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Government and Social Conditions in Scotland 1845-1919 Edited by Ian Levitt, Ph.D -£e/. 54 Scs. S«S,/io SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY FIFTH SERIES VOLUME 1 Government and Social Conditions in Scotland Government and Social Conditions in Scotland 1845-1919 edited by Ian Levitt, ph.d ★ EDINBURGH printed for the Scottish History Society by BLACKWOOD, PILLANS & WILSON 1988 Scottish History Society ISBN 0 906245 09 5 Printed in Great Britain ^ e ia O' >40 PREFACE A work of this kind, drawing on material from a wide variety of sources, could not have been possible without the active help and encouragment of many people. To name any individual is perhaps rather invidious, but I would like to draw special attention to the assistance given by the archivists, librarians and administrative officers of those authorities whose records I consulted. I would hope that this volume would in turn assist a wider understanding of what their archives and libraries can provide: they offer much for the history of Scotland. I must, however, record my special thanks to Dr John Strawhorn, who kindly searched out and obtained Dr Littlejohn’s report on Ayr (1892). I am greatly indebted to the following for their kind permission to use material from their archives and records: The Keeper of Records, the Scottish Record Office The Trustees of the National Library of Scotland The Archivist, Strathclyde Regional Council The Archivist, Ayr District Archives The Archivist, Edinburgh District Council The Archivist, Central Regional Council The Archivist, Tayside Regional Council Midlothian District Council Fife Regional Council Kirkcaldy District Council Kilmarnock and Loudoun District Council Dunfermline District Council The Librarian, Edinburgh District Library The Librarian, Glasgow District Library The Librarian, Inverclyde District Library The Librarian, Hamilton District Library The Librarian, Kyle and Carrick District Library The Librarian, Renfrew District Library The Librarian, Strathkelvin District Library The Librarian, West Lothian District Library CONTENTS Preface iii Abbreviations and Sources ix Introduction xi GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1845-1919 The Nature of Government 1 Poverty, Pauperism and Poorhouses 32 Children and their Care 78 Hospitals and Infectious Diseases 112 Housing and Sanitation 166 Vagrants and the Casual Poor 234 APPENDICES I. The Board of Supervision 256 II. The Local Government Board 256 III. Board Officers 257 IV. Salaries 259 V. Special Reports by the Outdoor Officers 259 VI. Biographical Notes 260 index 269 vi GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1845-1919 The Secretary, Irvine Burns Club Her Grace The Duchess of Buccleuch I should like to thank Dr T.I. Rae, the Society’s Hon. Publications Secretary, for his assistance in preparing the text for publication. Without his advice, patience and good humour the volume would have been considerably delayed. Special thanks must also be given to Plymouth Polytechnic who granted me a fellowship term in order that the work might begin, and provided facilties for the preparation of the text. At the same time, I must also record my thanks to the Department of Sociology, Edinburgh University, who kindly provided me with accommo- dation during my term in Scotland. IAN LEVITT Plymouth May, 1988 A generous contribution from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland towards the cost of producing this volume is gratefully acknowledged by the Council of the Society ABBREVIATIONS AND SOURCES Abbreviations Ayr District Archives Edinburgh District Archives National Library of Scotland ScottishStrathclyde Record Regional Office Archives AD DD DevelopmentAdvocate’s Department Department Papers Papers GD Gifts and Deposits HH Home and Health Department Papers BS MB Board of Supervision Minute Book BS PHMB Board of Supervision Public Health Minute Book BS PHMB(CH) Board of Supervision Public Health Minute Book, Chairman’s CPHM Combination Poorhouse Minutes PBM Parochial Board Minutes PBM(LA) Parochial Board Minutes (Local Authority) PBM(LW) Parochial Board Minutes (Landward) PBM(PH) Parochial Board Minutes (Poorhouse) PCM Parish Council Minutes PCMB Police Commissioners Minute Book PP Parliamentary Papers TCM Town Council Minutes TCM(LA) Town Council Minutes (Local Authority) TCM(PC) Town Council Minutes (Police Commissioners) TCM(PH) Town Council Minutes (Public Health) Sources for Biographical Notes Arbroath Herald British Medical Journal Burke’s Landed Gentry Burke's Peerage Dundee Courier and Advertiser EdinburghCounty and Medical Municipal Journal Record Glasgow Herald National Dictionary of Biography Poor Law Magazine ScotsmanScots Pictorial West Lothian Courier TheWho’s Medical Who Directory The Sanitary Journal of Scotland GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1845-1919 Lothian Papers McNeill Papers Rosebery Papers Dewar, T.F., With the Scottish Yeomanry. (Arbroath, 1901) Dewar, T.F., On the Sanitation of Armies. in the Field. (Arbroath, Dewar, T.F., Medical1905) Vignettes. (Glasgow, 1928) Eddington, A., Contemporary Biographies. (Edinburgh, 1904) Gaskell, E., Leaders of the Lothians. (London, 