The Poor Law Commission's Migration Scheme, 1835-37
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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. For these families the scheme may be considered a success. One of the two migration agents seems to have derived no benefit from his association with the scheme other than the immediate financial rewards. The other benefitted by his promotion to assistant poor law commissioner in the short term; in the longer term contacts that he undoubtedly made while serving in Ireland in that capacity provided clients for his business when he returned to England. Comparison of the poor-rates in the migrants' home parishes before and after the scheme shows that the rates of the scheme parishes decreased, but to no greater extent than parishes where the scheme did not operate thus the decreases were due to factors other than the scheme and parishes did not benefit from it. The migrants were generally well received by the indigenous population in the north, the few cases where there was local dissent over their arrival appear to have arisen as a result of poor industrial relations between the employers and the local workforce. CONTENTS Illustrations ...... ........ .............. ......................................................................... ....... ........ ii Figures ............................... ......... ......................... .. ................................................. ii Tables..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iii Abbreviations ... .... ............... .............. .......... ....... ........................ .................................. iv Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 Chapter Two: Historiography ...................................................................................... 6 The home migration scheme ...................................................................................... 6 The plight of the southern labourers ......................................................................... 15 Factorychildren ........................................................................................................ 17 Migration.................................................................................................................. 20 The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act ....................................................................... 24 Chapter Three: Major sources and the Migrants Database ................................... 27 The1843 Report ....................................................................................................... 27 The Poor Law Commission's correspondence ......................................................... 30 Boards' of guardians records .... ................................................................................. 30 Census enumerators' books ...................................................................................... 31 TheMigrants Database ............................................................................................. 31 ChapterFour: The people .......................................................................................... 35 The1843 Report ....................................................................................................... 35 Themigrant families ................................................................................................ 37 Was the scheme a success for the families 9 ............................................................. 42 Thechildren .............................................................................................................. 47 Themigration agents ................................................................................................ 55 Summary.................................................................................................................. 58 Chapter Five: Pressure to migrate9 .......................................................................... 60 Summary.................................................................................................................. 69 Chapter Six: Parishes and townships ........................................................................ 70 The source parishes .................................................................................................. 70 Thehost communities .............................................................................................. 77 Summary.................................................................................................................. 83 Chapter Seven: Conclusions ...................................................................................... 84 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 88 AppendixI ....... .. ....... ... ..................... ............... ........................................... .............. ..Al 2. Poor Law Commission's correspondence with the unions ...... ........ ................... Al 3. Poor Law Commission's correspondence with assistant conmiissioners ...................... A4 4. Poor Law Commission's minutes ......................................................................... A4 5. Poor law union guardians' minutes, etc... .............. ......... ........................ ........ .... A4 Appendix II ................................................................................................................. A6 2. Registration districts searched in 1851 census .................................................... A6 3. Manchester area CEBs not filmed due to damage .............................................. A7 Appendix III Number of migrant families sent, by parish ..................................... A8 Appendix IV Poor-rate changes .............................................................................. A14 2. Scheme parishes ................................................................................................ A14 3. Non-scheme parishes .................................................... ..................................... Al6 ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 3.1: Example of details of migrant families in 1843 Report ............................. 31 3.2: Example of damaged page from 1851 CEB ................................................ 33 4.1: Numbers of migrant families per month .................................................... 37 4.2a: Age profile of 'normal' migrants ............................................................... 38 4.2b: Age profile of scheme migrants ................................................................. 38 4.3: Handbill distributed by George Thompson in southern parishes ................ 40 4.4: Age distribution of male and female child migrants .................................. 47 4.5a: Mean migrant children's wages, male ....................................................... 49 4.5b: Mean migrant children's wages, female .................................................... 49 4.6: Comparison of wages for indigenous and migrant children ...................... 50 4.7a: Males and females as proportion of the workforce in Lancashire cotton mills, by age, 1831 ..........................................................................51 4.7b: Males and females as proportion of the workforce in Lancashire cotton mills, by age, 1851 ...........................................................................51 6.1: Source poor law unions of the scheme's migrant families .........................71 6.2: Day labourers as a proportion of agricultural workers ...............................71 6.3: Agricultural workers weekly wages ...........................................................71