6 Braintree Town Records, 1 Dec. 1623; F. G. Emmison, ed., Early Essex Town Meetings: Braintree, 1619-1636; Finchingfield, 1626-1634 (London, 1970), 23.
7“Old Father Clewes shall receive 3s 4d quarterly for his relief, being aged. … the overseers shall provide for old father Paule in the tyme of his sickness.” Braintree Records, 2 Aug. 1630. The materialist argument, that old age was treated with respect only when supported by wealth, is certainly mistaken.
8 Emmison, Early Essex Town Meetings, xi.
9Ibid.
10“Robert Eliott being grown aged and poor, shall be put into the Almshouse wherein Baldwin is, and he turned out.” Braintree Records, 12 July 1619, ESSRO.