Vagrant

During the Tudor period there were as many as 10,000 homeless people wandering from town to town looking for work. Some resorted to crime despite the harsh punishments that could include being hanged for stealing a loaf of bread. In 1494, the Vagabonds and Beggars Act stated that: "Vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town." Another law in 1547 stated that a sturdy beggar could be branded with a 'V' for vagrant or made a slave for two years (or for life if he absconded). http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/poorlaws/poorlaws.html

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