WHAT IS THE POOR LAW?
A series of Parliamentary Acts which defined how a parish should care for its poor who were in need of financial or other assistance because of old age, illness, disability, unemployment, bereavement or other misfortune.
POOR LAW RECORDS FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS
Parish Officers were often very meticulous in their paperwork and so a great amount of information can be contained in Poor Law documents. Settlement documents and removal orders show relationships between members of the same family and between families and places.
As an early version of the Child Support Agency, bastardy documents are of particular interest as they may lead to the name of a father not mentioned on a parish or civil registration certificate.
It is not just paupers who are mentioned in Poor Law records either. Those involved in its administration will also be mentioned and some records contain references to people from all sections of the community.
It may be hit and miss as to whether records will have survived for any particular parish, or whether a particular person will actually appear in those records. Those records that do survive will give an understanding and a fascinating insight into people's everyday lives and their trials and tribulations.
Download
Extract from the diary of Dr. John Johnson referring to the
Workhouse Hospital (18.91KB)
Transcript of the above (Word Document 19KB)
HISTORY OF THE POOR LAW
The Poor Law came into effect in 1601 and was administered by the Overseers of the Poor, or Parish Officers. These usually consisted of an overseer/s and churchwarden/s who were elected annually from the more prosperous householders of the parish.
The Act defined their roles and duties as the collecting of the Poor Law rate, deciding eligibility and the administering of assistance. A prime duty of the Officers was also to protect parish resources from the claims of paupers who did not have legal settlement there.
A 'Place of legal settlement' was the parish a person was entitled to receive assistance from and the Poor Laws were very specific about how a settlement could be gained. (See below for how legal settlement was determined)
The Poor Law system lasted until 1834 when parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, with each Union having an elected Board of Guardians.
Unions were required to set up schools for pauper children to receive a basic education and training for employment. Once children were over the age of seven they could be apprenticed or placed in service with the help of the Poor Law Parish Officers.
Poor law relief could take the form of money, food, clothing, medical assistance, or the provision of shelter and/or work. After 1834, relief could only be claimed if the person went into the workhouse.
HOW LEGAL SETTLEMENT WAS DETERMINED
Parliamentary Acts of 1662 and 1691 defined settlement and how it could be gained. The 1662 Settlement Law allowed for the removal of people claiming relief who did not have legal settlement there. (See 'Removal orders' below)
- A legitimate child took his father's settlement, which may not be same as where the child was born.
- A wife took her husband's settlement
- A widow who remarried took her husband's settlement. Children from her first marriage retained their father's settlement.
- Children from the age of seven and upwards could gain settlement in the parish where they were apprenticed, providing they lived there for more than forty consecutive days.
- Servants who stayed one year from date of hiring, and left with full wages, could claim settlement in the place where they were in service.
- A married man who rented a farm or smallholding, or set up as a tradesman in a new parish, providing he stayed twelve months, paid parish rates and £10 or more in annual rent, could gain a new settlement there.
- A person who inherited an estate of land and lived on the estate for more than forty days could claim a settlement there.
WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM?
Money was raised through the Poor Rate, which was set each Easter at a Vestry meeting and collected by the churchwarden.
Some towns had public bodies, which contributed money gained from rents, and sometimes charities would supplement the funds.
POOR LAW RECORDS
These records were usually kept in the Parish Chest. The main documents where you might find information on ancestors, their lives and their communities are as follows:
- Overseers’ Accounts – Overseers made a note of all money, clothing, fuel, flour, meat, medicine, doctors' bills, funeral costs and other assistance given, and who it was given to.
Download page from the accounts book of J Challoner, overseer. (430.02KB)
Courtesy of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies (ref: DCH/A/463.5)
Some paupers had their rent paid every six months or were a 'weekly pensioner' receiving regular weekly payments. All these were duly noted, often very meticulously, along with any claims for the overseers own travel expenses.
- Churchwardens’ Accounts – Churchwardens countersigned Poor Law documents and were involved in decisions to award, or refuse, relief. However, a churchwarden's accounts were more concerned with parish ratepayers and the welfare, repair and maintenance of the church.
A churchwarden who was diligent in his duties would produce an annual listing of all the parish ratepayers and how much they paid. He would also pay parishioners, usually a penny, for every mole head and dead sparrow bought to him, as these were considered vermin.
A churchwarden's accounts can sometimes be found mixed in the same volume as the overseer's accounts.
- Vestry minutes – The Vestry was initially a decision-making body which took its name from the room where meetings were held. All important decisions affecting the parish, especially those involving the operation of the Poor Law, were made either at an open Vestry meeting which allowed for parish ratepayers to attend, or a closed Vestry meeting with a small number of men, including the Parish Officers.
- Bastardy documents – As illegitimate children could claim a settlement in the parish in which they were born, many parish officers would try to make sure the baby was only born in their parish if the mother had legal settlement there.
The circumstances surrounding an illegitimate birth generated a large amount of paperwork beginning with a Bastardy Examination of the mother-to-be. Until 1720 the midwife did this during birth. In later years some were done after the birth.
Download bastardy document from Holcombe Chapel, 1808 (670.06KB)
courtesy of Manchester Archives and Local Studies (ref: L21/3/21)
As early as possible, every attempt was made to obtain the name of the father so he could be issued with a Bastardy Bond, or a Bastardy Warrant if had absconded, compelling him to pay for the birth and maintenance of the child.
