Boxworth: Local government

Local government

In 1279 the tenants of the Segrave fee owed suit to its court held at Fen Stanton every three weeks and to the hundred twice a year. Those on the Richmond fee owed suit twice a year both to the Zouches' court at Swavesey and to the honor of Richmond's Cambridgeshire tourns. (fn. 1) The lords of Huntingfields and Overhall manors then had their own courts, at which they could by prescription hold view of frankpledge and the assize of bread and of ale, but the king's hundred bailiff was entitled to attend and take the resulting penalties for the Crown, the lords retaining only the profits of manorial jurisdiction. (fn. 2) There being no copyhold after 1650, regular courts were not required, and no court rolls have been traced.

Expenditure on the poor rose sharply from £22 in 1776 to over £60 by 1785 and £114 in 1803, when five people, two being old, were regularly assisted. (fn. 3) It had reached over £100 by 1813-14 when 18-20 people were permanently relieved and as many more occasionally. (fn. 4) Thereafter until the late 1820s poor relief usually cost between £180 and £240, rising to c. £260 in the early 1830s. (fn. 5) The parish was included from 1836 in St. Ives (Hunts.) poor-law union. (fn. 6) It belonged to Swavesey rural district from 1894 until that district was merged in 1934 in Chesterton rural district, (fn. 7) and from 1974 to South Cambridgeshire district. (fn. 8) Only in 1976 did a regular parish council replace the parish meeting which had managed Boxworth's affairs since the 1890s. (fn. 9)