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Settlements 1679–1823

An index of over 5,000 individuals who lodged their settlement certificates in a Hertfordshire Parish. The Index provides details on your ancestor, their Parish of Settlement and the Parish they moved to. Further information may be contained in the actual Settlement Certificates such as, details of your ancestor’s occupation, whether they were married and the names of their spouse and children.

There was a legal right to poor relief which was linked to your settled place of residence. The Act of Settlement of 1662 established the principle of settlement and removal which was not substantially altered until 1876. The Act established that as a stranger to a parish you could be moved back to your parish of settlement unless you occupied a tenement worth at least £10. This made life very difficult for the poor who until 1662 could move freely from parish to parish in search of work.

The Act was made permanent by another passed in 1691 which also set out the circumstances under which a person may gain settlement in a particular place. These were:–

• Your place of birth
• Serving as a parish official
• Payment of the parish rate
• Being bound apprentice to a parishioner
• Serving a year in service in the parish

An individual could therefore have more than one place of settlement in their lifetime. A women automatically took her husband’s settlement on marriage and a child's place of settlement was that of his father. Illegitimate children were settled where they were born, so it was not unknown for a poor woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy to be unceremoniously carted over the parish boundary by the Overseers of the Poor so that the child would be another parish's financial burden.

These restrictions made it almost impossible for the poor to move around in search of employment. To address this problem, an act of 1697 enabled the poor to enter any parish provided they carried a settlement certificate with them. Certificates were issued by the churchwardens of the settlement parish, and guaranteed that they would take them back if they became chargable (ie, needed money from the parish).

Later Acts of Parliament tightened up the regulations as to the issue of certificates and ordered the costs of removal should be paid by the parish of settlement (See Removal Order Index). It wasn’t until an Act of 1795 that it became forbidden for the Overseers to remove someone unless they had become chargeable on the parish. While the Settlement Act was repealed in 1834 (under the Poor Law Amendment Act which introduced the Union Workhouses) the principle continued to operate until 1876.