true yearly value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any other gifts or grants by us, or by any of our progenitors or predecessors, to the said Master and Governors of the workhouse for the poor within the town and parish of Halifax, in the county of York, heretofore made in these presents, is not made, or any statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restraint to the contrary thereof heretofore had, made, ordained, or provided, or any other thing, cause, or matter whatsoever in any wise notwithstanding.

In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents.

Witness ourself at Canterbury, the fourteenth day of September, in the eleventh year of our reign.

WOLSELEY."

N.B.-As the original of the above is supposed to be lost, this is printed from a careful comparison of several copies. It may be worth remarking that the original was produced at Halifax to the Commissioners of Pious Uses in the year 1719, as appears from an Inquisition by them signed relating to the workhouse there.

The Letters Patents thus obtained, the Master, Prime Governor, and modern Governors therein named, did qualify themselves for their respective offices, October 9, 1635.

The form of the Master's oath, used on this occasion, was, "You shall duly execute the office and place of the Master of the workhouse for the poor, within the town and parish of Halifax, in the county of York, according to the true intent and meaning of his Majesty's Letters Patents, during the time you shall continue Master of the said workhouse." And changing the term Master for Governor, the Governor's oath the same.

October 12, 1635, a warrant was granted by Sir William Savile, Baronet, and Henry Ramsden, Clerk, requiring the Churchwardens and Overseers within the town and parish of Halifax, to assess and gather of the inhabitants within the said town and parish, six months assessments for the poor, according to the monthly assessment then assessed upon the said inhabitants, over and above the assessments already then assessed, and to pay the same to the Master and Governors of the workhouse, because there wanted a convenient stock for the setting on work and maintaining of the poor within the said town and parish.

At the meeting held Oct. 14, 1635, Treasurers were appointed; and at the Court held October 21, 1635, a Clerk, Overseer, and Beadle were chosen, the workhouse ordered to be repaired, and a room to be enlarged and made ready therein, for the meeting of the Master and Governors; the wheels, &c. to be viewed, and the seal of the Castle declared to be the Common Seal for all their business about the said workhouse, till farther order should be taken for changing or altering thereof.

At other Courts, orders were made for such as were likely to become chargeable to the town and parish, to be removed; such as kept them in their families contrary to order, were fined; security was taken from all who received any stranger to dwell in their houses, that such stranger should not be chargeable to the town and parish; such as were convicted of swearing, keeping or using gaming-houses, and tippling at unseasonable hours, were fined; such as embezzled, spouted, or spoiled their work, or were idle, or unruly, or made a practice of begging, were whipped, set to work, or sent to the place of their settlement, and sometimes allowed only bread and water for several days: And, in short, such strict regulations were made, and put in execution for keeping the poor in order, that near seventy different persons from December 9, 1635, when this punishment was first inflicted, to the 10th of October, 1638, when it seems, for a time, to have ceased, were whipped at the whipping-stock within this workhouse, and some of them repeatedly.

December 21, 1635, Sir William Savile, of Thornhill, Baronet, composed a difference between the Master and Governors of the workhouse, and the inhabitants of Halifax, by awarding, first, that every man within the parish, for giving of four-pence, should have bond given him by the Master and Governors, that neither they, nor any of their issue, should be chosen Governors without their own consent, provided they came in before Candlemas following.

Secondly, That whereas there was an intention to have six months assessment within the parish, they should be contented with three months assessment within the whole Vicarage; and, thirdly, that if any thing there promised could not lawfully be done, the Patent should be mended at the charge of the town.

This caused a petition at the next General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, that the three months assessment appointed by warrant from Sir William Savile, Baronet, John Farrer, Esq., and Henry Ramsden, Clerk, three of his Majesty's Justices, to be paid throughout the whole Vicarage of Halifax, to the Master and Governors, for a stock for the poor, might be released to Heptonstall and Ealand; but the Court, January 13, 1635, confirmed the warrant, and ordered that such as refused to pay, should be apprehended and carried before a Justice of the Peace, to be bound to appear at the next Sessions.

At the Court within the workhouse, January 19, 1635, an acquittance was given to Mr. Ramsden, for seventy-two pounds nine shillings and eight-pence, by him paid towards procuring the above Letters Patent.

This money Mr. Ramsden had received on account of the workhouse, after it was agreed by the Overseers, Churchwardens, and several inhabitants of the town and parish, to procure a government to be established for the setting the poor on work within the said town and parish, by Letters Patent, and consisting of different benefactions, not left for this particular purpose, but to be employed to good uses in general.

