PARISH GOVERNMENT AND POOR RELIEF
Only one volume of vestry minutes (fn. 23) -from 1754
to 1827-survives for
Theydon Garnon and
this contains little more
than the annual appointment of parish officers and summarized details of the
parish accounts. Other vestry resolutions have been
entered elsewhere, in the overseers' rate and account
books, but even so it is impossible to put together a
comprehensive picture of the parish government, and
for many details it is necessary to rely on entries of
payments in the account books, which cover the periods
1715-1817 and 1826-36. (fn. 24)
The Easter vestry was usually attended by some 6
to 10 persons; at such other vestry meetings of which
records survive it apparently varied between 3 and 24.
Between 1780 and 1796 the rector usually presided at
the Easter vestry. In 1729 the vestry resolved that
every officer not attending the public vestry on the
first Saturday in every month should be fined 6d., and
that every other parishioner not attending every
quarterly vestry should be fined 3d., but in 1737 it was
resolved that the vestry should meet no more than once
in every three months, and in 1780 that the vestry
should be held in the church on the first Saturday in
the month. In 1774 a vestry clerk, to attend the vestry
each month, was appointed at a salary of 6 guineas.
He was discharged, however, in 1780 and the office
abolished.
In the second half of the 18th century there were
always two persons in each of the parish offices. The
overseers nearly always served for one year only. A
woman was occasionally appointed to the office. The
churchwardens and constables usually remained in
office for at least two years and often for much longer
periods. From 1756 until 1781 the surveyors usually
served for 1 or 2 years consecutively but the Revd.
T. A. Abdy and John Palmer served in the office
throughout the period 1781-1792. In 1780 it was
resolved to appoint an assistant to the overseer at a
salary of 6 guineas; by April 1814 the salary was £20.
In 1792 among the parish officers appointed was a
'reive of the waste.'
Between 1715 and 1817 all bills of the churchwardens and constables, and of the parochial charities
were paid out of one account-that of the overseers.
There was also a single and undifferentiated rate. A
1d. rate in 1683-4 produced £8 3s. 4d. (fn. 25) and it does
not appear that this assessment was altered. In 1783
a resolution to do so was defeated. (fn. 26)
The vestry appears to have been watchful of the
general interests of the inhabitants. In 1776, for
example, the vestry agreed to prosecute Richard Palmer
of Epping should he complete the building of cottages
for the habitation of poor persons within the parish
without intending to lay 4 acres of land, which it was
deemed would bring great charge to the parish. Palmer,
who was present, agreed not to go on with the building.
In 1781 the vestry adjourned to supervise the overthrow of fences on illegal encroachments made by the
people of Epping upon the waste of the manor of
Hemnalls, and in 1797 it was agreed that a gate should
be erected to keep off forest cattle. One scandal occurs
in the parish records. In 1774 it was reported that
William Le Cocq, one of the overseers, and then in
Chelmsford Gaol, had not delivered in his account, and
the vestry ordered the parish officers to borrow £100
to pay off his debts.
Most of the parish business naturally concerned poor
relief. When the parish accounts begin it appears that
the policy was one of out relief only. In 1715 there
was a payment of £3 for badges for paupers. There
were similar payments for badges in 1729 and in 1746
it was ordered that badges should be worn by all those
receiving weekly doles. In 1728 there were 19 people
receiving doles; in 1732 16 people, and in 1733 13
people, were receiving doles totalling respectively
£1 13s. 7d. and £1 6s. 4d. a week. There were also
frequent payments for the provision of clothing, for
nursing at home, and for rents. Occasionally, at least,
paupers' children were bound out as apprentices. In
June 1785 it was decided to advertise in the Chelmsford
papers in order to get 3 or 4 boys placed as apprentices;
in the following month one was apprenticed to a baker
at Henham.
There is a reference to a parish house in 1714, (fn. 27) but
this may have been only a pest house, which is mentioned in August 1766. In August 1729, however, the
vestry resolved that the churchwardens and overseers
should look for a convenient place and house for a workhouse, and in September of that year it was resolved
to provide a workhouse. In March 1730 it was again
resolved that the parish officers should look for a workhouse with all speed, but there does not appear to be
any evidence of one until 1742 when it was agreed to
take Mr. Rogers's house for three years at £8 a year.
In 1746 the vestry agreed to take the house on a yearly
tenancy at a rent of £7. (fn. 28) Subsequent entries for the
payment of the rent make it clear that this was being
used as a workhouse, and sometimes describe it as in
'The Street', presumably Coopersale Street. The parish
appears to have let an orchard attached to this building
to John Palmer at an annual rent of 10s. By April
1774 the parish had leased another house, Mr.
Bishop's, at a rent of £9. Rogers's house, which in June
1775 was described as 'the old workhouse', was still in
use until June 1776, when the parish accounts record
a payment for beer when the people were carried out
of 'the old workhouse.' In 1782 the vestry agreed that
a house called Newmans, belonging to John Palmer, (fn. 29)
should be leased for 21 years and converted into a workhouse. In 1805 the parish was given notice to quit
both Palmer's and Bishop's houses. (fn. 30) By June 1793
the parish had leased a cottage on the common from
the lord of the manor at a rent of £1 10s.; the parish
was given notice to quit this house in 1807. (fn. 31) In 1829
the parish held a house at Coopersale Common; it was
then occupied by William Brown, a 'poor person', who
in November of that year was given notice to quit. (fn. 32)
In February 1774 Edward Robinson was appointed
master of the workhouse, in succession to the 'late Mr.
