Metropolitan Hospitals 1850-1898

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Metropolitan Hospitals 1850-1898 Finance, Philanthropy and the Hospital: Metropolitan Hospitals 1850-1898 KEIR WADDINGTON University College London Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D July 1995 ProQuest Number: 10055443 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 complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10055443 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Hospitals throughout the nineteenth century remained the one of the main channels for the Victorians’ voluntary zeal, but from the 1850s onwards tensions emerged as charity became ill-suited to meeting all the hospitals’ financial needs. An historiographical survey shows that metropolitan hospitals have been seen as an institution funded and administered through philanthropy, but these views are insufficient. By looking at seven hospitals in London between 1850 and 1898 a different view is suggested. Hospital governors were adept at manipulating philanthropic interests through their innovative fundraising tactics, playing on a wide range of motivations for benevolent action. Administrators used feelings from guilt to gratitude to promote support, suggesting that philanthropy and contributions cannot be constrained by any simple approach. Using the hospitals’ financial records, charitable contributions are placed in the overall context of funding in an institution that drew its income from a wide variety of sources. Over time these sources of funding changed their relative relation to one another in a process of financial diversification. Expenditure, expansion, the financial demands of different hospitals, local charitable resources, competition for funds, and popular perceptions of individual institutions all created pressures on finances that made diversification desirable. Financial diversification, however, took place in a context where the hospitals’ voluntary ethic was not affected. Hospitals experienced administrative expansions as they adopted more medical functions, but management remained on voluntary lines and administrators continued to be drawn from London’s wealthy business and social elite. Within this changing managerial structure doctors competed for authority and asserted their influence through a series of internal conflicts which often stressed the importance of medical science. A comparative investigation of the Whitechapel Union shows that a similar process of change occurred. Financial and administrative diversification was therefore more the consequence of institutional healthcare rather than a development limited to the voluntary hospitals. Contents List of Illustrations 4 List of Tables 6 Acknowledgements 8 Notes on Abbreviations 9 1. Introduction: To Prove a Need 10 Part I: Philanthropy and Funding 2. The Philanthropic Imperative 38 3. Paying for the Sick Poor 86 4. Diversification- an Explanation 138 Part II: Philanthropy and Control 5. Charity and Control: Lay Administration of the Hospital 176 6. Striving for Influence: Lay v. Medical Control 217 Part III: An Institutional Comparison 7. The Whitechapel Union 255 Part IV: 1897 and Beyond 8. State Aid Versus Voluntarism 308 9. Conclusion: 1897 and Beyond 334 Appendix: Financial Sources and Methodology 342 Bibliography 346 Illustrations Plates 1 Charity Sermon {Punch, 1868) Page 72 2 Charity Bazaar {Comhill Magazine, 1861) 74 3 Sunday Fund’s 1873 Collection {Punch, 1873) 95 4 Structure of Income Contributing to Assigned Revenue 267 5 Prince of Wales Hospital Fund Appeal Poster (1898) 320 6 Prince of Wales Hospital Fund Hospital Stamp (1897) 324 Figures 2.1 St.Bartholomew’s Hospital: Legacies Received 1850-1898 63 3.1 Sunday Fund’s Total Collections (1873-1895) 96 3.2 Sunday Fund Grants to University College London, Royal Chest Hospital and Guy’s (1873-1895) 97 