England Records of Vagrants - International Institute

Vagrants
Begging was a huge social problem in the 16th century and the Poor Law Acts of 1597-1601 aimed to discouraged it by prescribing that beggars be whipped; references to this punishment are found in the records below. Elizabethan and later authorities were concerned to stamp out menacing bands of beggars, and the nursery rhyme ''Hark, hark! The dogs do bark, the beggars are coming to town'', comes from this time. Incorrigible vagabonds could be sent to the county Bridewell (House of Correction, orGaol) and set to hard labour with other petty offenders.

David Hey in his book, The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History, points out that most beggars were actually local, single men in ones or twos seeking work or assistance from relatives. The problem lessened after the Act of Settlement of 1662 and with gradual improvement in living standards in Stuart and Georgian times. However the numbers of men on the tramp increased again after the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) and the system of examination for vagrants fell into disuse - there is relatively little material after 1820.

Vagrants were whipped or confined in the parish cage and removed to their parish of settlement, and their children could be apprenticed by the JPs. Vagrants were classified into three categories:


 * Idle and disorderly persons included those who threatened to run away and leave their dependants, those who had been removed but returned, and idlers who begged in their own parish.


 * Rogues and vagabonds were itinerant performers such as jugglers and minstrels, wandering beggars, those pretending to be soldiers, sailors or Egyptians (gypsies), fortune tellers, card and other tricksters, unlicensed pedlars, persons lodging in the open air or in barns and who could not give a good account of themselves, and anyone who actually left family chargeable to the parish.


 * Incorrigible rogues included a rougher lot - those repeating a former vagrancy offence, refusing to be examined, lying upon examination, and escapees from custody. They were to be imprisoned for six months, may be whipped and could be impressed into the navy or army.

Cole states that the vast majority of those mentioned in vagrancy examinations, were not deliberate miscreants but just ordinary people who happened to be travelling when misfortune hit them.

Vagabond Examinations
A couple of typical vagrant examination examples are seen below.

Vagabond Examination 1757 Abingdon, Berkshire

Vagabond Examination 1821 Abingdon, Berkshire 

Vagabonds Passes
The vagrant would be then sent with a removal order, called a vagabond’s or vagrant’s pass, back to his own parish. These may be annotated en route with the names of parishes where he/they had obtained relief, how much, and whether he had been conveyed on foot or horseback. Many have been filmed, for example there are a series of vagrants’ passes 1816-1821 in the Surrey Quarter Sessions records on 2 films -1. Lists might be kept in the parish chest.

Vagabond Pass 1821 William and Elizabeth HAMLET—Vagabonds

Vagrant Records in Horne, Surrey
Vagrants Records in Horne, Surrey 1679

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