Although Moreton was a chapelry of Bourton-on-the-Hill it had its own churchwardens by the 16th century,  ⁷³  and its own overseers by the 17th century. In 1662, after the passing of the Act of Settlement, the landholders and burgage-holders of Moreton undertook not to bring to live in the town, without security, any stranger who might become a charge on the parish.  The burgage-holders bound themselves to this agreement in bonds of £20, in return for which they were exemppted from poor-rates.  ⁷⁴  Expenditure on poor relief increased almost fivefold, to £468 a year, between 1776 and 1803, when 44 parishioners received regular relief and 13 occasional relief.

Twenty-four children were in a school of industry in 1903; and relief was granted to 631 people who were not parishioners.  ⁷⁵  In the next ten years expenditure on relief doubles, but by 1815 it had decreased again. By that time Moreton had a workhouse in which eight people were relieved; another 56 had regular relief outside the workhouse, and ten received occasional relief.  ⁷⁶

 By 1834 the expenditure had decreased again, to £430  ⁷⁷

 Under the Act of 1834 Moreton became part of the Shipston-on-Stour Poor Law Union, and part of the Shipston Rural Sanitary District in 1872, becoming part of the Campden Rural District in 1894.

In 1935 Moreton became part of the new North Cotswold Rural District,  ⁷⁸  and the council offices were established in Moreton. The parish council met regularly in 1962.

Notes :-
73            Hockaday Abs. xxviii, 1540 visit. f.67.
74         Par.reg. baptisms, 1643 to 1780.
75         Poor Law Abs. 1804, 184.
76         Ibid. 1818, 156.
77         Poor Law Returns, H.C. 444, p.70 (1835), xlvii.
78         Census.

Source:
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 248, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom