Poor Richard%27s Retirement%3A Retirement For Everyday Americans

The judges also were concerned in the administration ofthe system of poor relief partly in the ordinarycourse of their duties, and partly in consequenceof the special action of the Privy Council. It wasthe custom of the time to obtain interpretationsof law from the judges in reply to general questionsand not only through the decision of particular cases. Theseinterpretations were given not only in such cases as theimprisonment of Members of Parliament, but also in mattersaffecting the poor law. A long list of resolutions was arrivedat on the statute of 1597-8 concerning the interpretation ofthat statute[405]. Other questions arose later, and were decided inthe same way. Thus in 1620 there was a dispute in the townof Lydd which led to the seizure of the bailiff's cattle and hisretirement from the magisterial Bench of his ungrateful town[406].The query is submitted as to the legality of a tax for the poorwhich was levied on the inhabitants of a parish for their landsand goods in gross, and on the farmers for their land per acre.Sir Robert Houghton and Sir Ranulph Carew decided in itsfavour, and the paper is endorsed "The question of taxing forthe poor of Lydd decyded by the Judges of Assize[407]." We havealready seen that the Council told the justices of Suffolk thatit was the resolution of all the judges that they themselvesmight levy a tax to employ the poor[408], and in 1633 also manydecisions on points of law were issued as the resolutions of thejudges of assize[409].

Poor Richard%27s Retirement%3A Retirement For Everyday Americans