3.3 Saturday Fund: Amount Distributed 101 3.4 University College London: Contributions from Funds 107 3.5 St.Bartholomew’s: Rental Income (1850-1898) 110 4.1 University College London: Income Against Expenditure 140 4.2 Royal Chest Hospital: Expenditure (1850-1898) 143 4.3 London Hospital: Expenditure (1850-1898) 143 4.4 Patient Admissions (1850-1895) 147 4.5 Royal Chest Hospital: Income Against Expenditure 150 4.6 German Hospital: Income Against Expenditure 151 4.7 Guy’s Hospital: Income Against Expenditure 166 5.1 St.Bartholomew’s: Patient Admissions 1870, 1898 207 5.2 Guy’s: Patient Admissions 1855, 1875, 1898 208 5.3 German Hospital: Patient Admissions 1855, 1875, 1893 212 5.4 London: Register of Operations (1852-1862) 214 7.1 Receipts-in-Aid: National Awards (1850-1897) Page 262 7.2 Whitechapel Union: Income (main) 1890-1895 265 7.3 Whitechapel Union: Income (other) 1890-1895 270 7.4 Whitechapel Union: Patient Admissions 1851, 1871, 1891 277 Maps 1 Distribution of Hospitals in London (1883) 160 2 Poverty in Whitechapel 280 Tables 1.1 Increase in London Hospital Treatment Page 25 3.1 Income from Direct Philanthropy by Institution (1892) 90 3.2 Income from Direct Philanthropy 92 3.3 Congregational Contributions to the Sunday Fund 99 3.4 Institutions Assisted by the Sunday and the Saturday Funds (1897) 104 3.5 Contributions of Benevolent Funds to Individual Hospitals 106 3.6 Income from Rent 113 3.7 Income from Investments 114 3.8 Income from the Sale of Invested Property 117 3.9 Income from Poor-law Patients 122 3.10 Patient Payment by Hospital Type (1897) 124 3.11 Guy’s: Inpatients’ Payments (1886-1898) 127 3.12 Income from Nursing 130 3.13Income from Loans 131 3.14 German Hospital: Income (1851-1895) 135 3.15 St.Bartholomew’s: Income (1863-1895) 136 3.16 Guy’s: Income (1853-1895) 136 4.1 Hospital for Sick Children: Expenditure 142 4.2 St.Bartholomew’s: Expenditure 142 4.3 Guy’s: Income from Landed Property (1875-1891) 167 5.1 Social Composition of Governors in West Bromich and Dudely (1867-1900) 197 5.2 Social Composition of Active Governors in London Hospitals (1850-1898) 197 5.3 Occupational Structure of German Community in London 210 7.1 Whitechapel Union’s Borrowing (1890-1898) 266 7.2 Persons Given Poor Relief in the Metropolis on Sample Days in January (1850-1900) 274 7.4 Residence of Whitechapel Infirmary Inmates (1894) Page 219 7.5 Whitechapel Union: Expenditure Increase 282 7.6 Occupational Background of Elected Guardians (1853-1873) 285 8.1 King’s Fund: Income (1897-1898) 323 Acknowledgments My research has been based on the archival sources of the eight medical institutions covered in this study and I would therefore like to thank the various archivists who have faithfully hunted down the records I have requested: Ms Gillian Furlong at University College Library; Geoffery Yeo, Andrew Griffen and Caroline Jones at the City & Hackney Health Authority Archive, St.Bartholomew’s; Nicholas Baldwin at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Jonathan Evans at the Royal London Hospital. I am also grateful to the staff of the Greater London Records Office from whose archive at least half my primary sources have been drawn, as well as the staff of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine Library, University of London Library, Institute of Education Library, University College Library, British Library and the Guildhall Library who have provided valuable help. My main debt lies with my supervisor. Professor Martin Daunton, who saved me from working on ‘social control’ and introduced me to the social history of medicine. His unerring questioning has helped guide my research. The same needs to be said of my second supervisor. Dr Ann Hardy, who provided useful assistance and encouragement on the medical side of my work and has faithfully read and commented on everything that I have produced. Gratitude