vised action of
individuals fanned this into a flame of indignation under which the
pauperised element in the villages was encouraged to look upon the
great central Workhouse arising on the borders of Royston Heath as a
sort of bastille, where for the misfortune of being poor they were to
be shut away from their kith and kin, and no longer to have any claim
upon the Overseer for that convenient subsidy of "making up" whenever
they did not think well to work. So strong did the feeling become that
there were disturbances in several parishes, especially in the two
Mordens, where the opprobrious Relieving Officer met with anything but
a friendly reception on his first visits, and certain individuals from
that parish, on applying for relief, found that the supply was cut off
until it was safe for the Relieving Officer to enter their parish!

About the same time a dreadful fire occurred at Bassingbourn which was
so closely associated in the popular mind with the prevailing
discontent that the services of a "Bow Street Runner" to scour the
district in search of the incendiary were paid for out of the rates.
Efforts were made to reconcile the inhabitants in the villages to the
new order of things, and for a very sensible letter or address to the
inhabitants which was written (and printed and circulated) by the late
Mr. Henry Thurnall, the writer was specially commended by the Poor-law
Commissioners.

{171}

Another active and sagacious worker in the cause of popularising the
reform was Mr. John George Fordham (the vice-chairman of the Board),
who did not hesitate to pay repeated visits to all parts of the
district during the riots already described, and endeavoured by every
reasonable means to quell the popular irritation which had existed for
some time before the formation of the Union in anticipation of the new
Poor-law. For similar services to these, Mr. Fordham had already
received the thanks of Lord Verulam, Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire,
and was placed on the Commission of the Peace as a magistrate for
Hertfordshire, the first Nonconformist to be made a county magistrate
for Herts. By the time the new Central Workhouse at Royston was built,
the worst forms of popular discontent would have subsided but for the
action of one or two individuals of note upon whom it is fitting that a
few words should here be bestowed.

The principal agents were two clergymen in the district--the Rev.
Thomas Clack, curate of Guilden