At a meeting of the inhabitants of Wigton on 9 December 1819 it was resolved unanimously to nominate and elect ‘some discreet person’ to be assistant overseer to the poor of Wigton pursuant to an Act passed in the 59 year of the reign on George III. It was also resolved unanimously that shopkeeper Joseph Lancaster of Wigton was just such ‘a discreet and proper’ person and he was duly nominated and elected.

It was agreed that his duties were to be ‘the same in all respects as those which the Rotation Overseers have heretofore been required to execute and perform’. A yearly salary was fixed at £8.

The details of Lancaster’s appointment were entered into the vestry book and signed by the chairman John Dodd.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, PR/36/119, Wigton, Vestry Minute Book, 1735 – 1885