is also owed to Abigail Beach, Amanda Berry, Steve Cherry, Anne Crowther, Martin Gorsky, Negley Harte,Colin Jones, Paul Johnson, Patrick O’Brien, Frank Prochaska, and Richard Weight, for their suggestions. Special gratitude is owed to Mark Allinson whose invaluable comments have been of much use and to Michelle Elvin for keeping me sane and reading with tolerance several first drafts. Any mistakes are of course my own. I wish to acknowledge the support of the British Academy, the Institute of Historical Research and Royal Historical Society, whose funding made my research possible. Abbreviations BMA British Medical Association BMJ British Medical Journal COS Charity Organisation Society FWA Family Welfare Association LCC London County Council LGB Local Government Board MAB Metropolitan Asylums Board NHS National Health Service PP Parliamentary Papers RC Royal Commission RCH Royal Chest Hospital SBH St.Bartholomew’s Hospital SC Select Committee UCH University College Hospital 1 Introduction: To Prove a Need 1. THE METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL SYSTEM The publication of the Tomlinson Report in 1992 was the ninth in a series of government sponsored investigations into the London hospitals/ Following closely behind a survey of primary healthcare by the King’s Fund and the government’s National Health Service (NHS) reforms, the Report generated public interest and a wave of panic among hospital administrators/ Over a century ago, in 1890, a Select Committee of the House of Lords was established to investigate similar concerns. The Committee sat for two years and addressed the structure, finance and nature of healthcare in London, concerns that the Tomlinson Report returned to. Where the Select Committee vacillated, only weakly recommending a modicum of central supervision and relocation, its twentieth-century counterpart called into question the very pattern of development, organisation of finance, and nature of healthcare in London.^ In the three years following the Report's publication the outpatients’ department at St.Bartholomew’s has been closed and the fate of Guy’s and St.Thomas’s remains undecided.
Recommended publications
  • 172 CHAPTER 5 PUBLIC WORKS, BENTHAM & the 'LESS ELIGIBILITY PRINCIPLE' 'Human Institutions Are Borne Down by the Calam
    172 CHAPTER 5 PUBLIC WORKS, BENTHAM & THE ‘LESS ELIGIBILITY PRINCIPLE’ ‘Human institutions are borne down by the calamitous visitations of Providence. Self preservation is the first Law of the Nature, and people will plunder and commit excesses when deprived of all other means of subsistence, rather than starve’. – James D. DeVitre, Kaira Judge, 1824. 1 When the monsoon failed and the crops withered many people were forced to leave their homes in search of subsistence either as migrants or criminals. To prevent this and protect its revenues, the Government was forced to offer employment on road and irrigation works. Yet the abolitionists of England criticised the Poor Law’s provision of state employment to the able-bodied poor as doing more harm than good in the long run. They demanded that the state take a laissez-faire stance of refusing to offer employment so as to foster self-reliance and industriousness amongst the able-bodied poor. The Bombay administrations of the 1820s and 1830s had to decide how far this new ideology was to influence their traditional means of relieving suffering amongst the able-bodied. Public works in India . Prior to the rise to dominance of reformist ideology in the British Indian governments of the early nineteenth century, both Indian and British rulers had provided the able- bodied poor with employment on public works as a relief measure. The Madras administration had opened public works for ‘the support of the famine-stricken’ in the 1791 famine.2 It had once again provided employment to the poor in the 1806-7 drought.
