The Poorhouse: Institutionalization of the Poor
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Scandal, Child Punishment and Policy Making in the Early Years of the New Poor Law Workhouse System
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Lincoln Institutional Repository ‘Great inhumanity’: Scandal, child punishment and policy making in the early years of the New Poor Law workhouse system SAMANTHA A. SHAVE UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN ABSTRACT New Poor Law scandals have usually been examined either to demonstrate the cruelty of the workhouse regime or to illustrate the failings or brutality of union staff. Recent research has used these and similar moments of crisis to explore the relationship between local and central levels of welfare administration (the Boards of Guardians in unions across England and Wales and the Poor Law Commission in Somerset House in London) and how scandals in particular were pivotal in the development of further policies. This article examines both the inter-local and local-centre tensions and policy conseQuences of the Droxford Union and Fareham Union scandal (1836-37) which exposed the severity of workhouse punishments towards three young children. The paper illustrates the complexities of union co-operation and, as a result of the escalation of public knowledge into the cruelties and investigations thereafter, how the vested interests of individuals within a system manifested themselves in particular (in)actions and viewpoints. While the Commission was a reactive and flexible welfare authority, producing new policies and procedures in the aftermath of crises, the policies developed after this particular scandal made union staff, rather than the welfare system as a whole, individually responsible for the maltreatment and neglect of the poor. 1. Introduction Within the New Poor Law Union workhouse, inmates depended on the poor law for their complete subsistence: a roof, a bed, food, work and, for the young, an education. -
Women in the Rural Society of South-West Wales, C.1780-1870
_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Women in the rural society of south-west Wales, c.1780-1870. Thomas, Wilma R How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Thomas, Wilma R (2003) Women in the rural society of south-west Wales, c.1780-1870.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42585 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Women in the Rural Society of south-west Wales, c.1780-1870 Wilma R. Thomas Submitted to the University of Wales in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of History University of Wales Swansea 2003 ProQuest Number: 10805343 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. -
The Poor Law of 1601
Tit) POOR LA.v OF 1601 with 3oms coi3ii3rat,ion of MODSRN Of t3l9 POOR -i. -S. -* CH a i^ 3 B oone. '°l<g BU 2502377 2 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Chapter 1. Introductory. * E. Poor Relief before the Tudor period w 3. The need for re-organisation. * 4. The Great Poor La* of 1601. w 5. Historical Sketch. 1601-1909. " 6. 1909 and after. Note. The small figares occurring in the text refer to notes appended to each chapter. Chapter 1. .Introductory.. In an age of stress and upheaval, institutions and 9 systems which we have come to take for granted are subjected to a searching test, which, though more violent, can scarcely fail to be more valuable than the criticism of more normal times. A reconstruction of our educational system seems inevitable after the present struggle; in fact new schemes have already been set forth by accredited organisations such as the national Union of Teachers and the Workers' Educational Association. V/ith the other subjects in the curriculum of the schools, History will have to stand on its defence. -
Caring for the Poor, Sick and Needy. a Brief History of Poor Relief in Scotland
Caring for the poor, sick and needy. A brief history of poor relief in Scotland Aberdeen City Archives Contents 1. A brief history of poor relief up to 1845 2. A brief history of poor relief after 1845 3. Records of poor relief in Scotland: a. Parochial Board/Parish Council Minute Books b. Records of Applications c. General Registers of the Poor d. Children’s Separate Registers e. Register of Guardians f. Assessment Rolls g. Public Assistance Committee Minutes 4. Records for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire 5. Further Reading 2 1. A brief history of poor relief up until 1845 The first acts of parliament to deal with the relief of the poor were passed in 1424. Most of these and subsequent acts passed in the 15th and 16th centuries. dealt with beggars and little information on individuals survives from this time. After the Reformation, the responsibility for the poor fell to the parish jointly through the heritors, landowners and officials within burghs who were expected to make provision for the poor and were also responsible for the parish school til 1872 and the church and manse til 1925, and the Kirk Sessions (the decision making body of the (or local court) of the parish church, made up of a group of elders, and convened (chaired) by a minister. The heritors often made voluntary contributions to the poor fund in preference of being assessed, and the kirk sessions raised money for the poor from fines, payments for carrying out marriages, baptisms, and funerals, donations, hearse hiring, interest on money lent, rent incomes and church collections. -
Almshouse, Workhouse, Outdoor Relief: Responses to the Poor in Southeastern Massachusetts, 1740-1800” Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 31, No
