The following are the settlements that subsisted at the passing of the Poor-Law Amendment Act :—settlement by birth, parentage, marriage, hiring and service, ap .renticeship, renting a tenement, estate, ce, payment of rates. Settlements may be divided into two general classes ; being, first, natural or derivative settle ments, as by birth, parentage, or mar riage, to the perfection of which re sidence in the parish is unnecessary ; se condly, acquired settlements, including all the remaining settlements above men tioned, and to these residence for forty days in the parish is necessary. The following were the modes of acquiring the various settlements which have been enumerated :—l. Settlement by birth.— In order that children may not be sepa rated from their parents, the settlement of the father during his life, and the set tlement of the mother after his death, is the settlement of the children. But legi timate children who have no known set tlement are settled in the place of their birth ; so also are illegitimate children, for they can derive neither settlement nor any thing else from their parents. Children however, during the age of nurture, which continues till they are seven years of age, must not be separated from their parents, and are therefore to be supported in the parish where their parents happen to be, at the expense of the parish of their birth settlement. 2. Settlement by parentage.—The settle ment of the father, or, if he have none, the maiden settlement of the mother, is communicated to legitimate unemanci pated children. After their father's death their settlement shifts with that of the widow, until she marry again, in which case the settlement of her new husband is not communicated to them. A child is said to be nnemancipated so long as he forms part of the parents' fbmily. A child is emancipated when ho gains a settlement of has own, or, being of the age of twenty-one, lives apart from and independently of the parent, or contracts some relation incon sistent with his continuing a subordinate member of the parent's family, as by marrying or enlisting as a soldier. Any settlement of the parent acquired after the child's emancipation is not commu nicated to him. 3. Settlement by mar riage.—To prevent the separation of husband and wife, the settlement of the husband is communicated to the wife ; she can acquire no settlement during marriage ; and if he have no settlement, she cannot be separated from him by her removal to her maiden settlement.
4. Settlement by hiring and service is acquired by a person unmarried, and without unemancipated children, hiring himself for a year into service, abiding for a year in the same service, and re siding for forty days in any parish within the year, and with a view to the service. A general hiring, that is, a hiring where nothing is said as to the duration of the contract, is considered a hiring for a year. The service for a year need not be wholly under the hiring for a year, it is sufficient if part of the service be under such hiring ; the residue may be either under another hiring, or under no hiring at all. The settlement is gained in the parish where the servant last com pletes the residence of forty days—the forty days need not be consecutive days ; if a servant reside thirty-nine days in parish A, then forty days in parish B, and finally another day in A, A, where he last completed a residence of forty days, will be the place of his settlement.
All the forty days must be within the compass of a single year, but it is suffi cient if the residence for any part of the forty days be under the yearly hiring.
5. Settlement by apprenticeship is gained in the parish where a person bound by deed as an apprentice last completes a residence of forty days in his character of apprentice. No service is required, but the apprentice during the necessary period of residence must be under his master's control. 6. Settlement by rent ing a tenement is acquired by hiring and actually occupying a tenement at the rent of at least 101. a year, payment of rent to that amount, and residence for forty days in the parish where the tene ment is. By actual occupation is meant that no part of the tenement must be underlet. 7. Settlement by estate is gained by the possession of any freehold, copyhold, or leasehold property, and re sidence for forty days in the parish where the estate lies. If the estate come to a party in any way except by purchase, the value of the estate is immaterial ; but a purchased estate confers no settle inent if the price given was under 30/. But a person residing on his estate, what ever may be its value, is by Magna Charta irremovable from it while so re siding, although be may have gained no settlement in respect of it. 8. Settle ment by office is gained by executing any public office in the parish, such as the office of constable, sexton, &c. for a year, and residing there forty days. The office need not be of a parochial nature, but it must be at least an annual office. 9. Settlement by pay ment of rates. In order to acquire this settlement a person must have been rated to and have paid the public taxes of a parish, in respect of a tenement hired at a rent of 10/. a year, and have paid that amount of rent, and resided forty days in the parish of the tenement. This head of settlement therefore includes all the requisites of settlement by renting a tenement, except the requisite of actual occupation.
All persons whatsoever, whether na tural born subjects of England and Wales, Scotchmen, Irishmen, or foreigners, may gain a settlement in this country. A. chargeable pauper is to be removed to the place where he last acquired a settlement. It is often very difficult to find out the place of such last settlement ; this is so more especially in cases of settlement by hiring and service and apprenticeship, where the residence, being unconnected with anything of a fixed nature, as a tenement or office in any particular parish, may be continually shifting, the settlement consequently shifting with it, until the last day of the service or apprenticeship. Paupers who have no settlement must be maintained by the parish in which they happen to be, as casual poor, unless they were born in Scotland or Ireland, or in the islands of Man, Jersey, or Guernsey, in which case they are to be taken under a pass-warrant of two justices to their own country. When a pauper has become chargeable, and it is sought to remove him, he is taken before two justices, who inquire as to his place of settlement, and, if satisfied, upon his examination and such other evidence as may be laid before them, make an order for his removal thither. The parish to which he is removed may dispute its liability by appeal to the quar ter-sessions, when the order of removal will be quashed, unless it appear that fhe pauper is settled in the appellant parish.