    [Show full text]
  • Vagrancy and the Victorians : the Social Construction of the Vagrant In
    VAGRANCY AND THE VICTORIANS: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE VAGRANT IN MELBOURNE, 1880-1907 SUSANNE ELIZABETH DAVIES RID THESiS, HISTORY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, 1990 (This thesis does not exceed 100,000 words,) In Memory of my Father CONTENTS Page List of Figures 4 List of Illustrations 6 List of Abbreviations 9 Acknowledgements 10 Abstract 12 Introduction 15 Chapter One: A World of Difference 42 Chapter Two: The Evolution of the Vagrancy Laws 115 Chapter Three: Policing the Victorian Vagrancy Law 145 Chapter Four: Trial and Error 216 Chapter Five: Punishing and Reforming 274 Chapter Six: A System in Crisis $43 Chapter Seven: New Solutions for an Old Problem 397 Conclusion 450 Appendix One: Statistical Method 455 Appendix Two: Statistics relating to the Arrest and Imprisonment of Vagrants in Victoria, 1888-1907. 461 Appendix Three: Statistics relating to Vagrancy Cases heard by the Melbourne Court of Petty Sessions, 1 May 1888 - 30 April 1901. 468 Bibliography 478 4 FIGURES Page Figure 3.1: Vagrancy Arrests in Victoria, 1880-1907 161 Figure 3.2: Most Common Types of Arrests in Victoria, 1880-1905 162 Figure 3.3: Vagrancy Arrests as a Percentage of Total Arrests in Victoria, 1880-1907 163 Figure 3.4: '1 in 10' Sample - Vagrancy Cases heard by the MCPS, 1888-1901 167 Figure 3.5: '1 In 10' Sample - NVLMS/ILMS Cases as a Percentage of Total Vagrancy Cases, MCPS, 1888-1901 170 Figure 3.6: '1 in 10' Sample - Sex of Defendants in Vagrancy Cases, MCPS, 1888-1901 173 Figure 3.7: '1 in 10' Sample - Sex of Defendants in NVLMS/ILMS
    [Show full text]
  • "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.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics and the Implementation of the New Poor Law: the Nottingham Workhouse Controversy, 1834-43
    Politics and the implementation of the New Poor Law: the Nottingham Workhouse controversy, 1834-43 JOHN BECKETT University of Nottingham, UK The Nottingham workhouse case was a test of the resolve both of the Poor Law Commissioners appointed to administer the post-1834 New Poor Law, and of the strength of the Whig interest in the town’s municipal and parliamentary elections. All eyes were on the implementation of the legislation in Nottingham, partly because of the influential thinking of local administrators such as Absolem Barnett, and partly because the government needed evidence that the system of unions and workhouses set up after 1834 would actually work in industrial towns. The Nottingham case showed only too clearly that the key issue was the trade cycle, and fluctuations in the town’s hosiery and lace trades made it almost impossible to implement the terms of the legislation fully. The key battle was fought over the decision to build a new workhouse, which the Whigs favoured and the Tories resisted. KEYWORDS Nottingham, Poor Law, Barnett, poverty, workhouse, Tory, Whig, Guardians, politics, elections, less eligibility In March 1842 Absolem Barnett, clerk and relieving officer to the Nottingham Poor Law Union, moved 140 paupers from the existing St Mary's parish workhouse into a new building on Mansfield Road. In itself this was hardly an unusual act. All across the country in the wake of the 1834 legislation new workhouses were built, and inmates transferred from older buildings which were either demolished or sold. In Nottingham the move was more symbolic; it was the final action in a long and bitter struggle rooted in political conflict over the implementation of the New Poor Law.
    [Show full text]
  • Fromworkhousetowelfare.Pdf
    FABIAN SOCIETY The Fabian Society is Britain’s leading left of centre think tank and political society, committed to creating the political ideas and policy debates which can shape the future of progressive politics. With over 300 Fabian MPs, MEPs, Peers, MSPs and AMs, the Society plays an unparalleled role in linking the ability to influence policy debates at the highest level with vigorous grassroots debate among our growing membership of over 7000 people, 70 local branches meeting regularly throughout Britain and a vibrant Young Fabian section organising its own activities. Fabian publications, events and ideas therefore reach and influence a wider audience than those of any comparable think tank. The Society is unique among think tanks in being a thriving, democratically-constituted membership organisation, affiliated to the Labour Party but organisationally and editorially independent. For over 120 years Fabians have been central to every important renewal and revision of left of centre thinking. The Fabian commitment to open and participatory debate is as important today as ever before as we explore the ideas, politics and policies which will define the next generation of progressive politics in Britain, Europe and around the world. Fabian Society 11 Dartmouth Street London SW1H 9BN www.fabians.org.uk First published 2009 ISBN 978 0 7163 4106 2 Editorial Director: Tom Hampson Editorial Manager: Ed Wallis This pamphlet, like all publications of the Fabian Society, represents not the collective views of the Society but only the views of the authors. The responsibility of the Society is limited to approving its publications as worthy of consideration within the Labour movement.
