were revised three times, the revisions bearing the dates 1796, 1808, and 1821. That of 1821 was the most important. It was made after the adoption of the new state constitution, and the revisers did not merely incorporate the new laws, but brought the statutes into conformity with usage. In the revision of 1808 the laws were first arranged under titles, chapters, and sections, with dates of enactment, foot-notes, and a full index. Of almost equal importance are the court decisions. These are found in Kirby, one volume, reporting cases adjudged in the superior court from 1785 to May, 1788, and some adjudged in the supreme court; in Root, volumes 1 and 2, which cover the years from July, 1789, to January, 1798, and include the decisions of cases adjudged in the superior and supreme courts, "with a variety of cases anterior to that period;" in Day, volumes 1-5, 1802 to November, 1813, which contain the cases decided by the supreme court and, in volumes 1-4, those decided in the United States circuit court; and in volumes 1-13 of Connecticut Reports, which give the decisions of the supreme court of errors to 1838.

1838-1875. There are three chief sources for this period, statutes, decisions, and state documents. Under the first head are included the public and the private or special acts of each session. The public statutes were revised three times, 1849, 1866, and 1875. The last of these was a condensation as well as revision; the archaic phraseology and cumbersome wordings were removed, and there was a general rearrangement of the statutes, supposedly in the interests of classification, though the numbering is very complicated. The decisions of the period are found in Connecticut Reports, volumes 13-41. Beginning with the year 1850 there is available an increasing number of re

ports, bound up as legislative or state documents. These shed light upon administration.

1875-1903. The sources for these years are the same as those for the preceding period, public statutes, private acts, law reports, and state documents. Only two revisions were made, those of 1888 and 1902. Connecticut Reports, volThe mass of reports be

umes 42-76, cover the period.

comes each year more voluminous and valuable.

The other sources and authorities used are given in the bibliography in the appendix.

CHAPTER I

EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD, 1634-1712

I. CHIEF CHARACTERISTIC

IN 1680 the English Privy Council, by its Committee for Trade and Foreign Plantations, requested from Connecticut a detailed statement of the condition of the colony. One question was: "What provision is there made. . for relieving poor, decayed and impotent persons?" The colonial government replied: "For the poor, it is ordered that they be relieved by the towns where they live, every town providing for their own poor; and so for impotent persons. There is seldom any want relief; because labor is dear, viz., 2s., and sometimes 2s. 6d. a day, for a day laborer, and provision cheap." ✓

1

This statement gives the underlying principle of the system of poor relief in Connecticut. From the beginning it has been distinctively a town matter. While the colony and state have been compelled by circumstances to assume an increasing responsibility, yet this has been kept at a minimum.

During the early colonial period this principle was so fully carried out in both the Connecticut and the New Haven colony, that in the town records are the earliest statements regarding poor relief. Thus in March, 1640(1), the town of Hartford voted to set aside twenty acres on the east side of the Connecticut river "for the accommo

1 Col. Rec., iii, 300.

222

[22

dating of several poor men that the town shall think meet to accommodate there." This antedates by several years the earliest colonial record regarding the poor. The vote would appear to have provided for the entire support of the paupers in question through what would develop later into a town almshouse or poor farm.

Soon after this New Haven took the first steps towards adopting two other methods which were destined to become increasingly prominent. One of these was partial relief of people in their own homes. In 1645 it was propounded to the court that "Sister Lampson should be provided for at the town's charge, so far forth as her husband is not able to do it." It is not stated that this was done, though it might be inferred from the fact that three years later she was in the home of the marshal. The other was actually used in 1657 for the relief of persons who, it was reported, had arrived in Southold from Long Island, after suffering many hardships. They had been relieved by the town, and the court ordered that £5 be allowed towards their support, the sum to be paid by Southold and deducted from the next town tax payable to the colony. This was the beginning of relief by the colony, through the towns.

II. PREVENTIVE MEASURES

1. REGULATION OF ENTERTAINMENT OF STRANGERS

Since the burden of poor relief was to be borne by the towns, it was necessary to protect them from being charged with the support of strangers. This was done by regulating the entertainment of transient persons and the admission of inhabitants.

As early as February, 1636, the head of a family in the

'Hart. Town Votes, 46.

'Ibid., 414.

'New Haven Col. Rec., i, 227. 'Ibid., ii, 218.

Connecticut colony was forbidden to entertain any young man as a member of his family without permission from the inhabitants of the town. Neither could a young man who was unmarried or without a servant keep house by himself, without like permission, unless he was a public officer. 20s. a week was the penalty for violating either provision.1 In 1673 the power to permit a householder to take boarders was vested in the official representatives of the towns, the selectmen,2 and the law was made to apply to all single persons. With these modifications, the statute remained in force throughout the period."

66

Soon after the passage of this law the town of Hartford provided a different penalty for this offense. Any one entertaining one who was not admitted an inhabitant in the town above one month without leave from the town," was "to discharge the town of any cost or trouble that " might come thereby and be liable to be called in question for the same." At this time the general court was largely an advisory body, and hence this action of Hartford was in no sense irregular.

66

" 5

Similar action was taken by New Haven in 1656. “To prevent, or suppress inconvenience, and disorder in the course and carriage of sundry single persons, who live not in service, nor in any family relation, answering the mind of God in the fifth commandment," it was ordered that no single person of either sex might board or lodge within the colony unless "in some allowed relation" or in some ap

'Col. Rec., i, 8.

'In 1639 the towns were directed to elect yearly 3, 5, or 7 selectmen to care for the interests of the town. The revisions of 1673 and 1702 specified that not more than 7 selectmen be chosen. Col. Rec., i, 37;

1702, III.

'Laws of 1673, 47.

'Laws of 1702, 58, par. 2; 59, par. I.

1639 (40), Hart. Town Votes, 29.