Anno Septimo & Octavo _GULIELMI_ III. Regis. An Act for Erecting of Hospitals and Work-Houses within the City of Bristoll, for the better Employing and Maintaining the Poor thereof. WHEreas it is found by Experience, That the Poor in the City of _Bristoll_ do daily multiply, and Idleness and Debauchery amongst the meaner Sort doth greatly Increase, for want of Work-houses to set them to Work, and a sufficient Authority to Compel them thereto, as well as to the Charge of the Inhabitants, and Grief of the Charitable and Honest Citizens of the said City, as the great Distress of the Poor themselves; for which sufficient Redress hath not yet been Provided: For Remedy whereof, Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament Assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the Twelfth Day of _May_, which shall be in the Year of our Lord, One thousand six hundred ninety and six, there be, and shall be, a Corporation to continue for ever within the said City of _Bristoll_, and the County thereof, consisting of the several Persons herein after mentioned (that is to say) of the Mayor and Aldermen for the time being, and of Eight and forty other Persons, to be Chosen out of the Honestest and Discreetest Inhabitants of the said City and County, by the Eleven Wards in the said City, and the Castle Precincts there, which to all Intents and Purposes, shall be from henceforth for ever a Ward within the said City (that is to say) Four out of each Ward, and of such other Charitable Persons as shall be Elected and Constituted Guardians of the Poor of the said City, in a manner as is herein after expressed: And the First Eight and Forty Persons shall be Elected at a Court for that purpose to be held within each Ward, by the Alderman of the same, or his Deputy, by the Votes of the Inhabitants of such Ward, Paying One Penny _per_ Week, or more, in his own Right, for and towards the Relief of the Poor of the said City, or of the major part of them then present.