    [Show full text]
  • The Representation of the Workhouse in Nineteenth-Century Culture
    The Representation of the Workhouse in Nineteenth-Century Culture Laura Foster Submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff University 2014 1 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the AHRC for providing the financial support that made this project possible. My supervisor, Julia Thomas, has been an endless source of advice and enthusiasm. I am deeply grateful for the unfailing interest she has taken in my research and for her support and encouragement at every stage. Heather Worthington has been on hand throughout the project, offering ideas, reading conference papers, and dealing with crises of confidence. I have her to thank for suggesting the idea of postgraduate study to me in the first place. Thanks are also due to Alison Harvey in SCOLAR, who unlocked the glass cabinet for me to browse at will, and who sent on fascinating primary material that I otherwise would not have found. David Skilton, too, has directed me to useful sources and shared with me his wisdom on nineteenth-century culture. Dean and Nathan have also provided valuable assistance with the practicalities of completing a thesis, taking care of numerous time-consuming IT issues for me. My friends in the department have been incredibly important. They have offered valuable feedback on ideas, emotional support, and lots of tea and cake. The PhD experience would not have been half so enjoyable without them. In particular, I am indebted to Helen Mckenzie, Rhys Tranter and Maura Dunst for their insightful comments. There are some friends outside of university who deserve mention: Amanda Milburn, Katie Fazal and Nicola Lewis have listened to me talking about workhouses for the past few years and, from time to time, managed to distract me from them.
    [Show full text]
  • [email protected] Downlo
    Downloaded from the Humanities Digital Library http://www.humanities-digital-library.org Open Access books made available by the School of Advanced Study, University of London ***** Publication details: Healthcare in Ireland and Britain from 1850: Voluntary, regional and comparative perspectives Donnacha Seán Lucey and Virginia Crossman http://humanities-digital-library.org/index.php/hdl/catalog/book/healthcareirelandbritain DOI: 10.14296/517.9781909646650 ***** This edition published 2017 by UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Senate House, Malet St, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HU, United Kingdom ISBN 978 1 909646 65 0 (PDF edition) This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. More information regarding CC licenses is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU Enquiries: [email protected] Healthcare in Ireland and Britain from 1850 Voluntary, regional and comparative perspectives Edited by Donnacha Seán Lucey and Virginia Crossman Healthcare in Ireland and Britain from 1850 Voluntary, regional and comparative perspectives Healthcare in Ireland and Britain from 1850 Voluntary, regional and comparative perspectives Edited by Donnacha Seán Lucey and Virginia Crossman LONDON INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Published by UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Senate House, Malet Street, London
    [Show full text]
  • View Simpson Thesis
    The treatment of Halifax's poor house dead during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries By Cynthia Simpson A Thesis Submitted to Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, Atlantic Canada Studies August 2011, Halifax, Nova Scotia Copyright Cynthia Simpson, 2011 Approved: Dr Peter L. Twohig, Supervisor Dr Michael Vance, Reader Ms Heather MacLeod-Leslie, External Date: 23 August 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81331-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81331-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou parl'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these.
    [Show full text]
  • The Continuing Legacy of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act for Britain's Deaf Popul
    Deserving of Charity or Deserving of Better? The Continuing Legacy of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act for Britain’s Deaf Population Dr. Martin Atherton University of Central Lancashire Abstract: This study will outline how deaf people in Britain were treated under the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and will argue that attitudes towards their abilities established by and in response to the New Poor Law continue to influence social policy provision and the employability of deaf people to this day. Key Words: charity, deaf, voluntary welfare Introduction As we reach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, it might be considered that employment opportunities for deaf people in the United Kingdom have never been greater. Laws protecting deaf people against discrimination in the provision of education, services and work would seem to help promote their employment prospects. However, statistics provided by two of the major UK welfare organisations for deaf people indicate that deaf people are still significantly disadvantaged in the workplace. These figures will be explored in more detail later in this study but two examples support the contention that deaf people are still un- and under-employed in comparison to their hearing contemporaries. In 2006, the Royal Institute for Deaf People (RNID) found that only 63% of British deaf people were in work, compared to 75% of the general population, whilst the Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD) found that 70% of deaf people in Scotland felt that job applications had been unsuccessful because of their deafness (Royal National Institute for Deaf People, 2006; Scottish Council on Deafness, 2010).
