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PITSTONE PARISH GOVERNMENT 2

After the passing of the poor Law Act of 1834 the responsibility for the care and employment of the poor was removed from parish government and vested in the Guardians of local Unions. Pitstone and Marsworth, in Buckinghamshire, were uneasily joined with Tring, Puttenham, Wigginton and Aldbury, Hertfordshire, to form the Second District of the Berkhamstead Union. Pitstone's first guardian was William Bigg, followed later by Peter Parrott.

The most fundamental change wrought first by the new Act was the total withdrawal of any poor relief from any able-bodied person, except within the confines of the dreaded workhouse itself, unless special permission was obtained from the Law Commissioners. Two local cases were submitted in 1842 by Guardians for consideration of out relief; Joseph Kempster, a horse keeper with his wife and five children earning 9s. a week and a pint of milk a day: and William Kempster, thresher, earning 8s. a week plus ls.l.5d. earned by three of his five children.Both men came from Pitstone.The applications were refused by the Commissioners, who "entertain a confident expectation that the Board of Guardians will adhere steadily to withholding all relief, except in the workhouse, from able- bodied men on the account of insufficient earnings inasmuch as a contrary practice must inevitably introduce the abuses of Relief in aid of Wages”

Soon after the setting up of the new system, the workhouse in Tring was closed down and all inhabitants transferred to Berkhamstead, where there were frequent changes in management throughout the next eight years. Much of the administration was suspect. In 1845, the Commissioners, having learnt that the auditor of the accounts was in jail for debt, thought it

"very undesirable that you should continue office".Nevertheless, the chairman of the Board of Guardians emerges throughout their records as a man of compassion.He wrote, "I look upon the workhouse not of a place of punishment or restriction to the aged, but as a refuge ...."

That was in the year the Union sent a resolution to the Commissioners, giving intention to compel the aged to pick only 2lb. of oakum a day instead of 5lb, as they were on old man’s diet as opposed to able-bodied diet.

The expenditure by the Union, so far as Pitstone was concerned, fell from £258 in 1835 (already wall below the parish’s own expenditure fourteen years earlier) by regular stages to £86 in 1838 and £80 in 1843, after which it began to rise again slowly.It is notable that, during this period, expenditure on the neighbouring parishes of Aldbury fell from £400 in 1835 to £245 in 1838, but had risen again to £300 five years later.

One possible explanation of the low Pitstone figure is the growth of the local friendly Society, who’s benefits were not enjoyed by any member receiving relief in the workhouse or elsewhere.Begun in 1834 and established in Pitstone in January 1846, the Society's object was to raise by subscription (4s 11d a quarter, admission 2s. 6d.) or donation (£2 outright or 10s. per annum for an ordinary Member - no benefits) a fund for mutual relief.Admission, restricted to fit men aged 18 to 40 within four miles of Pitstone, was by proposal and voted: and "as men of Wicked and disorderly lives are much more exposed than others to sickness, lameness and infirmity, so no one remarkable for cursing, swearing, lewdness, drunkenness." etc. might be admitted.Seven shilling a week was paid out for sickness, although those who contracted smallpox after vaccination were entitled to £1 and no more. Widows received £5, and burials, attended compulsorily by all Members within one mile, were free, up to £3.Attempted suicides eare not eligible for relief, though, should the attempt succeed, the widow were entitled to their due.Although drunkenness was regretted (3d fine for coming "disguised in liquor, or got so at a Meeting"), both the Society's books and its meetings were regularly held at the Bell in Pitstone.

An attempt was made by the Union in 1845 to increase the number of people vaccinated against smallpox, which protection was compulsory in the workhouse but voluntary for the poor outside.There was much difficulty in getting the poor to attend the out-stations, the local clinic for Pitstone being at Aldbury. The total number vaccinated was said to be 183, of which 177 were "successful" - although it was stated that the number of cases of the pox treated that year was three, of which two had been previously vaccinated.

The question of preventing infection in cottages had been raised a year or so earlier by Mrs. Gordon of Stocks, on the boundary of Pitstone and Aldbury, writing to the agent of her neighbour, the Countess of Bridgewater. Three coats of lime-wash to walls and ceilings were recommended, the lime to be hot from the kiln. Mrs. Gordon also chided the agent about inadequate provision of sanitation to the estate cottages in Aldbury and suggested that "if such Necessaries are deemed disfiguring, they (can) be made to appear as a stack of wood bearing each a different shape."

