eally settled in the
parish where their parents are settled, until they get a new
settlement for themselves[q]. A new settlement may be acquired several
ways; as, 3. By marriage. For a woman, marrying a man that is settled
in another parish, changes her own: the law not permitting the
separation of husband and wife[r]. But if the man be a foreigner, and
has no settlement, her's is suspended during his life, if he be able
to maintain her; but after his death she may return again to her old
settlement[s]. The other methods of acquiring settlements in any
parish are all reducible to this one, of forty days residence therein:
but this forty days residence (which is construed to be lodging or
lying there) must not be by fraud, or stealth, or in any clandestine
manner; but accompanied with one or other of the following concomitant
circumstances. The next method therefore of gaining a settlement, is,
4. By forty days residence, and notice. For if a stranger comes into a
parish, and delivers notice in writing of his place of abode, and
number of his family, to one of the overseers (which must be read in
the church and registered) and resides there unmolested for forty days
after such notice, he is legally settled thereby[t]. For the law
presumes that such a one at the time of notice is not likely to
become chargeable, else he would not venture to give it; or that, in
such case, the parish would take care to remove him. But there are
also other circumstances equivalent to such notice: therefore, 5.
Renting for a year a tenement of the yearly value of ten pounds, and
residing forty days in the parish, gains a settlement without
notice[u]; upon the principle of having substance enough to gain
credit for such a house. 6. Being charged to and paying the public
taxes and levies of the parish; and, 7. Executing any public parochial
office for a whole year in the parish, as churchwarden, &c; are both
of them equivalent to notice, and gain a settlement[w], when coupled
with a residence of forty days. 8. Being hired for a year, when
unmarried, and serving a year in the same service; and 9. Being bound
an apprentice for seven years; give the servant and apprentice a
settlement, without notice[x], in that place wherein they serve the
last forty days. This is meant to encourage application to trades, and
going out to reputable services. 10. Lastly, the having an estate of
one's own, and residing thereon forty days, however small the value
m