1621. Overseers of Uggliebarbie to provide a suitable dwelling for 2 women (sisters) if they refuse them a warrant, etc. (_Yorks. North Riding Q.S. Recs._, Vol. III., p. 118.) 1672. Parish Officers of Scruton to provide a convenient habitation for Mary Hutchinson and to set her on work, and provide for her, etc., until she shall recover the possession of certain lands in Scruton. (_Ibid._ Vol. VI., p. 175). 1684. Mary Marchant ... livinge in good estimation And repute for many years together; being very Carefull to maintaine herself And family for being prejudice to ye sd. Towne; ye petitioners husbande beinge abroad and driven Away; and returninge not backe Againe to her leaveinge ye petitioner with a little girle; being In want was put into a little cottage by & with ye consent of ye sd. Towne; ye sd. Owner of ye sd. Tenement comeinge when ye petitioner was gon forth to worke leavinge her little girle in ye sd. house; ye sd. Owner get a locke And Key upp on ye door, where as your petitioner cannot Injoy her habitation wth peace and quietness; soe yt your petitioner is likely to starve for want of A habitation and child, etc. (Cox. J. C., _Derbyshire Annals_, Vol. II., pp. 175-6, _Q.S. Recs._, 1684). The housing problem however could not be settled by orders instructing the overseers to build cottages for the impotent poor alone. Petitions were received as often from able-bodied labourers and for them the law forbade the erection of a cottage without four acres of land attached. The magistrates had no power to compel the provision of the land and thus they were faced with the alternatives of breaking the law and sanctioning the erection of a landless cottage on the waste or else leaving the labourer’s family to lie under hedges. The following petitions illustrate the way in which this situation was faced: George Grinham, Norton-under-Hambton, “in ye behalfe of himselfe, his poore wife and famelye” begged for permission “for my building yᵉʳ, of a little poor house for ye comfort of my selfe, my poore wife and children betwixt those other 2 poore houses erected on the glebe ... being a towne borne childe yᵉʳ myselfe.”[143] Footnote 143: _Somerset, Q.S. Rec._, Vol. I., p. 41, 1609.