    [Show full text]
  • Five Hundred Years of English Poor Laws, 1349-1834: Regulating the Working and Nonworking Poor William P
    The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Akron Law Review Akron Law Journals July 2015 Five Hundred Years of English Poor Laws, 1349-1834: Regulating the Working and Nonworking Poor William P. Quigley Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, and the Social Welfare Law Commons Recommended Citation Quigley, William P. (1997) "Five Hundred Years of English Poor Laws, 1349-1834: Regulating the Working and Nonworking Poor," Akron Law Review: Vol. 30 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol30/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Akron Law Journals at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Akron Law Review by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Quigley: Regulating the Working and Nonworking Poor Five Hundred Years of English Poor Laws, 1349-1834: Regulating the Working and Nonworking Poor by * William P. Quigley I. Introduction Like other and more famous English institutions, the making and administration of the English Poor Law was a growth, not a creation.1 Certain it is, that, on the welfare of its labouring Poor, the prosperity of a country essentially depends . Sir Frederic Eden, The State of the Poor (1797)2 The English poor laws, beginning with the Statute of Laborers of 1349-1350 and proceeding to the reforms of 1834, regulated both the working and nonworking poor.3 From feudalism through 500 years of regulation by the poor laws work and poverty journeyed hand in hand.
    [Show full text]
  • Britain's Future Strength, the Health of Elementary School.Children, 1867-1907: a Study in Social Policy, Legislative Action and Government Growth
    BRITAIN'S FUTURE STRENGTH, THE HEALTH OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.CHILDREN, 1867-1907: A STUDY IN SOCIAL POLICY, LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND GOVERNMENT GROWTH by ANTHONY STUART FARSON B.A., University of Guelph A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May, 1976 CY ANTHONY STUART FARSON In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of History The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 ABSTRACT The major objective of this thesis is to throw new light on the problem of "how" and "why" the function of the State within society changed dramatically during the first few years of the twentieth century By concentrating on the Liberal Government's measures of 1906 to 1907 to improve the health of working-class children this thesis hopes to show that the role of men and their beliefs played a far more important part in the development of the "British Welfare State" than has hitherto been credited. By illustrating how the social, political, and economic condi tions of the period 1870 to 1900 affected the consciousness of individ• uals and groups, it attempts to explain why there was a delay between the time when the extent of poverty became intolerable and the time when measures were enacted to relieve the problem.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poor Law Commission's Migration Scheme, 1835-37
    BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: THE POOR LAW COMMISSION'S MIGRATION SCHEME, 1835-37 by PETER BRIAN PARK A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of MA (by Research) at the University of Central Lancashire. September 2008 STUDENT DECLARATION I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution. I declare that no material contained in this dissertation has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work. R- I Peter Brian Park MA (by Research) School of Education and Social Science ABSTRACT Between January 1835 and June 1837 over 500 families, comprised of more than 5,000 individuals, moved from the agricultural counties of southern and eastern England to the manufacturing districts of the north. Their migration was carried out under the auspices of the Poor Law Commission's home migration scheme (one of the first attempts at social engineering by a modem British government agency), but approximately the same numbers followed them independently. The research described investigates the aspirations of several of the principal stakeholders and compares them with the outcomes of the scheme, to establish whether it was a success. A few families failed and returned home fairly quickly, but over seventy percent of those that migrated considered themselves better off than their kin in the south and chose to remain in the manufacturing districts. Indeed, acting primarily on their advice, an equal number of their kith and kin had followed them independently.
    [Show full text]