Several parishioners excepted against such application thereof, but the matter being referred, by joint consent, to Sir William Savile, on hearing the allegations on both sides, he approved of what had been done.

At the Court held January 27, 1635, the Master and Governors agreed to divide the town into five precincts, in which particular members were to make view every month, and give in at the next meeting a particular account thereof, and also to keep privy watch therein once every fortnight at least.

The poor in the workhouse, as ordered at the Court held March 23, 1635, were to work every year, between Michaelmas and Lady-day, from six in the morning till nine at night, having fire and candles at the house charge; and from Lady-day to Michaelmas, from five till eight o'clock, save only in September, when they were to work from morning to night, being allowed half an hour at breakfast time, and an hour at dinner.

Thus was this workhouse regulated and managed, under the inspection of him who gave it, as appears from the

original Book of Rules, &c. kept therein, a copy of which was in the possession of the late Mr. Watson, taken from the original, lent by the late Mr. Stead of Nottingham.

In this manuscript is a remarkable chasm, from December, 1638, to October 1682, excepting which, it is a continued register of what was done in and about the workhouse, from its first institution, to September 29, 1704, at which time the last entry was made in it.

Besides this, there was also a book of accounts, both which were produced at the dispute in 1721, this latter marked A, and the former B.

A copy of the will of Mr. Waterhouse next follows.

::

BIOGRAPHICAL

HISTORY

OF

PARISH.

THE

HALIFAX

THE design of the following chapter is to give some account, in alphabetical order, of such authors, and persons of note, as have been born, or have lived, in the. parish of Halifax.

Curate of Lightcliffe, in this parish, published "Triplex memoriale, or the substance of three commemoration sermons, whereof the titles are these, viz. 1. The memory of the Just. 2. A pattern for pious uses. 3. The fifth beati

tude, or the merciful man's blessing. Preached at Halifax in remembrance of Mr. Nathaniel Waterhouse, deceased. Whereunto is added, an extract out of the last Will and Testament of the said Mr. Nathaniel Waterhouse, containing his several gifts and donations for pious and charitable uses. By William Ainsworth,* late Lecturer at St. Peter's, Chester. York, Printed by Thomas Broad, 1650."

This book, which contains ninety-six pages in octavo, begins with an epistle dedicatory to the Right worshipful Sir John Savile, Knight, High Sheriff of the county of York.

*His "Marrow of the Bible" is not mentioned here. I have searched for a copy of the "Triplex" for many years, but have never seen one.

Next follows the Author's Apology to the reverend Dodecasty of Ministers within the vicarage of Halifax, especially to Mr. Robert Booth, then Minister there. In this he mentions his being related to Mr. Waterhouse. The first of these sermons was preached December 1, 1647, from Psalm cxii. 6. The second, December 6, 1648, from Nehemiah, xiii. 14; and the third, December 5, 1649. The two last dedicated to the Right worshipful Langdale Sunderland, and William Rookes, junior, Esqrs. to whom the Author says "he was bound in those days of his under-hand fortune, wherein (as every bird will have a peck at an owl) he had suffered very foul things from all sorts of hands.' This work contains several strong complaints of the poverty of the Clergy in those days; particularly at page 78, where he says, "The Ministry in this Church of England is, for the most part, the poorest trade that any man drives, the inferior sort of Ministers having neither a competency while they live, nor provision made for their families after their death, contrary to the practice of other reformed churches.

Every man thinks he is at liberty to pay to the Minister or forbeare, though he be content to be bound in every thing else.

Men would have Ministers to burn like lamps, but will afford them no oyle to keep in the light; like Pharaoh's hard task-masters, they think we should make brick without straw." And a little farther, "The poorest Ballad-singer and Piper in the country live better of their trades than Ministers do."

We shall only observe, that if this was the case in the succeeding reign, it is not to be wondered at that so many Curates suffered themselves to be ejected from the Chapels in this neighbourhood.-It is said, that Mr. Ainsworth taught school, notwithstanding which he declares, that by reason of the late civil storms he was as poorly provided of accommodations for study, as Cleanthes was for writing his philosophical notes, when having wrought all day long in the vineyards, he wrote at night on bare stones instead of paper.

BREARCLIFFE, JOHN,

An Apothecary in Halifax, where he was born, and where he died of a fever, December 4, 1682, aged 63. He wrote