An early action on the part of the Berkhamstead Union had been the passing of a resolution that parish houses throughout the district should be sold.Various negotiations ensued, but the parishioners of Aldbury were the first to refuse categorically to auction their almshouses in defiance of the wishes of on or two of the larger landholders. The parish properties at Pitstone also survived.

In October 1841, a new rent of 6d. a week was fixed by the Vestry for "some houses belonging to the Church".This seems to have been a face-saving gesture on their part. A rent of £2 p.a. had been set in 1833 for four houses but the records indicate that the higher rate had never been paid.In 1836, two tenants, William Collins and James Osborne, had been named; but in that year the wardens "paid Green for giving notice to quit to tenants of town houses - 4s.6d.”. One possible interpretation is that the tenants were unable or unwilling to pay the revised rents, but all seem to have survived the quittance order.

The highest rent (35s.) was paid by Collins. He and Osborne, whose rent was 26s. kept their cottages until the end of the half-century, and the cottage for which William Gurney paid 29s. (assessed in 1833 at £2) passed to Mary Gurney.The other three cottages rated at £2 were actually paid for at 26s., as was the seventh cottage. Jane Collins occupied one for six years, and other inhabitants who came and went were Thomas Dollimore, William and Susan Harris, Thomas Janes, Thomas Treacher, Thomas Anstie, John Saunders, Colder Philby, William Beilby and Mathew Marks, The total income from the cottages was £9. 14s.

The addition to the administration of the pariah houses, the Vestry had assumed the authority of letting the Town Land. In May 1848, the Vestry, called to decide the terms of letting, was informed that this function was legally vested in the Trustees, and it was thereupon agreed to request the latter to take some action. We learn, however, from the Charity's own records which exist from 1850, that three of Trustees - Thomas Woodman, Samuel Hawkins and William Newman - were no longer resident; in Pitstone, and that one of them, Thomas Woodman, disagreed with the letting policy favoured by the Vestry. He wanted half the income, which had previously all been paid to the church, to be expended on the poor; how the dispute ended is not clear, but by 1857 it was agreed that the lands should be let on seven or fourteen-year lease, probably replacing ever shorter terms of lease.

Amongst the parish records, one poor Rate Book has survived, for 1848. This gives some idea of the contribution made by the parishioners, even after the organisation of the Berkhamstead Union.In real terms, a rate of 2s. in the £1 meant a demand of about 5s. for a cottage and garden; lOs.11d. for Humphrey Williamson’s house and garden;£2.4s.6d. for Thomas Jellis's beer house, farm (24 acres) and three commons; £8.11s. for 119 acres and five commons belonging to Joseph Simmon’s farm and £24.5s. for 246 acres and 18 commons belonging to John Hawkins at Pitstone Green Farm.

In May 1837, 37 people were exempted from the rate, and later that year it was decided that a new valuation should be made of the whole parish for rating purposes, Mr. Sedgwick being finally chosen as surveyor.

Insufficient figures are available to see an over-all policy, although there seems to be a tendency to rate down the pariah property against a rise in the valuation of the land held by the London and Birmingham Railway, whose line ran through the western edge of the parish. This valuable acquisition carried a rateable value of £46l.5s.0d. in 1844, being a proportion of £1,400 per mile, increasing to £1,700 per mile the following year.

There is no note of the rating of any new cottage property during the half-century, but by 1859 new cottages were being rated at £5.

Of the Constables role in parish affairs, we have almost no record. In 1839, the wardens paid Brittain for "Levying Distress on Janes with Constable's charge", the inference being that some of Janes’s goods were distrained In lieu of rent or other dues.The Quarter Sessions records contain several cases of theft in the Pitstone area - a duck, another duck, two sheepskins, a crow (bar), and 5 bushels of wheat, carrying sentences in the House of Correction ranging from one to four months.

On a longer time base, James Eastaff, aged 33, baker, was sentenced to six months hard labour in l850 for embezzling from Francis Beesley, the miller, sums of l0s., lls., l6s.8d., and 6s. 6d. over a period of six months. On the whole, the charges were few and the crimes explicable although it has been stated elsewhere (Parish Government I) that the village morals declined as the century progressed, Pitstone in the late nineteenth century carried a reputation for being a "good" village, which seems to have been based on older foundations and may even be true to-day.

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