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Great context on English society and the Poor Law mechanism.
“According to the 16th century stereotype, the undeserving pauper was typically rootless, masterless and homeless. A Vagrant. His behavior was disorderly and criminal, that of a rogue.”
In the 16th century, the poor laws and other laws make the vagrant criminal. But, like other laws, there is a massive amount of local discretion when it comes to enforcement. There were basically so many people who you might call a vagrant, that local officials just did not punish all pauper wanderers. And there were people who, if they were guilty of some other crime would be punished for that, as for example they were a thief, a magistrate might ignore that they were also a vagrant.
It was only a small minority of immigrants who were ever punished as vagrants. Usually, if they got work or rented a place to live, the authorities would look the other way. They didn’t have to, but they could.
We look at the dangerous poor, their punishments, movements and the attitudes of the respectable towards them. They were really the greatest source of crime, and many lived highly dysfunctional lives.
There were definitely professional beggars as well. “Counterfeit bedlams, and a counterfeit cripple in Herefordshire, one of Salisbury’s vagrants was a Dumberer pretending he hath no tongue.”
There is an abuse of power story told too. The power of overseers to regulate the family life of the poor is not a well known story.
