ABSTRACT
The seventeenth century saw the inauguration of a new series of Local Authorities, established in particular places by separate Acts of Parliament for a specific purpose, namely, the local administration of the Poor Law. The 125 Incorporated Guardians of the Poor were established not by any general statute, but by separate Acts of Parliament—numbering, with amending statutes, over two hundred—which, because they were classed as Local Acts, have been almost ignored by historians. Parliament passed the Bill on the 18th January 1696, and allowed the City of Bristol to try its experiment. The Local Acts, under which they were established, did not profesgedly relieve the Justices of the Peace from their responsibility for the supervision of the Poor Law administration.
