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_ SKINNER _|
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|--William SKINNER
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!.....E93.1113.04 aka E89.0723.04 SKU 6(4):79: Genealogical Gleanings in England: Will of WIlliam Skinner of Braintree (Essex) yeoman
!.....E94.0804.04a-b Skinner, Gordon (1/91) fgs
!.....E94.0804.05x Skinner, Gordon (1/91) family history: "Early Essex Town Meetings, Braintree, 1619-1636" by F. G. Emmison. The Braintree "Company of the Four & Twenty," was a select vestry - a little oligarchy, who were not elected by parishioners but perpetuated themselves by appointing new members in place of those who died. No trace of corruption, partiality, or jobbery is apparent. Members even paid out of their own pockets for their monthly dinners. The earliest record of the "Four & Twenty" shows that they were governing the town from at least 1565, when William Skinner, one of the members was buried. Their final disappearance was in 1716. Braintree was a cloth manufacturing market town. Nearly all "Four & Twenty" members could write their own names. The major concern of the "Four & Twenty," month after month, was the relief of the poor. There were over 10,000 parishes in England and Wales, each of which, individually and independently, was responsible for its own poor under the Act of 1597 and 1601. The king wanted no part of welfare problems. Every means was used by parishes to minimise the number of paupers, or potential paupers, in order to keep down the rates. Each parish enforced its own immigration regulations and deported all who tried to gain illegal entry or had intruded without right and had been discovered. Braintree took unusual steps in appointing a beadle in 1623 "to keep strangers out" and to gather up about dinner and supper time all that begg at men's doors. @@ At least a dozen times between 1622 and 1630 parishioners were warned to remove or rid their houses of inmates: a sisters child, a brother, etc., no matter what Christian charity taught the law was clear - if they were not settled in Braintree, they must depart. The anti-immigration law is at its harshest in trying to keep out every unmarried pregnant woman and girl, to obviate parochial expense for her lying-in, and possible burial of mother or child or both. Above all to prevent the little bastard from gaining a potential life settlement in the parish by birth. No one could build a cottage or convert a building in his dwelling house or to receive strangers without consent of the church wardens and six of the "Four & Twenty" in writing, under pain of a fine of 3 pounds. The Town Meeting pited its strength against vices of idleness, gambling, drunkenness, and sexual wontonness. If the result was another little bastard, the ususal punishment was a short term in the House of Correction and Twelve Stipes of the whip for both parents. Children were not allowed to be idle. All, except those who had rich parents, were expected to earn their living at the age of ten or even earlier. The town prefered to relieve the wants of the needy by individual contributions rather than levy a tax for that purpose.