In Scotland as in England before 1535 there are a series of vagabond acts[672], and in 1535 a statute was passed bearing a strong resemblance to those passed in England under Henry VIII. The punishments of whipping awarded to vagrants under the older Acts were continued, and no beggar was to be allowed to beg in any parish except that of his birth. New regulations were introduced with regard to funds as in the contemporary English statute; the head men of each parish were to "make takings" and to distribute to the beggars belonging to the parish and to them only[673]. Thus, as in the England of 1536, parochial responsibility was recognised, and the funds were to be raised within the parish, but without compulsion. [672] The statutes of 1425 (James I., c. 66) and of 1427 (James I., c. 103) are vagrant acts closely resembling those of England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. [673] James V., cap. 22. Nicholl's _History of the Scotch Poor Law_, p. 12. The next important change in Scotch legislation was made in 1574, and the provisions then made were continued and amplified in 1579. In this later statute the resemblance to the English Act of 1572 seems more than accidental. Both the Scotch and the English statutes begin with decreeing sharp punishments for vagrants, although those of the Scotch law are the more severe. But the later clauses of both statutes deal with relief, and in the Scottish enactment these are introduced almost in the words of the English regulations, "And since charity would, that the poor, aged and impotent persons should be as necessarilie provided for, as the vagabonds and strong beggars repressed, and that the aged and impotent poor people should have lodging and abyding places throughout the realm to settle themselves into," it is ordained that the provost and bailies in the towns and the justice in every landward parish shall inquire into the names and condition of the poor and impotent people born in the parish, or who have lived there seven years, and shall make a register book containing their names and surnames. And in order that every parish may know its own poor, all poor people are ordered to return to the parish where they belonged within eleven days. The provost and bailies and justices are then to provide for the sustenance and lodging of those that must live by alms; in order to meet the cost they are "to tax and stent the whole inhabitants within the parish according to the estimation of their substance, without exception of persons, to such weekly charge and contribution as shall be thought expedient and sufficient to sustain the said poor people." Overseers and collectors were to be chosen in every town and parish, and any person who refused to contribute or discouraged others from so doing was, if convicted, to remain in prison until he obeyed the order of the parish. Badged beggars were allowed in some parishes, prisoners were to be relieved and children were to be apprenticed[674].