VAGRANT. This term, which in its etymological meaning simply denotes " a wandering person," is obviously derived from the Latin rage. It was probably introduced into our law language from the Norman French ; the phrase "ragerentz de lieu en lieu curroutz per pails" occurring in our early statutes in the sense in which the word " vagrant " is used in common language at the present day. (Stat. 7 Ric. II., c. 5) The persons to whom it is applied in ancient documents are usually classed with faitours," (a word of doubtful origin, but meaning an idle liver or slothful person : Cowell's Interpreter ;' Kclham's ' Dictionary,) "travelyng-men," and " vagabonds." The latter expression, " vagabundue," was known throughout Europe in connection with feudal law, and is interpreted to mean " erebro vagans, cui nec cert.= domicilium, neo conetans habitatio est." (Calvini Lexie. Jurid.') It was used in this sense in English law as early as the reign of Henry II. (Cowell's ' Interpreter.') Modern laws have however given to the word " vagrant " a much more extended meaning, in the application of which the notion of wandering is entirely lost.
In the course of the transition made by the lower classes of society from the condition of feudal villeins to that of free labourers, vagrancy and mendicity necessarily ensued from the unsettled state of the poor ; and in most countries where feuds had prevailed, severe laws were made to repress the evils which sprung from this source. In England various statutes and ordinances passed from time to time to obviate the inconveniences arising from wandering mendicancy. The earliest of these was a statute of ordinance, made in the 23rd year of Edward III. (1349), commonly called the Statute of Labourers, which, after reciting that " many sturdy beggars (validi mendicantes) were enabled by the gains of begging to live, and to devote themselves to pleasures and sins, and sometimes to thefts and other crimes," forbade "all persons, on pain of imprisonment, to give anything under colour of piety or charity to such as were able to labour." In 1366 there is a petition of the Commons complaining of wandering artificers and servants becoming beggars in order to support an idle life, and praying that it might be forbidden under a penalty for any one to give alms or sustenance to any such idle beggars ; and that they should be appre hended and put in the stocks or sent to jail until they found surety for their return to their own country. (' Rolls of Parliament,' vol. i., p. 340.) The answer to this petition does not appear : but a few years afterwards a statute was passed making it (almost in the language of the petition) penal for artificers, servants in husbandry, and others, without a special licence, to quit the town, hundred, or wapentake in which they lived, to live and work in another town, hundred, or wapentake ; and persons found vagrant (vayararit) without such licence might be placed in the stocks and imprisoned by the local authorities, until they found security fur their return to the place to which they properly belonged. (Stat. 12 Ric. IL, c. 3.) It was also enacted that "those who were able to work and went begging should be dealt with as persons travelling without a licence, and that beggars unaLle to work, dwelling in cities or towns, should remain in such cities or towns ; that if such cities and towns were unable to support them, they should be taken to other places within the same hundred or wapentake, or to the place of their birth, and there remain during their lives." (Stat. 12 Ric. II., c. 7.) And it was probably upon the
principle declared by these laws, that in the 15th century it was held to be lawful for any person to arrest and send to jail a man " found wandering (vagarani) in such manner that it is unknown how he gets his living." (` Year Book,' 9 Edw. IV., o. 27.) A statute which was passed in 1494 declared that all "vagabonds, idle and suspected persons, ebchild be set in the stocks three Jaya and three nights, and have none other sustenance but bread and water, and then should be put out of the town ; and that whosoever should give such idle persona more should forfeit 12 pence; and that every beggar not able to work should resort to the hundred where he last dwelt, was best known, or was born, and there remain, upon the pain aforesaid." (Stat. 11 Hen. VII., o. 2.) This vague enactment was followed by the more definite provisions of the stet. 19 lien. VII., c. 12, which declared that impotent beggars should go to and abide in the city, town, or hundred where they were born, or else the place where they had made their last abode for three years ; and this rule of settlement was adopted in the statutes subsequently passed against vagrancy in the reigns of Henry I'M., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. (Nolan's ' Poor Law,' chap. xv.) By stat. 22 Hen. VIII., c. 12, the justices of the peace in every county were empowered to grant licences under seal to " poor, aged, and impotent persons," to beg within a certain precinct; and persons begging without licence or out of their precincts were to be whipped or set in the stocks for three days and three nights, with bread and water only. This provision applied to impotent vagrants. On the other hand it was provided that if any person," being whole and mighty in body," and able to labour, should be found begging or vagrant, he should be taken before a magistrate, who might direct him to be whipped out of the place at the end of a cart, " till his body was bloody," and should then be sworn to return to the place where he was born, or last dwelt by the space of three years, and there to put him self to labour as a true man ought to do. He was to be provided with a certificate of his punishment, stating the place to which he was going and the time allotted for his journey ; and during that time he might beg by the way. Another law passed against beggars and vagabonds was the 27 Hen. VIII., e. 25, which, though severe in its terms against such persons, approached more nearly to just principles than previous enactments on the same subject, inasmuch as it provided a legal mode of supporting the poor, and thus took away the common apology for vagrancy. This law directed the governors of shires, cities, towns, hamlets, and parishes, to find and keep every aged, poor, and impotent person, by way of voluntary and charitable alms, with such convenient alms, that none of them should be compelled to go openly in begging : children under fourteen years of age and above five, taken, begging, were to be put. to work : "a valiant beggar or sturdy vagabond " was to be, for the first offence, whipped and sent to his place of settlement ; and if he continued his roguish life, to have the upper part of the gristle of his right ear cut off; and if after that he was taken wandering in idleness, or did not apply to his labour, or was not in service with any master, he was to be indicted and tried as a felon, and if found guilty, to suffer death.