Cumberland & North Yarmouth

Legal Settlement
Maine law in 1821 spelled out the conditions of legal settlement for its residents. The system effectively assigned each resident to a municipality, and that municipality became responsible for its residents if they became poor or indigent. Each municipality had its Overseers of the Poor board, and the board was responsible for relieving and supporting all poor and indigent persons lawfully settled in the town. Another provision of the law required the Overseers to provide immediate comfort and relief to all persons, regardless of settlement, who fall into distress. Relief for non-residents usually resulted in the Overseers requesting reimbursement from the municipality where the person needing relief held legal residence.

Paupers
Poor and indigent persons were to be suitably relieved, supported and employed, either in a work house or other town tenement, at the cost of the town. The poor person’s relatives, if any lived in the state, were required to contribute to their support, in proportion to their ability. The Circuit Court of Common Pleas in the county where any relatives resided had the ability to assess and apportion sums for the support of the pauper, for both costs already incurred and those in the future.

Apprentices and Servants
The Overseers were empowered to bind out, or place into apprenticeship, the minor children of parents who became chargeable to the town and who were deemed unable to care for their children. The apprentices were to be "instructed and employed in any lawful art, trade or mystery, or as servants to be employed in any lawful work or labour..." Male children could be bound out until they turned 21; female children until they turned 18 or were married. Deeds of indenture were to provide for the instruction of the children; the males were to be instructed to read, write and perform basic arithmetic, while the females were to be taught to read and write.

Protections
The Overseers of the Poor were required to supervise how the children bound out were treated, and to protect them from injuries. A complaint of abuse, ill treatment or neglect by the Overseers against the master could result in a court decision to liberate or discharge the child. An apprentice or servant discharged due to ill treatment, or whose master died, could be bound out again. A servant who left his or her master before the term of indenture was finished could be returned to the master, and a complaint from a master could result in the Circuit Court of Common Pleas discharging the servant or apprentice from service.

Living idly
The laws provided for the creation of work houses where the idle and indigent could live and work. Residents, or those with no legal settlement, over the age of 21, who "are able of body, but have no visible means of support, who live idly and exercise no ordinary or daily lawful trade or business to get their living by..." could be bound out for up to a year, or "sent unto, employed and governed" in a work house. In many municipalities, the local town farm was established, giving the poor a place to reside, work the land and contribute to their own upkeep.

Laws of the State of Maine, 1821
Chapter CXXII, An Act ascertaining what shall consitute the legal settlement; and providing for the Relief and Support, Employment and Removal of the Poor.
Chapter CXXIV, An Act for erecting Work Houses for the reception and employment of the Idle and Indigent.

Text by Thomas C. Bennett