Poor.- [Charles I.] Orders and Directions, Together with a Commission for the better Administration of Justice...the reliefe of the Poore, the well ordering and training up of youth in Trades..., first edition, variant with "Commaund" in line 1 of D3r, preliminary leaf blank but for signature 'A' within mortised ornament, large woodcut coat-of-arms to verso of title, woodcut initials and ornaments, with final colophon leaf, A1 a little stained and with hole to fore-edge, modern half brown morocco, by the National Library of Wales bindery, t.e.g., [Goldsmiths' 613; STC 9252.2], small 4to, Robert Barker and the Assignes of John Bill, 1630.

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⁂ A good wide-margined copy of this basis of Poor Law administration, one of three variants issued in the same year. ESTC cites only 4 UK copies of this variant (not in the British Library) and 3 more in America.

A special body of 'Commissioners for the Poor' was set up in June 1630, consisting of ten of the Council. These were the first recorded Poor Law Commissioners and they appear to have been of exceptional activity and importance. This "Book of Orders" was the medium for the promulgation of elaborate rules and procedures for the regulation of the Poor.