After the reſtoration a very different plan was adopted, which has rendered the employment of the poor more difficult, by authorizing the ſubdiviſion of pariſhes; has greatly increaſed their number, by confining them all to their respective diſtricts; has given birth to the intricacy of our poor-laws, by multiplying and rendering more eaſy the methods of gaining ſettlements; and, in conſequence, has created an infinity of expenſive law-ſuits between contending neighbourhoods, concerning thoſe ſettlements and removals. By the ſtatute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12. a legal ſettlement was declared to be gained by birth, or by inhabitancy, apprenticeſhip, or ſervice, for forty days; within which period all intruders were made removeable from any pariſh by two juſtices of the peace, unleſs they ſettled in a tenement of the annual value of 10𝑙. The frauds, naturally conſequent upon this proviſion, which gave a ſettlement by ſo ſhort a reſidence, produced the ſtatute 1 Jac. II. c. 17. which directed notice in writing to be delivered to the pariſh officers, before a ſettlement could be gained by ſuch reſidence. Subſequent proviſions allowed other circumſtances of notoriety to be equivalent to ſuch notice given; and thoſe circumſtances have from time to time been altered, enlarged, or reſtrained, whenever the experience of new inconveniences, ariſing daily from new regulations, ſuggeſted the neceſſity of a remedy. And the doctrine of certificates was invented, by way of counterpoiſe, to reſtrain a man and his family from acquiring a new ſettlement by any length of reſidence whatever, unleſs in two particular excepted caſes; which makes pariſhes very cautious of giving ſuch certificates, and of courſe confines the poor at home, where frequently no adequate employment can be had.
The law of ſettlements may be therefore now reduced to the following general heads; or, a ſettlement in a pariſh may be acquired, 1. By birth; for, wherever a child is firſt known to be, that is always prima facie the place of ſettlement, until ſome other can be ſhewn[1]. This is alſo always the place of ſettlement
- ↑ Carth. 433. Comb. 364. Salk. 485. 1 Lord Raym. 567.
