Folios 271-272. Letter from Henry Milward, Chapel Warden, of Redditch, to the Poor...

Folios 271-272. Letter from Henry Milward, Chapel Warden, of Redditch, to the Poor Law Commission following an article he had seen in the Morning Herald paper of the [6 January 1844]. He asks whether the [illegible] Act of Parliament is a local act which applies only to Cumberland and Westmoreland, or whether it can be applied more generally. He knows from experience it can be used to collect rates from small tenements. [Illegible reference to the Poor Law Bill.] 54 Geo III c 12 provides that in order to prevent [illegible] parishes from calling vestries of ratepayers, churchwardens have the power to resolve that anyone who has leased or let a dwelling house or hereditament with an annual value of less than £21 are liable to be rated themselves and subject to the usual mode of recovery in the case of arrears.

Annotated: Mr Lumley [William Golden Lumley, Assistant Secretary to the Poor Law Commission].

Annotated: note that the correct reference is 59 Geo III c 12 s 19 which provides for tenements let for between £20 and £6 for up to a year, or for periods of less than quarterly, and would therefore not seem to apply.

Paper Number: 2131/B/1844.

Poor Law Union Number 526.

Counties: Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.