The office of churchwarden is very old. Now it has lost most of its prestige, and the churchwarden is almost forgotten except on the Sundays when collections are made; formerly each villager took a personal interest in affairs which some day he himself would probably be called upon to manage. The two churchwardens of a parish represented the rival interests of its inhabitants: the parson _versus_ the squire and his tenants. Each officer had his clients’ interests to uphold and consider. The most onerous duty before the present system of Poor Law, however, fell upon the overseer of the poor, in whose hands rested the responsibility of the proper distribution of the public funds in the shape of bequests and legacies; to him came applications for relief, and with him also were mooted all questions relating to the disposal of paupers, both dead and alive. Edward III. forbade the giving of alms to able-bodied men, but no regular Poor Laws were invented till Henry VIII. was King. The first Acts of Parliament relating to Poor Laws were passed towards the conclusion of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign. It was absolutely necessary to make some fresh statutes applicable to the new state of affairs consequent upon the Reformation. Previously most of the charity had been distributed or directed by the monks, and after these were dispersed and their lands seized by the Crown and sold, their unfortunate dependents were rendered still more dependent, and all the severe laws against vagrancy and beggars made by the Tudor sovereigns could not abate the nuisance or solve the difficult question, while doles and gifts of bread or alms served only to increase the evil through toleration. Worse and worse the state of things became, till towards the end of the last century the climax was reached; there were then whole families of paupers who, generation after generation, made no effort towards self-support either for themselves or their offspring. These last were brought up entirely on charity, clothed, fed, and apprenticed, till finally married by charity, the fees being paid out of the charity money; nor did the matter end there, for, probably, after the lapse of years the wedded couple with their children (if they became chargeable to the parish) were returned to their native village, again to become recipients of its charity till death claimed them, and the parish paid the funeral expenses.