Under legislation of the Old Poor Law, specifically The Act of Settlement and Removal 1662, families and individuals in need of poor relief were required to provide evidence that they had a right of settlement in the parish. People who were found not to have a legitimate right to reside in a particular parish could be removed from the parish and returned to their last place of legal settlement.<\/span><\/p>\n The right to settlement was determined by a number of factors. A newborn child would have their father\u2019s place of settlement, even if they were born elsewhere. Apprentices were deemed to be settled in parish after living there for at least 40 days, as were unmarried me who worked for at least a year in the parish. Women took the settlement of their husband. There were also additional rules relating to property which might provide qualification for legal settlement.<\/span><\/p>\n Settlement examinations and removal orders can provide useful genealogical information, including names of parents, family groups, previous places of residence, occupational details and more. An increasing amount of detail can be found in archive catalogues online or, in some cases, in original documents on subscription genealogy websites, however not all records are available online. The examples which follow are for P*RR*TT families in Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. It is well worth investigating whether archives covering your ancestors\u2019 local area hold any similar documents pertaining to them, and, indeed, the archives of neighbouring areas, as our wandering ancestors were not constrained by county boundaries!<\/span><\/p>\n Somerset removal order (Q\/SR\/332\/4\/5) 19 June 1764<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Order that Gregory Perrett, his wife Sarah, and their daughters Mary and Jane be removed from Otterhampton to Spaxton, this being their last place of legal settlement. JPs: Andrew Crosse, Philip Baker.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The marriage of\u00a0Gregory PERRETT<\/b>\u00a0and Sarah CRIDDLE , both of the parish of Spaxton, is recorded on 5 November 1755 in Fiddington parish register. He is likely a member of the Over Stowey PERRETT family, who favoured the use of Gregory as a forename, perhaps the Gregory PERRETT who was baptised there on 27 December 1731. A Gregory PERRETT was buried at Fiddington on 30 January 1782 and it is probable that this is the same person.<\/span><\/p>\n Somerset removal order (Q\/SR\/342\/2\/48)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n 10 December 1774 Order that Daniel Perrott, his wife Martha, and their children Thomas, 19, Abraham, 17, Richard, 15, Martha, 8, George, 6, and Daniel, 2, be removed from Pawlett to Westonzoyland. JPs: Charles Kemys Tynte, John Coles.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n This seems likely to refer to\u00a0Daniel PERRATT\u00a0<\/b>, who was baptised c. 1729 in Middlezoy, Somerset. I have not found a marriage record for Daniel and Martha , or baptisms for their two oldest sons, however their children Richard , Martha , George and Daniel were all baptised in Pawlett, along with an earlier child named Martha , who presumably died in infancy. The family seem to have moved to Long Ashton after leaving Pawlett, with burials there for Daniel on 5 November 1775 and Martha on 19 November 1775. Daniel , their son, was buried there on 14 February 1776.<\/span><\/p>\n