English Poor Laws

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Although many deterrent workhouses developed in the period after the New Poor Law, some had already been built under the existing system.[1] This workhouse in Nantwich, Cheshire, dates from 1780.

The English Poor Laws

Second World War.[1]

English Poor Law legislation can be traced back as far as 1536,

better source needed
]

The Poor Law system fell into decline at the beginning of the 20th century owing to factors such as the introduction of the Liberal welfare reforms[7] and the availability of other sources of assistance from friendly societies and trade unions,[7] as well as piecemeal reforms which bypassed the Poor Law system.[8] The Poor Law system was not formally abolished until the National Assistance Act 1948,[citation needed] with parts of the law remaining on the books until 1967.[6]

History

Medieval Poor Laws

The Poor Laws in the aftermath of the Black Death (pictured), when labour was in short supply, were concerned with making the able-bodied work.[9](also see: Sturdy beggar)

The earliest medieval Poor Law was the

Statute of Cambridge, passed in 1388,[15] placed restrictions on the movement of labourers and beggars.[10]

Tudor Poor Law

The origins of the English Poor Law system can be traced back to late medieval statutes dealing with beggars and vagrancy, but it was only during the

vagrants and making the able-bodied work, especially while labour was in short supply following the Black Death
.

Tudor attempts to tackle the problem originated during the reign of Henry VII. In 1495, Parliament passed the Vagabonds and Beggars Act ordering 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. Every beggar suitable to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born and there remain upon the pain aforesaid."[17] Although this returned the burden of caring for the jobless to the communities producing more children than they could employ, it offered no immediate remedy to the problem of poverty; it was merely swept from sight, or moved from town to town. Moreover, no distinction was made between vagrants and the jobless; both were simply categorised as "sturdy beggars", to be punished and moved on.[18]

In 1530, during the reign of

Henry VIII, a proclamation was issued, describing idleness as the "mother and root of all vices"[19] and ordering that whipping should replace the stocks as the punishment for vagabonds. This change was confirmed in the Vagabonds Act 1530 the following year, with one important change: it directed the justices of the peace to assign to the impotent poor an area within which they were to beg. Generally, the licences to beg for the impotent poor were limited to the disabled, sick, and elderly.[20] An impotent person begging out of his area was to be imprisoned for two days and nights in the stocks, on bread and water, and then sworn to return to the place in which he was authorised to beg.[21] An able-bodied beggar was to be whipped, and sworn to return to the place where he was born, or last dwelt for the space of three years, and there put himself to labour. Still no provision was made, though, for the healthy man simply unable to find work. All able-bodied unemployed were put into the same category. Those unable to find work had a stark choice: starve or break the law. In 1535, a bill was drawn up calling for the creation of a system of public works to deal with the problem of unemployment, to be funded by a tax on income and capital. A law passed a year later allowed vagabonds to be whipped.[22]

In London, there was a great massing of the poor, and the Reformation threatened to eliminate some of the infrastructure used to provide for the poor. As a result, King Henry VIII consented to re-endow St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1544 and St. Thomas' Hospital in 1552 on the condition that the citizens of London pay for their maintenance.[23] However, the city was unable to raise enough revenue from voluntary contributions, so it instituted the first definite compulsory Poor Rate in 1547, which replaced Sunday collections in church with a mandatory collection for the poor.[24] In 1555, London became increasingly concerned with the number of poor who could work, but yet could not find work, so it established the first House of Correction (predecessor to the workhouse) in the King's Palace at Bridewell where poor could receive shelter and work at cap-making, feather-bed making, and wire drawing.[25]

For the able-bodied poor, life became even tougher during the reign of

Edward VI. The Vagabonds Act 1547 was passed that subjected vagrants to some of the more extreme provisions of the criminal law, namely two years servitude and branding with a "V" as the penalty for the first offence, and death for the second. Justices of the Peace were reluctant to apply the full penalty.[26] In 1552, Edward VI passed the Poor Act 1551 which designated a position of "Collector of Alms" in each parish and created a register of licensed poor. Under the assumption that parish collections would now relieve all poor, begging was completely prohibited.[27]