Jennifer Turner, “Almshouse, Workhouse, Outdoor Relief: Responses to the Poor in Southeastern Massachusetts, 1740-1800” Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 31, No. 2 (Summer 2003). Published by: Institute for Massachusetts Studies and Westfield State University You may use content in this archive for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the Historical Journal of Massachusetts regarding any further use of this work: [email protected] Funding for digitization of issues was provided through a generous grant from MassHumanities. Some digitized versions of the articles have been reformatted from their original, published appearance. When citing, please give the original print source (volume/ number/ date) but add "retrieved from HJM's online archive at http://www.westfield.ma.edu/mhj. Editor, Historical Journal of Massachusetts c/o Westfield State University 577 Western Ave. Westfield MA 01086 Almshouse, Workhouse, Outdoor Relief: Responses to the Poor in Southeastern Massachusetts, 1740-1800 By Jennifer Turner In Duxbury, Massachusetts, local folklore emphasizes that before the current Surplus Street was named, it was called Poverty Lane because it led to the “poor” farm, and before it was Poverty Lane, local residents knew it as Folly Street, over which one’s folly led to the Almshouse.1 Although such local folklore suggests a rather stringent attitude towards giving alms to the poor in colonial society, the issue of poor relief absorbed much of the attention of town officials before and after the American Revolution. Throughout the colonial period and early republic, many Massachusetts towns faced growing numbers of needy men, women and children in need of relief. -
Workhouses of the Early Victorian
THE EARLY VICTORIAN WORKHOUSE Clayton E. Cramer History 422 March 20, 1996 THE EARLY VICTORIAN WORKHOUSE For several generations, American junior high school students have learned of the early Victorian workhouse from Oliver Twist’s plaintive request for a second helping of gruel, “Please, sir, I would like some more.”1 If one trusts Dickens’ description of workhouses in Oliver Twist, these were loveless institutions whose employees starved children, while pocketing their food money. Furthermore, Dickens makes it clear that the severity of the institution was because the local Guardians of the Poor were heartless men who believed: [The workhouse] was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there was nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all the year round….2 How bad were conditions in the workhouses? Does the evidence support Dickens’ portrayal of the workhouse, and the selfish and short-sighted motivations that he ascribes to the Poor Law of 1834? This paper, to avoid deforesting Canada, will confine itself to examining the workhouse system in effect in the ten years immediately following passage of the English Poor Law of 1834. 1 Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, (New York: Penguin Books, 1980), 36. 2 Dickens, 34. THE EARLY VICTORIAN WORKHOUSE 2 From its Elizabethan3 origins, the English Poor Law had sought to prevent “sturdy beggars” (as the able-bodied lazy were known) from taking advantage of the poor relief system. The workhouse4 had been one of the strategies intermittently used to keep down poor relief costs by requiring the needy to give up the privacy and independence of their own home. -
Lec-4 History of Social Welfare Developments in the UK
Topic 3 THE HISTORY OF AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE IN THE UK: The history of social welfare in the UK had gone through various phases Before the Old Poor Law: ✓ During the early 1500s, the English government made little effort to address the needs of the poor. ✓ Rather, the poor were taken care of by Christians who were undertaking the seven-corporal works of mercy. ✓ These were deeds aimed to remove the worries and distress of those in need in accordance with their religious teachings. ▪ feed the hungry ▪ give drink to the thirsty ▪ welcome the stranger ▪ clothe the naked ▪ visit the sick ▪ visit the prisoner ▪ bury the dead ✓ The main formal organizations were the Church and the monasteries (a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, or reserved for monks or nuns). The operation of charity made it possible for some poor people to survive if they left the land and came to the cities. ✓ However, when the Reformation1 happened, many people stopped following this Christian practice and the poor began to suffer greatly. ✓ The poverty and the begging were the ultimate problems followed by the Reformation. In 1531 Henry VI issued license for begging in restricted areas; punishment was given to those who violated the law. ✓ Poverty was one of the major problems Elizabeth faced during her rule. During this period the number of unemployed people grew considerably for a 1 The Reformation was a movement in Western Europe that aimed at reforming the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church The Monasteries had been dissolved by King Henry VIII in the years following 1536, this source of aid was no longer available to the poor. -
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 -
'Army of One': Mrs Nassau Senior, 1828-1877, the First Woman in Whitehall
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln The George Eliot Review English, Department of 2008 Review of Jeanie, an 'Army of One': Mrs Nassau Senior, 1828-1877, the First Woman in Whitehall Sybil Oldfield Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ger Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Oldfield, Sybil, "Review of Jeanie, an 'Army of One': Mrs Nassau Senior, 1828-1877, the First Woman in Whitehall" (2008). The George Eliot Review. 541. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ger/541 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in The George Eliot Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Sybil Oldfield,]eanie, an 'Army ojOne': Mrs Nassau Senior, 1828-1877, the First Woman in Whitehall (Sussex Academic Press, 2007), pp. 360. ISBN 978 1 84519 253 2 (hardback); 978 1 84519 254 9 (paperback) Sybil Oldfield is well-known for her work on humanitarian women, creative philanthropists and pacifists, and her new book is an important contribution to Victorian studies, a life-story told with admiration, sympathy and style, as cramful of character and emotion as a novel, and of great interest to George Eliot scholars. The neglect of Jeanie Senior, called Jeanie, pronounced Janie - her enthusiastic biographer puts 'sic' after deviations, eccentrically rather than pedantically since Jeanie was christened Jane Elizabeth and named Jane on her tomb and even in this book's index - is at first sight puzzling, because her ideals and zeal as radical reformer were comparable to those of Octavia Hill and Florence Nightingale, who knew and admired her. -
