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Some frauds, it is said, were committed in consequence of this

statute; parish officers sometimes bribing their own poor to go

clandestinely to another parish, and, by keeping themselves

concealed for forty days, to gain a settlement there, to the

discharge of that to which they properly belonged. It was

enacted, therefore, by the 1st of James II. that the forty days

undisturbed residence of any person necessary to gain a

settlement, should be accounted only from the time of his

delivering notice, in writing, of the place of his abode and the

number of his family, to one of the church-wardens or overseers

of the parish where he came to dwell.