Haughton Parish Officers
Haughton is a Village approximately 4 miles west south west of Stafford, 8 miles from Newport in Shropshire, and about 137 miles from London. It is in the Cuttlestone West Hundred of Staffordshire and in the Diocese of Lichfield lying on the A518 road from Stafford to Newport.
From an early date the Parish was organised to look after most communal and financial needs. Each year the parish elected officials, which included Parish Constables, Overseers of the Poor, and Surveyors of the Highways.
Constables
The accounts[1] for Haughton show that the Constables had to go to the “Guildable Court of Edward Lyttleton” at Penkridge, to be sworn in, and to hand over to the next person around November or December each year. Villagers committing minor misdemeanours could be fined at the same court and in the early 1700’s the usual fine for such appeared to be 4d. There is no record of financial remuneration for the work but they did get their expenses.
By 1800[2] the constables were responsible for various duties in addition to their duties of serving warrants and taking people to gaol etc. Once a year, in the autumn, they had to take the “Frith Silver” to Lichfield at a cost of 9/6d (except for one year when it went to London). The Accounts show that this payment was made until 1839. The Gentleman’s magazine suggested to an enquirer that it was a form of fee Farm Rent or, a payment in lieu of underwood, to the Lord of the Manor, as other Staffordshire Parishes were paying “frith silver.”
The Constables were responsible for making payments to various people with “passes” travelling through the Parish, although the origins and destinations were not indicated. The highest number recorded was 99 people in 1818, although 1826 must have been very difficult as it included the 43rd Regiment of Foot and “soldiers wives” (unspecified numbers). The most surprising of these payments for a parish in the middle of England was to sailors passing through the parish, mostly between 1809 and 1815. (Napoleonic Wars 1803-1813.) The men were sometimes discharged from a ship (or possibly transferred to another) and the captain would issue them with a “ticket” for their pay which could be cashed in later. However this could take years as they could only be cashed in London. Therefore some “business men” set up business buying up these “tickets” at a discount which could be as much as 50%. One can understand how sailors may have needed help to travel from one port to another, or to and from their homes, and parishes had a statutory obligation to help them.[3]
With regard to punishment for crimes, Haughton had a whipping post which the constables had to get repaired in 1804[4] and stocks which also required repair in 1807. There is no indication of when they went out of use even if it did need a new lock in 1835.
The Constables had to travel around the parish and draw up the militia lists to be posted on the Church Door.
Attending inquests was another responsibility of the Constables and they even had to serve a summons on the Overseers of the Poor when they neglected to pay the money due to a family, and in 1826 they gave notice to shop keepers to have their weights and measures adjusted.
A list, with a set of Apprentice Indentures[5] dated 24/2/1847, names 6 men to act as Constables for the parish of Haughton.
Matthew Walton, of Haughton, Farmer has not served before.
John Kerby of Fieldside has not served before
Thomas Turner of Shuttheath Labourer has not served before
John Bancroft of Alimoregreen Labourer has not served before
Thomas Powell or Sowell of Haughton Labourer has not served before
John Deakin of Haughton, Taylor has not served before.
However it is likely that these were the last elected Constables as the Staffordshire police force was set up in 1842 and no entries appear in the Constables accounts after 1842. In 1844 there were a series of petitions in response to an announcement in the newspapers of an increase of 50 Police constables.[6] Haughton was one of the petitioners and the ratepayers (74 signatures.) strongly disproved of these officers. The objections were on several grounds:
1. They felt it “Appears to be against the principle of Justice that a large body of men should be paid and clothed with money raised from Tax”.
2. Selection and control of the men is only by a few individuals.
3. They are not performing any profitable labour but only acting on the orders of their immediate superior. Therefore can only be regarded as “hired Soldiers”.
4. A statement of the County Expenditure shows that “a large quantity of arms have been recently purchased and placed at the disposal of men in whose selection the ratepayers have no voice and over whose conduct they have no control a measure which they consider unjust towards themselves and without imputing criminal designs to any must express their conviction that it is highly dangerous to the interests of all.”
5. Previous Constables had been appointed by their respective Parishes and were men known to all in the neighbourhood whose habits, characters and connexions can easily be ascertained and having some acknowledged station in society.
6. Any increase in local taxation would be severely felt and is strongly disapproved of by the majority of the ratepayers. They are conscious that their money is taken for a purpose of which they can discover neither the utility nor the justice”.
7. The petitioners do not believe that property will be rendered more secure by the introduction of a body of armed strangers”.
8. In the strongest way the petition requests that no addition be made to the present Police force, and that the present police force may be withdrawn from their parish at the earliest possible period.
The final request that the police force be withdrawn from the parish implies that there was a Police Constable in post at this date and the register of Police Stations[7] lists a property rented at £6 pa.in Haughton. The property had accommodation for one Police Constable, but no cells. The accommodation recorded was:
1 living Room 15 x11; Scullery 8.2 x 7.2; Bedrooms (3) 15.10 x 7.2; 15 x 8.4; and 15 x 7.10.
No record of heating method and presumably the measurements are in feet and inches.
Overseers of the Poor
The Overseers were elected to look after needy people in their parish and one of the duties of the Overseers was the responsibility for Removal Orders. The earliest letter about this in Haughton appears to be 1693, relating to the removal of people who have become a charge on the Parish.
People had the right of settlement in the Parish of their birth, or the Husband’s birth for a wife, unless they qualified by the right of their assets. The right of settlement meant that the Parish would help people in need, entitled to settlement in their Parish. If someone became a charge on a different Parish they could be removed to the Parish where they had the right of settlement so that Parish had to pay for them.