Material Lives of the Poor and Their Strategic Use of the Workhouse During the final Decades of the English Old Poor Law
Continuity and Change 30 (1), 2015, 71–103.©Cambridge University Press 2015. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/S0268416015000090 Material lives of the poor and their strategic use of the workhouse during the final decades of the English old poor law JOSEPH HARLEY* ABSTRACT. This article is the first to use a combination of three different types of inven- tories from Dorset to examine the material lives of paupers inside and outside Beaminster workhouse. It argues that life was materially better for paupers on outdoor relief, compared with workhouse inmates and with paupers in the moments before they entered the workhouse. The article also examines how the poor used admission into the workhouse as part of their economy of makeshifts. The evidence demonstrates that the able-bodied poor used the workhouse as a short-term survival strategy, whereas more vulnerable inmates struggled to use this tactic. This article therefore furthers our understanding of the nature of poor relief and adds further weight to re- cent historical work that has emphasised pauper agency. 1. INTRODUCTION By the 1830s public opinion had turned against the way in which workhouses were managed.1 On one side, people viewed workhouses as the location of misery and injustice due to overcrowding, poor management and their prison- like character; others conversely viewed workhouses as institutions which made the poor idle and immoral, owing to the lack of discipline and the rela- tive material abundance found within the workhouse.2 A Royal Commission was set up in 1832 to investigate the state of the poor laws. -
"Freedom": the New Poor Law and Emancipation
The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 36 Issue 2 June Article 6 2009 Building Their Readiness For Economic "Freedom": The New Poor Law and Emancipation Anne O'Connell York University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw Part of the Inequality and Stratification Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, and the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation O'Connell, Anne (2009) "Building Their Readiness For Economic "Freedom": The New Poor Law and Emancipation," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 36 : Iss. 2 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol36/iss2/6 This Article is brought to you by the Western Michigan University School of Social Work. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Building Their Readiness For Economic "Freedom": The New Poor Law and Emancipation ANNE O'CONNELL York University School of Social Work Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies Contemporary studies that track the new racialization of poverty in Canada require an historical account. The history we invoke in North America is often borrowed from the British poor laws, a literature that is severed from its counterpart: the histories of racial slavery, racial thinking, White bourgeois power and the making of White settler societies. The effects of severing the his- tory of poor relief from racial classifications and racism(s) are far reaching. Systems of oppression come to be seen as separate structures in which the New Poor Law appears as a domestic policy in Britain unrelated to racial thinking and racial slavery. This paper argues that attempts at managing and civilizing the poor in Britain and Upper Canada were racial projects suited to colonial ambitions and enterprises. -
How Middlesex County Was Settled with Farmers, Artisans, and Capitalists
Western University Scholarship@Western History eBook Collection eBook Collections 2010 How Middlesex County was Settled with Farmers, Artisans, and Capitalists: An Account of the Canada Land Company in Promoting Emigration from the British Isles in the 1830s through the 1850s Marvin L. Simner [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/historybooks Part of the Canadian History Commons Recommended Citation Simner, Marvin L., "How Middlesex County was Settled with Farmers, Artisans, and Capitalists: An Account of the Canada Land Company in Promoting Emigration from the British Isles in the 1830s through the 1850s" (2010). History eBook Collection. 3. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/historybooks/3 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the eBook Collections at Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in History eBook Collection by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Cover: The wording on the cover, as well as the layout, is typical of that which appeared on books published in the early to mid-1800s. The purpose of the cover was to promote sales by emphasizing the most important features of the book as well as the book’s intended audience. How Middlesex County was Settled with Farmers, Artisans, and Capitalists: An Account of the Canada Land Company in Promoting Emigration from the British Isles in the 1830s through the 1850s ISBN 978-0-9812214-2-7 Copyright © Marvin L. Simner, 2010 All rights reserved. [email protected] Published by the London and Middlesex Heritage Museum 2609 Fanshawe Park Road East London, Ontario N5X 4A1 How Middlesex County was Settled with Farmers, Artisans, and Capitalists: An Account of the Canada Land Company in Promoting Emigration from the British Isles in the 1830s through the 1850s Marvin L.