Description:

The transcription below is an extract from an order for resettlement under Poor Law and Settlement legislation.  For an introduction to resettlement issues click here.

Order for a removal from Longtown to Bacton, May 1847
James Powell, aged 78

The Examination of James Powell, at present residing in the Township of Longtown.
...who upon his Oath saith that ...in or about the year [1795] being at that time unmarried and having no child he hired himself for a year to Mr Thomas Lewis of Tremorithig in the parish of Bacton ...farmer at five pounds ten shillings wages, that he entered upon his service on or about the first day of May that he served under such hiring two whole years and received his whole wages and that this Examinant slept the whole of such two years in that part of the house which is situated in the said parish of Bacton and the Examinant further saith that about six months after he left his said Service he married at the parish Church of Wormbridge in the said County one Elizabeth Wood by whom he hath four children, that his said wife is dead and his said children have left him and are maintaining themselves and not chargeable to the said Township of Longtown as part of this Examinants family And this Examinant also saith that he has received parochial relief from Mr John Price Relieving Officer at the cost of the said Township of Longtown And that he is the same James Powell who is mentioned in the Certificate of Chargeability...hereto annexed. And this Examinant further saith that since he left his said Service at Tremorithig he hath done no act whereby to gain any other parochial settlement. [Signed] Francis Hamp, Chairman and Nicholas Lanwarne, Clerk

[On a separate handwritten sheet]
I certify that I have examined James Powell a Pauper chargeable to the Township of Longtown and that he is suffering from Emphysema of the lungs which disease will in my opinion produce permanent disability
[Signed] John Brunton, Surgeon

Observations:

The farm referred to, Tremorithig, straddles the boundary of Bacton and St Margarets: the building James Powell slept in thus apparently became a critical factor in determining that he was chargeable to the parish of Bacton.  James Powell was probably the man identified in the 1841 census as an Agricultural Labourer who with his wife Elizabeth, both aged 70, was living in Longtown village, and in that case would have been aged 24 when he began working at Tremorithig.