The removal of paupers must have caused distress as revealed by letters to the Overseers[8] 28th Feb 1848 regarding the “right of Settlement” of Edward Burton, aged 74, and his wife aged 70. They had previously become a charge upon the parish in Cheadle Bulkley,(Cheshire) and so Stockport Union had them removed back to his place of birth which was Haughton. However it doesn’t look as if they wished to live in Haughton, as they then spent 4 years in Manchester, and 2 years in Edgley, with their son. However having become a charge on the parish again Stockport Union wished them removed back to Haughton for a second time. The parish records do not show a burial for Edward Burton so he may not have stayed settled for long.
One way the Overseers used to reduce the demand upon the funds was to place poor children out as apprentices.7 Mostly they were young children aged 9 -12 placed with local families to learn farming, husbandry or housewifery but occasionally they did follow a more unusual path as illustrated on 9th Dec 1770 when they indentured Henry Cooper, age 14 years, until the age of 24 years, to William Parker of Wolverhampton, to learn Bucklemakeing[9] . Or James Allen aged 12 being apprenticed to Samuel Hartshorn on 28th Nov 1835 to learn Stone mining[10].
Between 1815 and 1848 the Overseers of the Poor, on several occasions, paid Chemists/Apothecaries accounts,[11] which indicated that they were paying for health care rather than just sustenance for the poor. Payments were for “visits,” “Pills”, “powders” “ointment”, and “blister”.
However in the case of a serious loss to a parishioner the Overseers of the Poor did not have the funds to help and the victim could apply for a “Brief”[12] This happened in the case of Thomas Swift after a fire at Brazenhill Farm.6. This farm was a half-timbered building with a thatched roof, with 2 stables adjoining it filled with hemp and straw, when it was struck by lightning and burnt down in 2 hours. Thomas Swift said that he was out mowing on the evening of 18th July 1822 and his wife was checking the calves having left 2 children asleep in the house. By half past six he heard the alarm. It appears that they rescued the children but lost, in addition to the buildings:
about three quarters of a hundred of cheese.
six bags of wheat
2 winnowing machines
Cheese prep.
a large quantity of hemp
2 sets of gearing and all his farming utensils together with
A malt mill, a malt bin and a quantity of coal.
Thomas Carter an Architect computed that the value of these would be £16 8s. 0d. and John Sharratt a bricklayer estimated the cost of rebuilding the premises as £454 10s. 0d. Brazenhill Farm was rebuilt.
On 28th September 1834 Haughton became part of Stafford Union. Directions were given in 1846 as to how it is to be carried out and example form were sent out[13] Workhouses were to be established under specific rules. On 24th April 1836 Law Commissioners directed that “one or more fit and proper persons be appointed” to be collector of the poor rates and the Salary for the person in Haughton was £4.0s.0d. beginning 14th Nov 4th 1834/5.
The records revealed that for Haughton in 1849 there were 3 Paupers receiving indoor relief at a total of £33.4s.8d, and 14 receiving outdoor relief at a total of £34.10s.3 ½ d. Relief to irremovable poor and Vagrants £10.5s. 4½d., Salaries - £17.14s. 43/8d. Presumably in an effort to reduce the number of Paupers the Oversees encouraged emigration as they paid an Emigration Loan of £11. 6s. 2 5/8 d.
A more unusual duty of the Overseers occurred in 1866 when there was an outbreak of Cholera in the country. A printed notice was circulated in 1866 from the Board of Guardians of Stafford Union,[14] suggesting that “a committee of Principle inhabitants of the parish be appointed to visit the dwellings of all parishioners and report to the Board such measures as they consider proper to be taken under the present circumstances to remove nuisances and improve the general healthfulness of the dwellings”. A meeting was held in the vestry on 9th Aug 1866 for this purpose. The Constables Accounts[15] reveal that Thomas Jackson, George Banks, Edward Banks, William Howell and Thomas Keen were appointed as committee members and they “resolved to adjoin to the Bell Inn for further consideration”. It was agreed that medicine for the parish would be deposited at the house of William Holt.
Surveyors of the Highways
The Parishes were originally responsible for the maintenance of the roads in the parish and parishioners had to contribute to this and the 30th Sept 1654 Constables Report[16] said that the Roads etc. were in good repair. (No earlier records available). This is reported with the Constables but later there is a separate Surveyor’s report.
1729/30 reported that the highways, roadways, hedges, trees, bushes, drains, ditches, watercourses and causeways, and pavements within the Liberty are in reasonably good repair and the respective neighbours have done their duty as required. Signed Tho. Hodson, Surveyor.
1738 had a similar report. Three radial routes from Stafford were turnpiked in 1793[17] and one of them led westward through Haughton, to Gnosall and over the county boundary to Newport but the Parishioners still appeared to maintain the other roads as the accounts for the year ending 25th March 1842 says that there is a rate of 5d. in the £ and commences with a list of Ratepayers eligible to pay to maintain the roads[18].
The Parish owned the necessary tools as there is an Inventory of the tools taken for the year 25th March 1839 to 25th march 1840.
1839 to 25th march 1840
A brief study of one year’s Accounts 1839 -1840 has entries to indicate exactly how they were repairing the roads, by whom it was done, and who was paid. April to end of June saw numerous entries for labourer Jas. Wilkes at 2d. per day, and with vastly differing pay rates also for Thomas Swift at 1s. 8d. per day. A third labourer was John Stokes.
No more materials were bought until August when they paid two labourers (James Wilkes and John Stoker) and paid for 11 loads of Stones