Statute of Cambridge 1388

United Kingdom legislation

Dates
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Citation	12 Ric. 2. c. 7
Royal assent	17 October 1388
Commencement	9 September 1388

The Statute of Cambridge 1388 (12 Ric. 2. c. 7) was a piece of English legislation that placed restrictions on the movements of labourers and beggars.^[1] It prohibited any labourer from leaving the hundred, rape, wapentake, city, or borough where he was living, without a testimonial, showing reasonable cause for his departure, to be issued under the authority of the justices of the peace. Any labourer found wandering without such letter, was to be put in the stocks until he found surety to return to the town from which he came. Impotent persons were to remain in the towns in which they were living at the time of the Act; or, if the inhabitants were unable or unwilling to support them, they were to withdraw to other towns within the hundred, rape, or wapentake, or to the towns where they were born.^[2]

It is often regarded as that the first poor law, for within its many restrictions each county "hundred" was made responsible for relieving its own "impotent poor" who, because of age or infirmity, were incapable of work. However, lack of enforcement limited its effect.^[3]

Notes

^ "Timeline - Poor Laws, Workhouses, and Social Support". Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
^ Senior, Nassau. "Poor Law Commissioners' Report of 1834". Online Library of Liberty.
^ Workhouses.org Old Poor Law