Hempsted
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Hempsted : Gloucester Poor Law Union In 1287 the prior of Llanthony claimed view of
frankpledge, waif and gallows on his manor of Hempsted; the Hempsted view was
also attended by his tenants from Quedgley and Elmore. 59 In 1456 or 1457 the priory claimed assize of bread and
ale in addition to the other liberties. 60 The lords of the manor continued to exercise leet
jurisdiction after the Dissolution, but the courts leet and baron were not
recorded after the early 18th century. 61 No court rolls
are known to survive. No parish government records survive before the mid 19th
century. Two churchwardens were recorded from 1498. 62 Women held the
office fairly regularly in the late 16th century and the early 17th.
It was served in rotation by houses, as were the offices of overseer and highway
surveyors which were recorded from the mid 17th century. In 1663 and
1673, and possibly on a regular basis , the parish constable was appointed by
the county magistrates. 63 Poor relief was probably never a severe
burden in Hempsted, with usually no more than 10 people on permanent relief
during the early 19th century, 64 and the rise in
expenditure only a gradual one until the last years of the old poor law. 65
In the depressed years of the mid 1780's Daniel Lysons excused his tenants a
large part of their rents and he and another resident, Charles Tyrell Morgan,
provided aid for the poor. 66 In the 19th century the
Hempsted poor continued to enjoy the benevolent attention of local landowners,
as well as benefiting from the substantial parish charities. 67 Hempsted became part of the Gloucester poor-law union
in 1835, 68 and remained in the Gloucester rural district 69
until the residue of the parish was absorbed by the city in 1967. Notes
:- Source: Quoted from the Victoria County History,
Gloucestershire, volume 4, page 426, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom
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