Relief of the Poor Act 1696
Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
---|---|
Royal assent | 16 April 1697 |
Other legislation | |
Amended by | Poor Act 1697 |
Repealed by | Poor Law Act 1927 |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
---|---|
Royal assent | 2 April 1698 |
Repealed | 15 July 1867 |
Other legislation | |
Amends | Relief of the Poor Act 1696 |
Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1867 |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The Relief of the Poor Act 1696 (
Badging the poor
This Act required that all welfare recipients, including the wife and children of the head of a household receiving welfare, wear badges prominently on their right shoulders. These badges would contain the first letter of their parish name, followed by the letter "P".
This badging practice was distinct from the earlier practice of issuing
An earlier statute, the
The badge continued to be thought of as a means of checking what is now called a
Joseph Townsend, on the other hand, harshly criticized the badging practice as applying a badge of shame on the poor in exchange for relief. He further noted that many overseers disregarded the badge requirement, risking the fine. Townsend also argued that the badge had no real effect on those who it was truly seeking to dissuade from seeking out relief, for they would have no qualms about wearing the badge, while the more modest poor "would sooner die than wear it".[13]
Year's service rule
Part of the system involved the determination of what parish to which a recipient belonged, and was thereby responsible to provide relief to that recipient. Under the earlier Poor Relief Act 1662 a parish could banish those poor unable to rent lodgings of at least £10 per year within forty days of their arrival in the parish. Those banished this way would be sent back to their parish of birth, or where they had resided in the prior three years.[14]
The Relief of the Poor Act 1696 provided that a worker remaining "in the same service" for one year was given the right to settle in the parish, and thereafter would not be subject to expulsion when beginning to draw relief.
Another aspect of this rule is how "same service" is determined. It was possible for the circumstances, such as the contract of hiring, the master, or even the location to change to some degree without resetting the one year requirement. For example, in R v Overton, a servant was engaged from March until Michaelmas, and then hired for a full year. Said servant left in April—less than one year into the contract, but more than one year since he was first engaged. The court held that the two periods of service could be connected, and the servant was entitled settlement rights under the Poor Law.[17]
See also
Notes
- ^ Robson 2013, p. 483.
- ^ Higginbotham 2012, p. 46.
- ^ Earle 1896, pp. seq=125 89–90.
- ^ Earle 1910, pp. seq=168 118–122.
- ^ Cloe 1939, p. 157.
- ^ Paterson 1877, pp. seq=50 28–29.
- ^ a b c Paterson 1877, p. 21.
- ^ Bicheno 1817, p. 38.
- ^ Cook & Stevenson 2001, p. 165.
- ^ Ruggles 1793, pp. seq=186 162–163.
- ^ Nicoll 1818, pp. seq=99 97–98.
- ^ Jerram 1818, p. 100.
- ^ Townsend 1817, p. 78.
- ^ Paterson 1877, p. 18.
- ^ Linder 1989, p. 325.
- ^ Nolan 1805, pp. seq=264 214–215.
- ^ Nolan 1805, pp. seq=315 265–267.
References
- Cloe, Lyman H. (April 1939). "Unemployment Compensation Background: Some Extra-Legal Considerations". University of Kansas City Law Review. 7 (3): 147–172. Retrieved 22 February 2016 – via HeinOnline.
- Cook, Chris; Stevenson, John (2001). The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714–2001 (4th ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-582-42394-7.
- Higginbotham, Peter (2012). "Badging the Poor". The Workhouse Encyclopedia. Stroud, England: History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-7719-0.
- Linder, Marc (1989). "The Joint Employment Doctrine: Clarifying Joint Legislative-Judicial Confusion". Hamline Journal of Law and Public Policy. 10 (2): 321–345. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via HeinOnline.
- Nicoll, S. W. (1818). A Summary View of the Report and Evidence relative to the Poor Laws Published by Order of the House of Commons, with Observations and Suggestions. York: W. Alexander.
- Paterson, James (1877). "Protection of the Body against Want and Destitution". Commentaries on the Liberty of the Subject and the Laws of England relating to the Security of the Person. Vol. 2. London: Macmillan & Co.
- Robson, Ruthann (2013). "Beyond Sumptuary: Constitutionalism, Clothes, and Bodies in Anglo-American Law, 1215–1789". British Journal of American Legal Studies. 2 (2): 477–509. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via HeinOnline.
- Ruggles, Thomas (1793). The History of the Poor; their Rights, Duties, and the Laws Respecting them: In a Series of Letters. Vol. 1. London: J. Deighton.
Further reading
Statutes
- "An Act for supplying some Defects in the Laws for the Relief of the Poor of this Kingdome". hdl:2027/pst.000017915540 – via HathiTrust.
- "An Act for explaining an Act made the last Session of Parliam'. entituled An Act for supplying some Defects in the Laws for the Relief of the Poor of this Kingdome". Statutes of the Realm. Vol. 7. London: Dawsons of Pall Mall. 1820. pp. 364–365. hdl:2027/pst.000017915540 – via HathiTrust.
Texts and treatises
- hdl:2027/mdp.39015077843350 – via HathiTrust.
- hdl:2027/mdp.49015000192410 – via HathiTrust.