The Idle, Immoral and Profligate Poor
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University of Huddersfield Repository Barrett, John Wilson The Idle, Immoral and Profligate Poor: The condition of the poor and the ‘taint of pauperism’ in Huddersfield between 1834 and 1874, with particular reference to the ‘undeserving poor’ Original Citation Barrett, John Wilson (2012) The Idle, Immoral and Profligate Poor: The condition of the poor and the ‘taint of pauperism’ in Huddersfield between 1834 and 1874, with particular reference to the ‘undeserving poor’. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/17529/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ 1 The Idle, Immoral and Profligate Poor: The condition of the poor and the ‘taint of pauperism’ in Huddersfield between 1834 and 1874, with particular reference to the ‘undeserving poor’. John Wilson Barrett. A thesis Submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The University of Huddersfield. September 2012 2 Contents Tables. 3 Abstract. 4 Acknowledgments. 5 Introduction. 6 Chapter One The Operation of the old Poor Law in Huddersfield. 36 Chapter Two 68 The emergence of local control and anti-Poor Law movement. Chapter Three The Poor of the Huddersfield Township. 98 Chapter Four 146 Charity and Local Philanthropy. Chapter Five 192 Public Health Reform and Sanitation. Chapter Six 234 The Impact of Law and Order on the Pauper and Vagrant classes. Conclusion. 263 Appendices – Maps, Board of Guardians for 1855 and 1867 and Images - 274 Bibliography. 284 3 Tables 1.1 Comparative town and parish 50 1.2 Huddersfield town poor rate expenditure (1787-1794) 61 1.3 Huddersfield Town expenditure 61 2.1 Huddersfield Board of Guardians 92 3.1 Irish-born population of England and Wales, 1841-1881 104 3.2 Irish-born population in four English regions with the largest Irish 105 settlement, 1851 3.3 Huddersfield’s Irish-born population compared to other towns, 1851-1861. 106 3.4 The enumerated population of Huddersfield and Batley and the Irish 110 population of both town’s 3.5 Origins of the Irish in the Castlegate and Upperhead Row areas of 113 Huddersfield, 1861. 3.6 Composition of the workhouse population in the Huddersfield Union, 1841- 130 1881 3.7 Insane paupers chargeable to the Huddersfield Union, 1844-1881. 134 4.1 Members of the Huddersfield Infirmary Board 154 4.2 Charitable provision in Huddersfield before 1885 159 4.3 Charities reliant on annual subscription 160 4.4 Charitites endowed and subscribed to 160 5.1 Population increases in Huddersfield 1801-1891 198 6.1 Offences recorded for incidents of Assault, Drunkeness and Vagrancy in the 246 summons and charge register in the month of October between 1863-1874 6.2 Petty sessions – Vagrant defendants before the magistrates in Wakefield 252 4 Abstract The purpose of this research is to examine the use of popular political language and its consequence on the poor, especially the undeserving poor. The study examines how, such ‘anti-pauper language’ affected social outcomes for the poor, and how certain authoritarian groups used language to remove the ‘taint’ of pauperism from the town of Huddersfield between 1834 and 1874. Over the past forty years, the focus of urban history has tended to centre on the cultural processes and localised identities, leaving important questions concerning the context of poverty to be centred on the experiences of major British towns and cities. However, this thesis extends that form of research, by focusing on a town’s response to poverty and how language shaped the response of an emerging industrialised town. The thesis focuses on how Huddersfield managed these responses to poverty and how the town used language to try and halt the spread of pauperism throughout the town. The study concentrates on the various uses of authoritarian language under the old Poor Law and how the same forms of language were reinterpreted after 1834, under the new Poor Law. It suggests that although the context of authority changed, the language remained the same and was used toward the same outcomes. Furthermore, this study witnesses how these various groups and organisations, used their authority to maintain social order and to enforce such behaviour amongst the deserving poor, whilst at the same time undermining the undeserving. This study assesses the uneasy alliance between these groups, whose aim and intention, was divided between helping the deserving poor and improving the image of the town, whilst at the same time, openly opposing and largely ignoring, the undeserving poor. A recurring theme within this study surrounds the negative, often bigoted language, used against the Irish migrants who settled in the town in the late 1840s. By concentrating on the Irish, this study is able to suggest that they were a more ‘degenerate strand of the undeserving poor’ and therefore, they are used as a prime example of the kind of power and influence, language had over the poor. This study illustrates the importance of language in a study on local responses to poverty and how, it is a way of articulating authority and shaping the way the undeserving poor were treated during the nineteenth-century in Huddersfield. 5 Acknowledgments Without the guidance and assistance of the following people, it would have been difficult to complete this thesis. Foremost amongst these are my supervisors, professors Keith Laybourn and Barry Doyle. Their patience and expertise has been invaluable to me in completing this study. I am also grateful for the assistance afforded me by the Kirklees District Archives, particularly Lynn Maclean, whose knowledge of the local archive was both impressive and invaluable. Thanks also to my wife Pauline, who has been a source of unwavering support and common sense. Without her continued encouragement and patience, this work would remain incomplete. Ultimately, this thesis is dedicated to my son Alexander, my wife Pauline and to the memory of my parents Harry and Emily. 6 Introduction The question of poverty is that of death, disease, winter or that of any other natural phenomenon. I don’t how either is to stop.1 One of the major challenges that faced nineteenth-century Britain was how to respond to poverty and its related social problems. The reality for much of the period of this study was that the ‘causes of poverty and the solutions to it’ were little understood and often ignored. Generally, the attitude toward poverty was either thought of as a personal failing or an unforeseen tragedy. For many, the general consensus in the nineteenth century equated poverty with morality. Some saw poverty almost as a crime and those who suffered it were essentially ‘immoral people’ who had brought the problem on themselves through indolence. Such victims were known as the undeserving poor. However, there was recognition that some others suffered poverty through no fault of their own often as a result of ill health, old age, or infirmity. These were known as the deserving poor. This study concentrates for the most part on the West Riding town of Huddersfield and tracks its growth from a market town in the 1820s to a prominent centre for textile production in the 1850s and 1860s. Neither a particularly poor, nor wealthy town, Huddersfield, nevertheless, experienced the economic challenges that emerged from the 1820s onwards.2 Alongside the town’s growth there emerged a number of local-elites; manufacturers, tradesmen and shop-keepers, who used the changing economic and political climate to improve their own status and that of the town. As part of this change, this study 1 G.N. Ray (ed.) Letters and Private Papers of W.M.Thackeray (London,1945), 345. 2 A period described by many historians as the ‘classic period of industrialisation’; see G.B.A.M. Finlayson, England in the Eighteen Thirties: Decade of Reform (London, 1969). 7 will argue, that some of these local elites used the language of a period framed by changes in the economy and politics, to further their interests and the interests of the town. Of chief importance in this study, is a consideration of the ‘anti-pauper language’ that was generated before and immediately after the implementation of the new Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. After 1834, this language was seemingly legitimized from two distinct sources, first, the emerging authorities that were created by the new Poor Law, and second, by the rising number of agitators from the radical ‘anti-Poor Law’ movement. The use of authoritarian language and anti-pauper rhetoric soon became an essential part of the process of removing the town’s taint of pauperism. It is important to establish that this taint of poverty was in effect the ‘tainting’ of Huddersfield’s present and future reputation, and by legitimizing such rhetoric against the undeserving poor, attempts were clearly being made to suppress and eradicate the pauper element in Huddersfield.