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| Folio 376. [Continued from MH 12/489/] Newspaper article in the Northampton Herald of 4 January 1845, containing three letters from Reverend Fiennes S Trotman, Dallington Vicarage, Northamptonshire, on return from his month's sojourn at the Rectory-house in Stoke Goldington during the autumn of 1844. Trotman's first letter is addressed to the editor of the newspaper and mentions various anonymous letters and other more legitimate and straightforward communications relating to the subject of the labour rate which he has ventured to bring before the public, which has excited much interest both in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire. He states many erroneous impressions are abroad both as to the state of Stoke Goldington parish, which gave rise to the system in question being adopted there, and to the precise nature of the system itself. He encloses two documents to the editor which will throw light on the subject and which he may wish to lay before the readers. Trotman's second letter is addressed to those inhabitants of Stoke Goldington who recently addressed the Reverend Fiennes S Trotman at the expiration of his short sojourn amongst them, when he visited nearly every house in Stoke Goldington, Eakly Lane and Gayhurst, taking down in writing 'their religious professions, their numbers, their earnings, their pressing wants, and, from other respectable sources, their moral characters.' He wishes he could congratulate them on the state of the parish but he cannot. He refers to the deteriorating condition of the Stoke Goldington population in the last 40 years. He alludes to the immense depreciation of pillow lace through the introduction of machinery, the diversion of traffic from the great high road which passes through their village, by the monster railway, and which has thrown not less than 40 Stoke Goldington labourers out of work and bread, and the too large population compared with the limited number of acres in the parish to be cultivated. He comments that the situation is far worse than was his estimation. He addresses the higher class of his parishioners in that it becomes serious to consider in their power to lessen this destitution, quickly and with all their might before winter sets in, and suggests they meet at the rectory house with a view to devising the best method of finding work for the labouring population of the parish. Trotman's third letter is addressed to the agricultural labourers of Stoke Goldington, and refers to a meeting on 5 November 1844 with the occupiers of the land to do all in their power to find employment for every labourer in the parish during the coming winter, and the unanimous adoption of a plan which has since matured and been brought into action. He states that some of the labourers have since become dissatisfied with the plan and offers a few observations in explanation of it. That the plan was not intended as a perfect cure but as a remedial measure and alleviation of an evil state of things, mainly arising from the circumstances of the population of the parish being too great for its number of acres. He mentions there will never be enough work for one-third of them with their families and outlines removing to some foreign land where labourers are wanted and are well paid. He concludes that they must either cure their evil by emigration or be content with very considerable alleviation of the evil which has been propounded in the plan. He explains that the first step was the resolution that every occupier of land should, from 5 November to 1 March, employ at the rate of for every £100 assessment to the poor, five men and two boys at full wages, which was unanimously passed and adopted. On enquiry he finds that this is a good fair proportion of labour. He also finds that the immediate effect of it at Stoke Goldington has been to employ, at full wages, at least 20 men more than were employed before. The second step is for some 30 or 40 labourers being destitute of work, notwithstanding the farmers' resolution to employ a full proportion according to their lands, determine on a labour-rate, to appoint a treasurer and agree upon a scale of wages lower than that which is paid to their regular men. The lower scale must be for reasons as to that if the surplus labourers receive the same wages as others, all those who found work out of Stoke Goldington would naturally return. Trotman continues to elaborate on this point in great detail. [Continued at MH 12/489/] Paper Number: 1392/A/1845. Poor Law Union Number 23. Counties: Buckinghamshire. |
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