Labourers naturally were unwilling to hire cottages while there was a possibility of inducing the justices to provide one on the waste rent free. The churchwardens of Great Wymondley forwarded a certificate stating “that the poor people of the said parish that are old and not able to work are all provided for and none of the poor people of the said parish have been driven to wander into other unions to beg or ask relief, for this thirty years last past. This Nathaniel Thrussel, which now complains, is a lusty young man, able to work and always brought up to husbandry, his wife, a young woman, always brought up to work, and know both how to perform their work they are hired to do, and have at present but one child, but did not care to pay rent for a hired house when he had one nor endeavour to hire a house for himself when he wants.”[148] Footnote 148: _Hertford Co. Rec._, Vol. I., p. 370, 1687. The scarcity of cottages resulted in extortionate rents for those that existed; Best noted that in his district “Mary Goodale and Richard Miller have a cottage betwixt them; Mary Goodale hath two roomes, and the orchard and payeth 6s. per annum; and Richard Miller, hayth one roomestead and payeth 4s. per annum.... They usually lette their cottages hereaboutes, for 10s. a piece, although they have not soe much as a yard, or any backe side belonging to them.”[149] Footnote 149: Best, _Rural Econ._, p. 125. The rents paid elsewhere are shown in the returns made in 1635 by the Justices of the Peace for the Hundreds of Blofield and Walsham in Norfolk concerning cottages and inmates: Thos. Waters hath 3 inmates: Wm. Wyley pays £1. per annum Anthony Smith pays £1. per annum Roger Goat pays 12s. per annum “which are all poore labourers and have wifes and severall children and if they be put out cannot be provided in this towne and by reason of their charge and poverty are not likely to be taken elsewhere.” “Wm. Browne hath 2 inmates: Edmund Pitt 14s. per annum Wm. Jostling 14s. per annum that are very poor and impotent and take colleccion. Wm. Reynoldes hath 2 inmates: Anthony Durrant £1 16s. per annum Wm. Yurely 16s. per annum both are very poore labourers and have wifes and small children. Jas. Candle owner of a cottage [has] Robert Fenn, 13s. a poore man. Anne Linckhorne 1 inmate Philip Blunt that pay £1. 17. 0 that is a poore man and hath wife and children.”[150] Footnote 150: _S.P.D._, cccx., 104, 1635. Returns made by Justices of the Peace. Thus it appears that while a labourer who obtained a cottage on the waste lived rent free, twenty or thirty shillings might be demanded from those who were less fortunate. Whatever money was extorted for rent meant so much less food for the mother and children, for it has been shown that the family income was insufficient for food alone, and left no margin for rent or clothes.