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Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	For Punishment of Vagabonds.
Citation	7 Ric. 2. c. 5
Territorial extent	Kingdom of England (until 1623). Ireland (from 1495 to 1872).
Dates
Repealed	10 August 1872
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1872
Relates to	5 Edw. 3. c. 14 (1331)
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The act 7 Ric. 2. c. 5 (1383), sometimes called the Beggars Act 1383, the Vagrancy Act, or the Vagabonds Act 1383, was an act of the Parliament of England made at Westminster in 1383, after the Peasants' Revolt (1381).

The act empowered Justices of Assize, justices of the peace or county sheriffs to bind over vagabonds for good behaviour, or to commit them to the assizes if sureties could not be given.

The effect of this act was modified by a proclamation of 18 February 1493, which is included in the patent roll PR (C66/574/4d), and by the act 11 Hen. 7. c. 2 (1495)

The act was extended to Ireland by Poyning's Law (10 Hen. 7. c. 22 (I)).

The act was repealed as to vagabonds by the act 39 Eliz. 1. c. 4 (1597). The act was repealed as to England by section 11 of the act 21 Jas. 1. c. 28 (1623). The act was virtually repealed by the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. 84). The act was repealed as to Ireland by section 1 of, and the Schedule to, the Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 98).

Tomlins gives the title of this act as "For Punishment of Vagabonds". Ruffhead and Pickering give the title as "Justices, &c. shall examine Vagabonds, and bind them to their good abearing, or commit them to Prison", The Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1872 describes this act as "Justices shall examine Vagabonds" and The Law Reports: Public General Statutes says this is the subject matter. The Chronological Table gives this act the title "Vagabonds".

The act includes references to faitors (feitors), drawlatches and roberdesmen.

See also

• Nightwalker statute
• England in the Middle Ages

References

• Tudor Constitutional Documents, AD 1485-1603, by J.R. Tanner. Cambridge University Press, 1951. p. 469.
• C J Ribton-Turner. A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy, and Beggars and Begging. Chapman and Hall. London. 1887. Pages 58 and 59.
• C G Hall. A Legislative History of Vagrancy in England and Barbados. (Contemporary Caribbean Legal Issues, Issue No 2). University of the West Indies, Faculty of Law. 1997. Pages 4 and 6.
• James Fitzjames Stephen. A History of the Criminal Law of England. Macmillan & Co. London. 1883. Volume 3. Pages 267 and 268.
• James Birch Sharpe. An Inquiry into the Origin of the Office and Title of the Justice of the Peace. Shaw and Sons. London. 1841. Page 25.
• Philip Rawlings. Policing: A short history. Willan Publishing. 2002. Page 46.
• J A Cannon. "Vagrancy Acts". John Cannon and Robert Crowcroft (eds). The Oxford Companion to British History. Second Edition. 2015. Page 920.
• A H Thomas (ed). Calendar of Select Pleas and Memoranda of the City of London. At the University Press. Cambridge. 1932. Page 6.
• Hedges and Winterbottom. The Legal History of Trade Unionism. Longmans, Green & Co. 1930. Page 4. Google Books.

1. John Joseph Bagley. Historical Interpretation I: Sources of English Medieval History, 1066-1540. Penguin Books. 1965. Illustrated Hardback Edition. David & Charles. Newton Abbot. 1972. Page 255. For confirmation that this refers to statute 7 Ric. 2. c. 5, see Joseph Robson Tanner, Tudor Constitutional Documents, Cambridge, at the University Press, 1922, Page 473. See further page 469.
2. Hugh Owen Meredith. Outlines of the Economic History of England. Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. Bath and New York. 1908. Page 94. C Ellis. Economic History of England. Fifth Edition. Pitman. 1949. Page 90.
3. Garry Thomas. A Critical Analysis of the Use of Community Intelligence in Local Neighbourhood Policing in South Wales. University of South Wales. October 2014. pp 8 & 301. PDF.
4. Ruffhead, The Statutes at Large
5. A L Beier  Masterless Men: The Vagrancy Problem in England 1560-1640. Meuthen. 1985. Pages 12 and 13. Google Books.
6. Francis Dodsworth. The Security Society: History, Patriarchy, Protection. Palgrave Macmillan. 2019. Page 46.
7. Paul L Hughes and James F Larkin. Tudor Royal Proclamations. Yale University Press. New Haven and London. 1964. Volume 1. No 30. Page 32 at pages 33 and 34.
8. Catalogue record for the patent roll C66/574: C395278, The National Archives.
9. John Hamilton Baker. The Oxford History of the Laws of England. Oxford University Press. 2003. Volume 6 (1483-1558). Page 97.
10. P. R. Cavill. "The Problem of Labour and the Parliament of 1495". Linda Clark (ed). The Fifteenth Century V: Of Mice and Men. Boydell Press. 2005. Pages 144 and 151.
11. "Irish Statute Law Revision" (1881) 8 Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland 150 (January 1881)
12. Ribton-Turner. A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy, 1887, p 677
13. For a copy of 21 Jas. 1. c. 28, see Thomas Edlyne Tomlins and John Raithby, The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain: from Magna Carta to the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, London, 1811, volume 4, pages 768 to 773, Internet Archive OCLC 15609908
14. Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Bill . . Page 55. Bills, Public: Six Volumes. Session 6 February 1872 to 10 August 1872. 1872. Volume 5.
15. The Law Reports: The Public General Statutes, 1872, vol 7, pp 752 & 770.
16. Thomas Edlyne Tomlins (ed), The Statutes at Large, reprinted 1811, vol 2, p 74.
17. Owen Ruffhead, The Statutes at Large, 1763, vol 1, p 365.
18. Danby Pickering, The Statutes at Large, 1762, vol 2, p 264
19. The Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1872, Schedule
20. Vol 7, p lviii
21. Chronological Table and Index of the Statutes, 13th Ed, 1896, vol 1, p 30
22. Tomlins and Granger, "Faitours", The Law-Dictionary, 4th Ed, 1835, vol 1. Cf Williams.
23. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary, 2nd Ed, 1859, vol 1, p 521. Wharton, The Law Lexicon, 2nd Ed, 1860, p 246.
24. Thomas Wright (ed), "Roberdes knaves", The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, 2nd Ed, 1887, vol 2, p 506. Skeat (ed), The Vision concerning Piers the Ploughman, 1886, vol 2, p 7.

External links

• Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Raithby, John (1810). Nightwalker Statute 1331 [5 Edw. III - A.D. 1331 Chapter XIV]. The Statutes of the Realm: Printed by Command of His Majesty King George the Third; in pursuance of an Address of the House of Commons of Great Britain. Vol. I. London, Great Britain: Dawson of Pall Mall. pp. 268–269. OCLC 426777557. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)

• 1380s in law
• 1383 in England
• Acts of the Parliament of England
• Repealed English legislation
• Poverty in England