The Poor Law of 1601 forced each parish to make provision for its own poor by appointing overseers (who included churchwardens) who were legaly bound to levy a poor rate on property and to use the revenues thus raised to relieve the infirm poor who had no relatives who might care for them and to find work for the able-bodied poor.

The placing of this burden 'on the Parish' led to considerable problems as paupers tended to migrate to the better regulated parishes and, through force of numbers, increase the poor rate there. This naturally caused considerable resentment and anger amongst the parishioners and led to the enactment of another Poor Law to regulate this problem in 1662.

To prevent the migration of paupers to better regulated parishes, under the Poor Law of 1662, any person having lived in a parish for 40 days was deemed to have aquired 'settlement' and could claim on that parish in case of pauperism.

It also made it a duty of the overseers of the poor to remove any newcommer to the parish who might become a burden on the poor rate to the last parish where the newcommer could claim settlement.

The newcommer would be taken before the justice who would enquire into his origins and issue an order for his transportation back to his or her parish of settlement. The overseers of the poor were then charged with executing the order at the expense of the parish.