Identifier: lifeinenglishvil00davi (find matches)
Title: Life in an English village, an economic and historical survey of the parish of Corsley in Wiltshire
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Davies, Maud Frances
Subjects: Labor and laboring classes
Publisher: London, Unwin
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ed between 1841 and 1851. Though severalfamilies migrated elsewhere in search of employment,many persons became a burden upon the rates. Aresolution passed at a Vestry Meeting in January thatrates levied upon cottages and gardens should bepaid by the tenants, allowance being made to themby the proprietors in the rents/ was presumably anattempt to make the bulk of the population realisethe incidence of the burden of pauperism. Laterin the year the Vestry decided that the unemployedpaupers should be divided among the paymasters according to the number of acres in their occupation.A committee was appointed to investigate the matter.From their report we learn incidentally that 7s. aweek was considered the minimum wage in Corsleyfor an able-bodied man, and in computing the numberalready employed, two women were to count as one 1 MS. Corsley Vestry Minutes, November, 1839, and February 6,1840. 2 Ibid., March 25, 1843. 3 See Appendix I. p. 305. 4 MS. Corsley Vestry minutes, January 15, 1844.
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CORSLEY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 85 man.1 How the scheme worked, or whether, indeed,it was ever carried into effect, is not recorded. In 1854 a salaried assistant overseer was ap-pointed for Corsley.2 In December, 1856, the Vestry, anticipating lackof employment during the winter months, agreedthat persons seeking work were to be referred tothe Waywardens, who were promised an additionalway rate, when necessary, to defray the expense ofproviding employment .3 In 1889, and again in 1893, the Corsley Vestrypressed for greater publicity of the proceedings ofthe Warminster Board of Guardians, and demandedthat copies of the financial statement should bedistributed among all the larger ratepayers .4 Having briefly surveyed the action of the CorsleyVestry in regard to pauperism, under the new law,we must turn our attention to the chief cause whichaggravated poverty, namely the decline in the clothtrade. Within the memory of the older inhabitantsnow living there were three manufacturers who

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