Vestry Matters 1799 to 1832

Some of these extracts give an idea of life in the town in this period. A number of extracts refer to the Parish Workhouse in Baker Street and are dealt with there.

25th April 1799: "Mr. Heurtley in consideration of receiving the Sum of Twenty Guineas…agrees with the said Parish Officers, to attend the Poor of the said Parish, and to give in all Cases, such Medical-aid as may be required, to attend to all Cases of the Small Pox, Fractures and Midwifery, where the Assistance of a Woman is not sufficient…"

8th May 1800: "Agreed that William Robinson Lawford do attend the poor of Leighton, including the Women in the Almshouses, to administer such medical and surgical Aid as the paupers in the said parish may require…salary twenty guineas a year…exclusive of the small Pox by inoculation [Edward Jenner had discovered inoculation in 1796]

13th November 1802: "The Meeting also recommended to the attention of the vestry, that the faculty are of opinion that the Epidemic Fever which has been prevalent in this Town for some years, and been fatal to so many of its inhabitants, has been subsisted by the uncomfortable manner in which the poor are lodged, by the several stagnated and filthy putrid drains in the streets (particularly at North End) and by not having a building as an infirmary to remove the sick, it is therefore the opinion of this meeting that a building for that purpose should be erected contiguous to the Town".

10th June 1817: "At a Meeting this Day held in the Town Hall to take into consideration the present state of Inhabitants as far as regards those now diseased with the small pox and to adopt measures to prevent its spreading farther resolved that all those who refuse to be vaccinated and should hereafter have the small pox naturally or by Inoculation and require the aid of the Parish - their goods and affects will be sold to defray the expenses they incur and likewise will be deprived in future of all the Town gifts and donations".

14th April 1830: "to take into consideration the Small Pox having broke out in several parts of the Town this meeting do agree to appoint the overseer of the Poor to go to Mr. William Chew to take his premises in Grovebury field and make the best bargain they can".

24th February 1832: "Recommendation from a Vestry held…to take under their Consideration the propriety of paying a sum out of the poor rate to enable the family of John Kitchen, his wife and seven children, to emigrate to America. the subject had had the solid consideration of this Vestry, and its was agreed without a dissenting voice, that a sum of forty-five pounds be paid out of the poor rate, which shall be specifically applied for the payment of their passage".

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