The government of

Elizabeth I, Edward VI's successor after Mary I, was also inclined to severity. The Vagabonds Act 1572 called for offenders to be burned through the ear for a first offence, and that persistent beggars should be hanged; however, the Act also made the first clear distinction between the "professional beggar" and those unemployed through no fault of their own. Early in her reign, Elizabeth I also passed laws directly aimed at providing relief for the poor. For example, in 1563, her Act for the Relief of the Poor required all parish residents with ability[clarification needed] to contribute to poor collections.[28] Those who "of his or their forward willful mind shall obstinately refuse to give weekly to the relief of the poor according to his or their abilities" could be bound over to justices of the peace and fined £10.[29] Additionally, the 1572 Act further enabled Justices of the Peace to survey and register the impotent poor, determine how much money was required for their relief, and then assess parish residents weekly for the appropriate amount.[30] The Poor Act 1575 required towns to create "a competent stock of wool, hemp, flax, iron and other stuff" for the poor to work on and houses of correction for those who refused to work where recalcitrant or careless workers could be forced to work and punished accordingly.[31]

A new colonial solution

In the early 1580s, with the development of English colonisation schemes, initially in

indentured service.[32] At the same time Richard Hakluyt, in his preface to Divers Voyages, likens English planters to "Bees...led out by their Captaines to swarme abroad"; he recommends "deducting" the poor out of the realm. Hakluyt also broadens the scope and additionally recommends to empty the prisons and send them off to the New World.[33]

By 1619

Transportation Act 1717
.

Old Poor Law

Elizabeth I of England
(pictured).

In 1597, a session of Parliament was called to deal with the issues of increased poverty and vagrancy, among other things. This session culminated in the passage of several Acts referred to as the "Poor Laws of 1598".[36] Among them were the Poor Relief Act 1597 and the Vagabonds Act 1597. These laws were further refined and formalized by the next session of Parliament, primarily in the Poor Relief Act 1601. Together, these Acts of 1598 and 1601 came to be known as "The Elizabethan Poor Laws."[37][38][39]

The more immediate origins of the Elizabethan Poor Law system were deteriorating economic circumstances in sixteenth-century England. Historian George Boyer has stated that England suffered rapid inflation at this time caused by population growth, the debasement of coinage and the inflow of American silver.[2] Poor harvests in the period between 1595 and 1598 caused the numbers in poverty to increase, while charitable giving had decreased after the dissolution of the monasteries and religious guilds.[40]

The

Houses of Correction or even subjected to beatings to mend their attitudes. Provision for the many able-bodied poor in the workhouse was relatively unusual, and most workhouses developed later. The 1601 Law made parents and children responsible for each other, so elderly parents would live with their children.[43]

The

idle poor would be unable to claim on the parishes' poor rate. The system provided social stability yet by 1750 needed to be adapted to cope with population increases,[46]
greater mobility and regional price variations.

The 1601 act sought to deal with 'settled' poor who had found themselves temporarily out of work—it was assumed they would accept

House of Correction was set up in each county. However, this system was separate from the 1601 system which distinguished between the settled poor and 'vagrants'. There was much variation in the application of the law and there was a tendency for the destitute to migrate towards the more generous parishes, usually situated in the towns.[41] This led to the Settlement Act 1662 also known as the Poor Relief Act 1662, which allowed relief only to established residents of a parish; mainly through birth, marriage and apprenticeship. Unfortunately, the laws reduced the mobility of labour and discouraged the pauper from leaving his parish to find work.[47] They also encouraged industry to create short contracts (e.g. 364 days) that did not make an employee eligible for poor relief.[41]

A pauper applicant had to prove a settlement. If he could not, he was removed to the parish nearest to his birthplace, or where he prove some connection; some paupers were moved hundreds of miles. Although the parishes he passed through en route had no responsibility for him, they were supposed to supply food and drink and shelter for at least one night. An act of 1697 required beggars to wear a badge of red or blue cloth on the right shoulder with an embroidered letter "P" and the initial of their parish.[48] However, this practice soon fell into disuse.[49]

The workhouse movement began at the end of the 17th century with the establishment of the

which?] in 1696.[50] The corporation established a workhouse which combined housing and care of the poor with a house of correction for petty offenders. Following the example of Bristol
, some twelve further towns and cities established similar corporations in the next two decades. As these corporations required private acts, they were unsuitable for smaller towns and individual parishes.

