This is a BIG subject and very difficult to put in a few words! As usual, its all about money. If a person wished to look for work and/or somewhere to live, it might be necessary for them to move away from their legal parish of settlement in order to find it. If they made the move and all went well and they could financially support themselves and their family, then all was well. However, if there was even a suspicion that they could become a pauper eligible to claim relief from the receiving parish, then that parish would be very keen to avoid that financial burden. The receiving parish might contact the legal parish of settlement and ask them to provide a written undertaking that they would accept responsibility, this is called a Settlement Certificate. However, there was also an option for the receiving parish to go before the Magistrate and seek an Order to remove the pauper from their parish and send him/her back to their legal parish of settlement. This is a Removal Order. If you examine the Removal Order paperwork in the parish or Quarter Sessions records, you quickly realise that the strenuous efforts of the Parish Overseers to defend their parish ratepayers from additional expense resulted in a very callous "shuttlecocking" of people from place to place. So your family only did two things wrong. They were poor and wished to move elsewhere and improve their prospects - and the receiving parish didn't want anything to do with them. That is a really brief description of a complicated Poor Law system that operated in England from 1601 to 1835. If you intend to delve into this class of records, you really need to read up on the subject first and all the standard genealogy texts will have chapters on the subject. Best wishes Marion Woolgar Bognor Regis, West Sussex