On Sat, 24 Jan 2015 17:46:01 -0500, SBrainstev via <[email protected]> wrote: >I wonder if any lister might be able to shed some light on a little enigma >......? > >In perusing a book of churchwardens' accounts (1709-1820) for a North Wilts > village church, I came across the following entries which may relate to >ancestors of mine: > >11 September 1777: for a warrant for Mary Brain and expenses..... 2s6d > >25 October 1777: for a warrant and expenses for Mary Brain and Hugh >Brain..... 16s6d > >6 November 1777: Expenses of Hugh and Mary Brain.....8s > >They are the only entries in 110 years of accounts that refer to "warrants" > so I am intrigued as to what these warrants refer to - what misdemeanour >might have led to the churchwardens paying out for them? > >I am particularly interested as Hugh's marriage took place on 27 October >that year in an adjacent village (he married Mary Giles): the warrants >mentioned in the first two entries therefore do not refer to Hugh's wife but >perhaps a sister or even his mother? > >All suggestions welcomed. > That will probably be a warrant associated with the removal of poor people back to their home parish after become a burden on another parish, see e.g. section IX in :- http://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol6/pp314-315