Starting with the parish of

Workhouse Test Act through Parliament in 1723.[51] The act gave legislative authority for the establishment of parochial workhouses, by both single parishes and as joint ventures between two or more parishes. More importantly, the act helped to publicise the idea of establishing workhouses to a national audience. By 1776 some 1,912 parish and corporation workhouses had been established in England and Wales, housing almost 100,000 paupers. Perhaps one million people were receiving some kind of parish poor relief by the end of the century.[52] Although many parishes and pamphlet writers expected to earn money from the labour of the poor in workhouses, the vast majority of people obliged to take up residence in workhouses were ill, elderly, or children whose labour proved largely unprofitable. The demands, needs and expectations of the poor also ensured that workhouses came to take on the character of general social policy institutions, combining the functions of creche, and night shelter, geriatric ward and orphanage. In 1782, Thomas Gilbert finally succeeded in passing the Relief of the Poor Act[53] that established poor houses solely for the aged and infirm and introduced a system of outdoor relief for the able-bodied. This was the basis for the development of the Speenhamland system, which made financial provision for low-paid workers. Settlement Laws were altered by the Poor Removal Act 1795 which prevented non-settled persons from being moved on unless they had applied for relief.[2] An investigation of the history and current state of the Poor Laws was made by Michael Nolan
in his 1805 Treatise of the Laws for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor. The work would go on to three subsequent editions in Nolan's lifetime (Nolan was elected an MP for Barnstaple in 1820), and stoked the discussion both within and outside of Parliament.

Advertisement for builders to build a new Workhouse in north Wales, 1829

During the

enclosure movement and a decline in industries such as wool spinning and lace making.[2] Boyer also contends that farmers were able to take advantage of the poor law system to shift some of their labour costs onto the tax payer.[60]

The Royal Commission on the Poor Law

Nassau William Senior argued for greater centralization of the Poor Law system.

The

roundsman" system,[66] where overseers hired out paupers as cheap labour, and the Speenhamland system, which subsidised low wages without relief.[61] The report concluded that the existing Poor Laws undermined the prosperity of the country by interfering with the natural laws of supply and demand, that the existing means of poor relief allowed employers to force down wages, and, that poverty itself was inevitable.[67][68]

The commission proposed the

New Law
be governed by two overarching principles:

  • "
    pauper should have to enter a workhouse with conditions worse than that of the poorest free labourer outside of the workhouse.[69]
  • the "workhouse test", that relief should only be available in the workhouse.[1] The reformed workhouses were to be uninviting, so that anyone capable of coping outside them would choose not to be in one.

When the act was introduced however it had been partly watered down. The workhouse test and the idea of "less eligibility" were never mentioned themselves and the recommendation of the royal commission that

Whigs and the Tories. The bill gained royal assent in 1834. The few who opposed the bill were more concerned about the centralisation which it would bring rather than the underpinning philosophy of utilitarianism.[71]

New Poor Law

The Poor Law Amendment Act

Great Reform Act. Despite being labelled an "amendment act" it completely overhauled the existing system[58] and established a Poor Law Commission to oversee the national operation of the system.[74] This included the forming together of small parishes into poor law unions[75] and the building of workhouses in each union for the giving of poor relief. Although the legislation sought to reduce costs to rate payers, one area not reformed was the system's continued financing via "poor rates"[76]
on property owners.

Although the

Poor Law Commissioners
were to be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the act.

Various reasons prevented the application of some of the act's terms. Less eligibility was in some cases impossible without starving paupers, and the high cost of building workhouses incurred by rate payers meant that outdoor relief continued to be a popular alternative. Despite efforts to ban outdoor relief, parishes continued to offer it as a more cost-effective method of dealing with pauperism. The Outdoor Labour Test Order[78] and Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order[79] were both issued to try to prevent people receiving relief outside of the workhouse.

When the new amendment was applied to the industrial North of

cyclical unemployment') and were reluctant to enter a workhouse, despite its being the only method of gaining aid. Nottingham also was allowed an exemption from the law and continued to provide outdoor relief.[80]

The abuses and shortcomings of the system are documented in the novels of

Frances Trollope and later in The People of the Abyss by Jack London.[81] Despite the aspirations of the reformers, the New Poor Law was unable to make the Workhouse as bad as life outside. The primary problem was that in order to make the diet of the workhouse inmates "less eligible" than what they could expect outside, it would be necessary to starve the inmates beyond an acceptable level.[69]
It was for this reason that other ways were found to deter entrance to the workhouses. These measures ranged from the introduction of prison-style uniforms to the segregation of inmates into separate yards for men, women, boys, and girls.