Jepp', at a salary of 13 guineas. He was also allowed
one pint of ale a day, but was not permitted to charge
for tea and sugar brought in. In June 1775 Giles
Ashby of Halstead was appointed 'to be the master and
mistress of the workhouse' at a salary of 12 guineas,
with an allowance of 1 guinea for tea. (fn. 33) In 1803 the
parish made an agreement with Thomas Finch for the
farm of the poor. He was to be allowed 3s. a head
weekly whilst flour should remain under 3s. a peck,
and to be allowed a surplus according to the exact consumption in the house to be proved by the bills of
parcels. He was to provide three meals daily, to include
'hot meat dinner' on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
He was also to be allowed the benefit of all the work (fn. 34)
produced by the poor in the house, an extra guinea for
every lying in with 3s. a week for the child at one
month old, 4s. for every pauper dying in the house (the
parish, however, paying the cost of burial), 1 guinea
for loss of time and trouble for every pauper laid up
with a broken or fractured limb, and 2½ guineas for
shaving the paupers once a week and for sweeping the
chimneys. (fn. 35) In 1816 the parish contracted with
William Nutt for the maintenance of the poor in the
workhouse for one year; the contract was renewed in
1817, Nutt being allowed 5s. a head weekly. (fn. 36) There
is in the records one undated proposal, from John
Stubbs of Orsett workhouse, for undertaking to maintain the poor at 5s. a head, with an allowance of 1½
chaldron of coal. (fn. 37) In 1828 the parish seems to have
found some difficulty in arranging a price per head for
the workhouse, and two letters survive from people
willing to enter into a contract. (fn. 38)
At first it seems that the parish tried to get all its
poor into the workhouse, and the weekly doles ceased
in 1762. It was, however, found necessary to reintroduce them during the worst period of the depression
at the end of the century, and in November 1799 it
was resolved that every family should be allowed 1s.
a week for every child above the number of two under
the age of 10. There were 37 people in the workhouse
in 1793 and 30 in 1805. In 1811 the house was
enlarged. (fn. 39)
In 1796 the lord of the manor granted the parish
2½ acres of waste upon condition that 2 acres be planted
with potatoes for eventual sale to the poor inhabitants.
Payment for digging potatoes on the common piece is
recorded in the account books in October 1797 and in
March 1798 there were two entries of money received
for 'taters'.
The parish always seems to have given much attention to the relief of the sick poor. The first mention of
a parish doctor occurs in 1721 when Dr. Dimsdale's
bill for £5 for treating a pauper was settled, and there
are other references to the settling of apparently casual
bills, but this method seems to have caused some alarm,
for in 1729 the vestry, after approving Dimsdale's bill,
ordered that for the future no bill was to be allowed,
unless those afflicted had procured an order in writing
from a churchwarden or overseer, except in an emergency. This order was repeated in 1737. The last
payment to Dimsdale was in January 1742. In April
1743 the parish settled a bill of Dr. Davies for £10
and there is at least one other similar payment, in
March 1744, but these may have been casual payments
and need not imply a definite contract. The first
definite reference to a salaried doctor occurs in 1749
when Thomas Fletcher agreed to take care of the poor
of the parish in pharmacy and surgery at an annual
salary of 8 guineas; in 1756 Francis Mitten agreed to
take the poor under his care and to supply them with
physic and attend in all cases of surgery at a salary of
8 guineas, and also to attend every maternity case at
½ guinea a case. (fn. 40) On one occasion, in June 1764, the
parish resolved to pay Mitten 6 guineas for curing a
broken leg; he was then described as surgeon at Epping.
In 1777, however, Richard Boodle was appointed to
attend the poor when necessary and all cases of surgery,
midwifery, and inoculation at a salary of 10 guineas.
The vestry ordered that one of the overseers should
wait on Mitten, who was on this occasion merely
described as an apothecary, to pay his salary, to return
the thanks of the parish for what he had done for the
poor, and to inform him that his future attendance was
no longer required, as Mr. Boodle was chosen in his
place, the parish not thinking 'the parish business an
object worth his notice'. Boodle's appointment was to
date from Easter 1777, but these arrangements were
apparently abortive, since Mitten received salary to
Easter 1778, and Boodle was appointed as surgeon,
apothecary, and man midwife at a salary of 10 guineas
at the Easter vestry meeting of that year. In 1788
William Stewart was appointed apothecary and man
midwife at a salary of 12 guineas; his duties were to
include inoculation, and he was to attend accidents to
parishioners even if they occurred outside the parish.
He was succeeded in 1790 by C. C. Stuart who held
the position, on the same terms as his predecessor, at
least until April 1806.
In 1613-14 the cost of poor relief was £8. (fn. 41) In
1776 it was £355. (fn. 42) In 1783-5 expenditure averaged
£295 a year. (fn. 43) In 1800-1 it reached £1,152. (fn. 44) In
1801-2 the cost was £941 and in 1802-3 £762. (fn. 45)
Between 1803 and 1809 it was much lower, being
always between £550 and £600 a year. (fn. 46) In 1809-10
the cost rose to £725 and from then until 1817 it
ranged between £650 and £850 a year, being highest
in 1812-13. (fn. 47)
In 1836 Theydon Garnon became part of the Epping
Poor Law Union.