After the birth, a Maintenance Order was prepared and this would state the amount of money the father was to contribute, together with the sex, date of birth of the child and where it was born. This is useful information, as it could have been a relative's house.
An A2A search (http://www.a2a.org.uk) may result in you finding an ancestor's bastardy document.
- Apprenticeship records – A lot of pauper children, many of them orphans or very young, were put out as apprentices. Masters were appointed by Parish Officers, by ballot or as a duty attached to certain properties and basically, the apprentice became a member of the master's family.
Apprenticeship trades could be in such diverse 'industries' as husbandry, housewifery or women's business, which could hide the fact that an apprentice was simply a servant in the house of a labourer or small farmer.
Download indenture agreement for Quarry Bank Mill, Styal (772.29KB)
Image courtesy of Manchester Archives and Local Studies (ref: C5/5/3/25)
Before 1757 two indentures were made out, one at the top and one at the bottom of a single piece of paper. The paper was then cut in half so that when it was put together again, the two half matched, so avoiding forgery. One copy of the indenture was kept in the parish chest, the master keeping the other to present to the apprentice at the end of the apprenticeship.
The indentures would show the names of the master, apprentice and the parish the apprentice belonged to. Other information might include the names of the apprentice's parents, his age, the parish of residence, occupation of master and the trade or calling the apprentice was to learn.
There were also charity and private apprenticeships. No parish officers were involved so there was not the same attention given to record keeping.
Workhouse registers & records – The earliest workhouses were established at the end of the 17th century and were buildings especially built, purchased or rented to house and employ paupers. They often took people in from a wide area covering several parishes so if searching for an ancestor's records, you would need to first find where the workhouse for their parish was. A census search may reveal an ancestor was residing in a workhouse.
Download Image from Crumpsall Workhouse (1473.89KB)
In 1913 all workhouses were officially renamed Poor Law Institutions, although they were commonly still called workhouses.
There are links to websites with more information on workhouses at the end of the page. Some sites list the names of inmates and staff and one you have this you will be able to contact the nearest Record Office to see if they have any documentation.
For examples of Apprenticeship and Indenture records see Greater Manchester County Record Office online exhibition http://www.gmcro.co.uk/exhibitions/apprentices.htm
Settlement examinations – The documents generated by an examination to determine the legal settlement of a person could show varying amount of information. Some were written on printed forms with space for the examinant's age and place of birth.
If relevant, a date and place of marriage, a wife's name and the name and ages of dependant children could be given.
As apprenticeships conferred settlement, there may be information on where a person had been hired as a servant, the dates they began and ended service, the parish in which they had served and the wages paid. Apprenticeship details could include the master's name, trade and parish.
Settlement examinations sometimes took place in court at the Petty Sessions or Quarter Sessions, so it may be fruitful to search these records too.
Settlements certificates – This was certain proof of a person's parish of legal settlement.
Early certificates may only mention a man's name and family, which might include his wife, children and other family members. If he had an apprentice, this name would appear on the certificate.
Parishioners would sometimes have a say in who got a certificate and it was not only paupers who needed a certificate. Craftsmen, tradesmen and labourers moving to another parish needed a settlement certificate.
Removal orders – Any person not having a settlement certificate for a parish where they had become chargeable, could be removed to their own parish. Two Justices of the Peace would sign the duplicate orders and one copy would be given to each of the parties concerned. As the copies would then be in different parishes, this means double the chances of it still being around today.
Late 17th and early 18th century records often gave brief details of how settlement was gained. Later orders didn't give so much detail but were often accompanied by a settlement examination.
From the late 18th century more specific information was given and it was usual to find the names of all dependant children and their ages.
Moving into the 19th century, orders could contain much greater information on individuals and their families, often more than would be found on a census.
WHERE TO FIND POOR LAW RECORDS
Most surviving records have been deposited in Record Offices.
A Search of A2A catalogues may help you track them down. www.a2a.org.uk
Using the 'Location of Archives' or 'English Region' search boxes allows you to find records in particular areas. Combining this with a term such as 'Poor Law' in the 'Keyword' search box, should take you to the relevant records.
Try a surname search first. You may be lucky!
Census records will show the inhabitants of a workhouse.
Insert Pic 17
CAPTION: Extract from the diary of Dr. John Johnson referring to the Workhouse Hospital, Townley (Ref: ZJO/1/47
CREDIT: Image courtesy of Bolton Archives and Local Studies
A wealth of information on the Poor Law and workhouses can be found at:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/
http://institutions.org.uk/poor_law_unions/
10% index to paupers in workhouses in 1861
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Paupers/
Poor Law Unions in Ireland. A list can be found at:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Ireland/unionsIreland.shtml
If searching for a record, remember that a person may not have been living in
the parish in which they had legal settlement, so more than one parish may need
to be searched.
Some Poor Law documents may be listed with other parish records, or may be listed separately as Civil Township records. Pre-1834 records will more likely be found amongst parish records.
If an issue could not be resolved by Parish Officers, there could have been court proceedings, so it may be worthwhile looking through Quarter Sessions records. Use the same search procedures as when looking for Poor Law Records. Using a general search engine such as 'Google' to find 'Quarter Sessions' will give links to further resources.
