The surveying and licensing of beggars appears to have been very usual. Thus, at Lincoln in 1543, the constables were ordered to bring all the poor people in the city before the justices and it was provided that those who were to be allowed to beg should have a sign given to them. A similar order was made in 1546, and it was also decided that no one was to give alms to any beggar without a sign[79]. These orders are exactly parallel to the earlier measures of the rulers of London. Next year, in 1547, the citizens of Lincoln took a farther step. Not only were the beggars to be surveyed, but they were to be set to work, and in 1551 all the young people, who lived idly, were placed with the clothiers for eight or nine years and were to have meat, drink and other necessaries. All who refused this work were to be expelled from the town[80]. In 1560 a salary is paid to an officer who is to oversee and order all the poor and idle people in the town[81]. Special collections for the relief of the poor were also made in Lincoln before 1569, but apparently only in times of plague[82]. Grants were occasionally made to particular poor at other times and there was a more than usually definite amount of relief provided by the guild regulations for the poorer members of some of the Lincoln guilds[83]. [79] _Hist. Man. Com._, Rep. XIV., App. VIII. pp. 38 and 40. [80] _Hist. Man. Com._ _l.c._, pp. 41, 44. [81] _Ib._, p. 51. [82] _Ib._, p. 49. 5th May, 1557. [83] In the Smiths' charter, approved 17th July, 1563, it is provided that "if any fall into poverty, or by reason of infirmity or age shall not be able to relieve himself, sevenpence shall be paid to him weekly from the chattels of the fellowship, and on his death the officers shall cause his body to be decently buried, and at his burial shall dispose to the poor of the city two dozen of bread." Also the Charter of the Girdlers, Glovers, Skinners, Pinners, Pointers, Scriveners and Parchment-makers provides: "The weekly allowance to brethren in poverty is 6_d._ at the least." Do. p. 57. [Sidenote: 9. Ipswich. Survey of poor, imposition of compulsory poor rate and foundation of Christ's Hospital.]