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By this statute, the necessity of providing for their own poor

was indispensably imposed upon every parish. Who were to be

considered as the poor of each parish became, therefore, a

question of some importance. This question, after some variation,

was at last determined by the 13th and 14th of Charles II. when

it was enacted, that forty days undisturbed residence should gain

any person a settlement in any parish; but that within that time

it should be lawful for two justices of the peace, upon complaint

made by the church-wardens or overseers of the poor, to remove

any new inhabitant to the parish where he was last legally

settled; unless he either rented a tenement of ten pounds a-year,

or could give such security for the discharge of the parish where

he was then living, as those justices should judge sufficient.