Jacques Bellange - Beggar Looking through His Hat - Walters 372647 (cropped)

In historical English law, a sturdy beggar was a person who was fit and able to work, but begged or wandered for a living instead. The Statute of Cambridge 1388 was an early law which differentiated between sturdy beggars and the infirm (

handicapped Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...

or elderly) poor. The

Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 The Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 (11 Henry VII c.2) was an Act of Parliament passed during the reign of Henry VII. The Act stated that "vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have n ...

listed restrictions and punishments. In the 1530s and into the 1540s many English monasteries were closed, reducing resources available to the poor, and the Vagabonds Act of 1531 empowered justices of the peace to issue licences to those unable to work, making begging by persons able to work a crime. Sometimes men willing to work but unable to find work were lumped into the same category. Types of sturdy beggar included the

Tom o'Bedlam "Tom o' Bedlam" is the title of an anonymous poem in the "mad song" genre, written in the voice of a homeless " Bedlamite". The poem was probably composed at the beginning of the 17th century. In ''How to Read and Why'' Harold Bloom called it "the ...

, who would pretend to be mad and follow people around. People would give him money to go away. The bristler used loaded dice that would land on any number he chose. This way, he could cheat at dice. The Counterfeit Crank would use soap to foam at the mouth, and pretend to have violent fits.

Unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

carried the death penalty on repeat offenses. In 16th-century England, no distinction was made between

vagrants Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, tempora ...

and the jobless; both were simply categorized as "sturdy beggars", who were to be punished and moved on. In 1547, a bill was passed that subjected vagrants to some of the more extreme provisions of the criminal law: two years' servitude and branding with a "V" as the penalty for the first offense and death for the second.R. O. Bucholz, Newton Key, Early modern England, 1485–1714, p176

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Poor Law Origins
Poor Law in Britain and Ireland English legal terminology Illegal occupations {{Law-term-stub

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