| Description | These petitions were repaired by Lamacraft, who numbered them "GG1-30" and left them, together with petitions to Mayors for removal of suits from the Pentice to the Protmote Court, in with Assembly Petitions. They have been classified under Quarter Sessions, since most of them are addressed to the Mayor and Justices of the Peace, and since similar petitions occur in the Quarter Sessions files (1573-4), together with assessments and lists of persons refusing to pay. By the Act of 1598 which instituted the first compulsory poor rate, the Justices in Quarter Sessions were empowered to hear appeals against the rate. The earlier Acts (1536, 1552, 1563 and 1572) had conferred most of the respsonsibility for organising poor relief on Mayors in towns, though the Justices in Sessions were empowered by the Act of 1563 to deal with persons refusing to pay the rate, and by the Act of 1572 they were to appoint yearly Overseers of the Poor. These petitions are mainly for poor relief or for exemption from the poor rate. Most of them are addressed to the mayor and other justices of the peace. However, two ask for admission to the freedom of the city and one for a reduction in the price of beer (nos. 4,16 and 25 )and appear to be strays from Assembly files (AF) and petitions (AP). |