In 1846, the Andover workhouse scandal,[82] where conditions in the Andover Union workhouse were found to be inhumane and dangerous, prompted a government review and the replacement of the Poor Law Commission with a Poor Law Board. Now, a committee of Parliament was to administer the Poor Law, with a cabinet minister as head. Despite this another scandal occurred over inhumane treatment of paupers in the Huddersfield workhouse.[83]

After the New Poor Law

Poor Law Commissioners
was one reason for an overhaul of Poor Law administration.

After 1847 the

New Poor Law concerning the elderly, the sick and mentally ill and children became more humane.[88] This was in part due to the expense of providing "mixed workhouses"[88] as well as changing attitudes regarding the causes and nature of poverty.[89]

Decline and abolition

David Lloyd George, architect of the Liberal welfare reforms which were implemented outside of the Poor Law system and paved the way for the eventual abolition of the Poor Law.

The Poor Law system began to decline with the availability of other forms of assistance. The growth of

friendly societies provided help for its members without recourse to the Poor Law system. Some trade unions also provided help for their members. The Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act 1885 meant that people who had accessed medical care funded by the poor rate were no longer disqualified from voting in elections. In 1886 the Chamberlain Circular encouraged the Local Government Board to set up work projects when unemployment rates were high rather than use workhouses. The Conservatives passed the Unemployed Workmen Act 1905 which provided for temporary employment for workers in times of unemployment.[90]

In 1905 a

Poor Law Institution".[94] Means tests were developed during the inter-war period, not as part of the Poor Law, but as part of the attempt to offer relief that was not affected by the stigma of pauperism. According to Lees by slowly dismantling the system the Poor Law was "to die by attrition and surgical removals of essential organs".[95]

During the

First World War there is evidence that some workhouses were used as makeshift hospitals for wounded servicemen.[96][97][98] Numbers using the Poor Law system increased during the interwar years and between 1921 and 1938 despite the extension of unemployment insurance to virtually all workers except the self-employed.[99] Many of these workers were provided with outdoor relief. One aspect of the Poor Law that continued to cause resentment was that the burden of poor relief was not shared equally by rich and poor areas but, rather, fell most heavily on those areas in which poverty was at its worst. This was a central issue in the Poplar Rates Rebellion led by George Lansbury and others in 1921.[100] Lansbury had in 1911 written a provocative attack on the workhouse system in a pamphlet entitled "Smash Up the Workhouse!".[101]

able-bodied poor had been absorbed into this scheme. By 1936 only 13% of people were still receiving poor relief in some form of institution.[103]

In 1948 the Poor Law system was finally abolished with the introduction of the modern

National Assistance Act.[1] The National Health Service Act 1946 came into force in 1948 and created the modern day National Health Service.[104]

Opposition

Punch criticized the New Poor Law's workhouses for splitting mothers and their infant children.

Opposition to the Poor Law grew at the beginning of the 19th century. The

Thomas Malthus focused attention on overpopulation, and the growth of illegitimacy.[106] David Ricardo argued that there was an "iron law of wages". The effect of poor relief, in the view of the reformers, was to undermine the position of the "independent labourer".[107]

In the period following the

National Trust. George Nicholls, the overseer at Southwell, was to become a Poor Law Commissioner in the reformed system. The 1817 Report of the Select Committee on the Poor Laws condemned the Poor Law as causing poverty itself.[108]

The introduction of the

old system, the Poor Law Commission granted some boards the right to continue providing relief under the Old Poor Law. However, the movement against the New Poor Law was short-lived, leading many to instead turn towards Chartism.[110]

Scotland and Ireland

The Poor Law systems of

Irish famine and increasingly resorted to outdoor relief.[121] Emigration was sometimes used by landlords as a method of keeping the cost of poor relief down and removing surplus labour.[121] Reforms after the Irish War of Independence resulted in the abolition of Boards of Guardians in the jurisdiction of the Irish Free State and their replacement by County Boards of Health.[122]

Historiography

The historiography of the

New Poor Law.[127]

See also

References

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Further reading

External links