorporated workhouse. The
cottages by the church are said to have been demolished
about 1887.
Annual expenditure on the relief of the poor, after
averaging about £33 during the period 1725-50, rose
steadily to over £100 for the first time in 1772 and
then remained fairly constant for the next 20 years.
The parish subscribed to the scheme, formulated by
Mr. Conyers of Epping in 1794, for the promotion of
industry. (fn. 51) From 1793-4 expenditure rose steeply
until 1801 when it amounted to over £428 and a
general rate of 8s. 6d. in the pound was levied. This
figure was surpassed in 1814-15 when over £540 was
spent. An average of about £360 was raised by the
rates each year between 1801 and 1817. Special
grants, occasioned presumably by the inclinations of
individual overseers, supplemented the normal forms
of relief. During a scarlet fever epidemic in 1822, the
sick were provided with 'neck of mutton and bullocks'
feet for jelly', and in 1829 and 1830 the expenses of
two weddings, including licence, ring, and fees, were
borne by the parish.
The vestry did little to control its officers in the discharge of their duties until a crisis had occurred in the
parish in 1823. In January of that year the vestry
refused to grant a rate requested by the overseer,
Thomas Ford, a man whose well-meaning schemes for
relief did not always meet with general approval. (fn. 52)
'Owing to the depressed state of agriculture', various
unemployed paupers had applied to him, as overseer,
to find work for them. As a result he hired some of
them on his own small farm, in excess of his actual
requirements, paying them a basic wage of 1s. a day
himself and supplementing this with a further 6d. each
for themselves and every member of their families out
of the poor rates. (fn. 53) The vestry objected to this, stating
that the basic wage had been fixed at 1s. 6d. a day, and
refused to grant a rate. Thereupon Ford paid off his
surplus labour and bought them 1s. worth of marbles,
with parish money, to keep them out of mischief. He
then counter-attacked by questioning the accuracy of
the overseers' accounts for the years 1810-22. He
claimed that, owing largely to the disappearance of
some annual balances and the failure to produce
vouchers for the overseers' payments on the accounts
of other parish officers, over £625 remained unaccounted for. A committee of four, including
Thomas Ford and the curate, William St. Andrew
Vincent, who presided, investigated the charges and,
under the curate's influence, cleared the officers concerned, to the evident dissatisfaction of Ford. The
committee recommended, however, that in future overseers should account only for sums spent on the poor.
The vestry thenceforth began to control more closely
the overseers' disbursements and the audit of their
accounts and each succeeding overseer was made to
sign both for the receipt of the account book and for his
predecessor's balance.
In 1829 Stapleford Tawney joined with nine other
parishes in the voluntary establishment of an incorporated workhouse under Gilbert's Act (22 Geo. III,
c. 83 (1782)). (fn. 54) The accounts of the overseer in 1831
included the payment to Capel Cure of Stapleford
Tawney's share of the mortgage raised for building this
workhouse.
In 1836 Stapleford Tawney became part of the
Ongar Poor Law Union.