1912) Grant, F.J. (ed.), The Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, 1532-1943. (Edinburgh, 1944) Groome, F.H., Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. (Edinburgh, 1882) Knight, W„ Some 19th Century Scotsmen. (Edinburgh, 1906) Lawson, J.P., History of Scottish Episcopalian Church. (Edinburgh, 1843) Loder, J.D.V., Colonsay and Oronsay. (Edinburgh, 1935) MacAlister, F.S., Memoir of Sir John McNeill. (London, 1910) Russell, J.B., Public Health Administration in Glasgow. (Glasgow, Scottish Biographies. (Glasgow,1905) 1938) Skelton, J., Benjamin Disraeli, The Past and the Future. (Edinburgh, 1868) Skelton, J., Mary Stuart. (Paris, 1893) Skelton, J., Table Talk. (Edinburgh, 1895) INTRODUCTION when the board of supervision for the Relief of the Poor was created in 1845 it represented an important departure in the ordinary administration of Scotland. Never before had Scotland seen central control of its welfare system, nor, since the Jacobite Rebellion, had the British government allowed a principal public department north of the Border. Although the Board, apart from its chairman. Sir John McNeill, was part-time, it heralded the beginning of modern Scottish Government/from 1845 onwards there was always a Scottish institution able, and indeed with a statutory responsibility, to monitor the condition of the poor and ensure their needs were meU'This responsibility was added to by the 1867 Public Health Act; the Board also supervised ‘nuisance’ removal, the regulation of common lodging houses and the control of epidemic disease. It was a wide remit which meant that after 1867 the Board had a duty to monitor sanitary conditions and ensure some modicum of public healths The Board was never a political creature. In fact, constitu- tionally it had been created a sub-department of the Home Office, a sub-department status that remained when the newly estab- lished Scottish Office assumed the Home Office’s powers in 1885. Before 1885 there is little evidence that the Home Office, or Parliament for that matter, took much interest in its work. For its first twenty-five years, the Board was mentioned just four times in the Commons and on two of these, the m.p. concerned seemed confused as to what it did. This lack of Government and Parliamentary interest meant the Board was left much to itself. Although the Board invariably looked to see what the English Local Government Board was suggesting before it issued any new public health circular, Scottish health and welfare admin- istration remained remarkably free from the hum-drum of British politics.1 1 Evidence of Walker, to Royal Commission on Housing. C.4409-1. (P.P. Vol. XXXI 1884-5) xii GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1845-1919 In an age of a burgeoning democracy, especially after the 1885 Franchise Act, such a scheme of administration was bound not to last. Some Liberal criticism about its unelected constitution in the 1870s resurfaced in the early 1880’s, but it was not until the Earl of Wemyss objected to the tone of one of its Public Health circulars in 1891 (‘Your lordships may wish to know what the Board of Supervision means. It means bureaucracy and it lives at 127 George St’), that any real Parliamentary disquiet over what it did, or how it implemented policy emerged.2 The Board reconstituted as a Local Government Board in 1894, with three full-time members, a chairman, an advocate and a doctor with a public health qualification, and under the Presidency of the Scottish Secretary represented the political response. After that the new Board became an administrative department of the Scottish Office, with all important policy decisions referred to the Scottish Secretary/The Government’s attitude towards contemporary social conditions had therefore become political, and gradually over the next twenty years the Board’s role in combatting poverty, the inadequacies of public health and the chronic housing situation began to dominate Scottish Parliamentary discussion/At the same time a succession of Acts, dealing with public health, the medical inspection of schoolchildren, the notification of infant births, child life protection, and national insurance for unemployment and sickness, were passed#- Similarly four important Royal Commis- sions, into the physical training of schoolchildren, the treatment of mental illness, the Poor Laws, and housing, were established^- In the wake of all this activity a new formulation of the Government’s responsibility towards welfare emerged, one which eventually led to the Board’s abolition and its replacement with a larger, and constitutionally a more interventionist. Board of Health. Although much has been written about conditions in 19th century Scotland, and indeed about the general development of 2 Hansard 356 (Third Series) p.1238, 4.8.91. The Earl of Camperdown in the same debate complained of its ‘epistolary style’. See also ibid. 230 pp.504-35, 27.5.76; ibid. 283 p.609, 15.3.83. INTRODUCTION Xlll welfare policy, to date there has been surprisingly little detailed analysis or comment on the role of the Boards, or of its members, or of its staff.3 The extracts in this volume are therefore an attempt to redress that imbalance and put what others have said in a different context.
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