The Poor in Beverley and District th Notes by Ann for her U3A Local History talk on 28 February 2018 The Bath’ (HK): cartoon in Ripon Workhouse. Here the vagrants were washed and de-loused before being given a night’s stay and food in return for hard labour ‘ How do we define the poor? This has changed through the years as standards of living have changed. Today I am taking ‘poor’ to broadly mean people who would not have sufficient food, clothing or shelter without help. We’ll look at who offered help, what was available, and who received help. Throughout the ages family was the first port of call for anyone who was sick or without means of support. The wealthy, depending on their feelings of obligation or fear of retribution after death, would look after servants, tenants and others in the area who fell on hard times. th 12 century Gifts of land came from kings and individuals to the Knights Hospitallers, an international network of lay monks who took vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, and whose aim was to care for the sick and the poor, especially pilgrims who would visit St John’s tomb and possibly go on to Spain and the Holy Land on crusades. Knights Hospitallers and Knights Templar held considerable estates in the East Riding. ‘Hospital’ origins: place to be looked after, health, education, housing (hotel) th Guilds were starting to be set up in Beverley in the 12 Century to protect their trade, prevent strangers from setting up within the town, and support their members in time of need. Guilds were an important lifeline to the poor in Beverley. The aim of many poor families was to enable their son to get a seven-year apprenticeship. He would then become a craftsman and if he or his family fell on hard times they would be supported by the guild. When a craftsman died his widow may be allowed to carry on his trade, especially if she had worked alongside him. Perhaps that is how Agnes the Tiler came to supply materials for the building of North Bar, one of the few business women mentioned in medieval records. A sick man, or a widow, would ask Guild members to accept a child as an apprentice, usually at age 14 but sometimes as young as seven. One Beverley man left his best cloak to the friars in his will, on condition that they looked after his young son. ‘Spinners’ (AS). This sculpture is part of the Beverley ‘Town Trail’ and is in Swaby’s Yard, just off Dyer Lane. The inscription on the sculpture is an extract from James Coates’s poem of 1813, entitled ‘Labourer’ and reads: ‘Their wardrobe by themselves supplied They spun and knit and bleached and dyed’. Spinners were traditionally women working from home, hence the word ‘spinsters’. Spinning was a means by which poor women, and often children, added to the family income or supported themselves. They would knit, spin and mend lace, working in houses throughout the town. Spinners were not in a trade guild but were associated with the wool merchants who supplied the raw material, and the weavers who bought and wove their thread. The Guild System survived in Beverley for over 500 years and through the efforts of its members the town developed and thrived. th 13 Century In 1201, Lady Sybil de Valines, widow of William, third Lord Percy, gave the Manor of Holy Trinity in Beverley, two and a half acres, in an area near the railway station, to the Order of Knights Hospitaller. th The Franciscan and Dominican friars came from France in the mid13 century. They preached, begged and administered to the needy. Stephen the Goldsmith, who worked at the Minster, gave a four-and-a-half-acre site nearby to the Dominicans or Black Friars. Then Thomas Holme gave them a piece of ground to build a house. Henry 111 gave 15 oaks from the Forest of Galtres, north of York, and by the end of the century the Friary consisted of a church, a chapter house, a cloister, a dormitory, a refectory and large hall, with land stretching to Woodmansey, on which they grew plants for medicine and food for themselves and the needy. Medicinal plants (this is coltsfoot) still growing outside Beverley Friary (HK) The Franciscans, or Greyfriars, built first outside Newbegin Bar, then on a site near Keldgate Bar. Friars were very popular with the people of Beverley and areas such as Hedon, South Cave, Driffield and Malton where they gave lively and entertaining sermons. Their hospitals were not only for pilgrims but for sick people living in the area. They cultivated plants to help the sick and feed the hungry. St Giles Hospital is the oldest recorded hospital in Beverley, said to have been started before the Norman Conquest and is thought to have been between Lairgate and the town ditch (now the Leases). In 1279 Archbishop Wickwane ordered that there should be four priest brethren at the hospital to care for 6 sick priests and to have 15 beds for other people. Medieval hospitals provided accommodation for the elderly, as well as caring for the sick. Wealthy residents provided the money to set up a hospital in the belief that it would ensure their eternal salvation. th 14 Century Between 1314 and 1325 atrocious weather caused harvests to be ruined and starvation followed. Not only were people short of food but pilgrims stopped coming, resulting in a decline of trade. Service guilds such as butchers, spinners and tanners found their trade reduced. People everywhere were weakened by malnutrition and in 1349 the Black Death swept the country. In Beverley it was estimated that 50% of the population died. One effect of this was a shortage of labour. A law fixing the maximum a labourer could charge was brought in to try to prevent workers from going to a master who would pay more. This led to labourers roaming around the country looking for an area where wages were high and the labour laws not too strictly enforced. Some took to begging under the pretence of being ill or crippled. In 1349, the ‘Ordinance of Labourers’ prohibited private individuals from giving relief to able-bodied beggars. A Poll Tax was introduced to help pay for England’s campaigns against the Welsh, the Scots and the French. From these records we can estimate the th population of Beverley at around 5,000, making it the 10 largest town after London. Even the poorest had to pay just over a shilling, which must have caused extreme hardship. The reaction resulted in the Peasants’ Revolt with unrest especially in York, Scarborough and Beverley. A 1388 Act made each county ‘Hundred’ responsible for relieving its own ’impotent poor’ – those who could not work because of age or infirmity. A Hundred was a sub-division of a county having its own court. Servants wishing to move out of their own Hundred needed a letter of authority from the local Justice of the Peace. One result of this act was that when a man died who had moved away from his own area, his wife and children, had to make their way to his original parish, even if they had never before been there. They would be escorted to the edge of town and sent on their way. Each place they arrived at would provide some food if they were lucky and send them on. You may wonder how many eventually reached their destination and what kind of a welcome they would get. th th 14 and 15 Century Not everyone was unkind to the poor. Many wealthy people remembered the poor in their wills, some no doubt out of genuine concern, others in the hope their name would be remembered or that good deeds would help them in the afterlife. Giles of Hornsea, Vicar Choral at the Minster, left 15s to be given to the poor who attended his funeral in 1342. In 1402 John Kelk, merchant, appeared before 12 governors of the town and sought permission to build a Leper House for men and women just outside North Bar. In his will five years later, he left £100 to poor farmers and husbandmen in and around Beverley. John Holme left £10 for linen and woollen clothing for the poor. In 1428 John Torre left a tenement in Flemingate to be used for the free habitation of poor people. John Brompton paid for 13 poor men to carry candles at his funeral to be clothed at his expense in russet and 60 more poor of both sexes clothed in cheaper cloth, also £18 to be distributed among the poor and a meal to be provided for them. Further legislation followed, though Poor Relief was still provided in the local parish mainly on a voluntary basis. In 1494 the ‘Vagabonds and Beggars Act’ determined that: ‘Vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and nights and have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of town. Every beggar suitable to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born and there remain upon the pain aforesaid.’ th 16 Century th There was a big downturn in Beverley’s fortunes in the 16 Century. For hundreds of years its prosperity centred around the pilgrims who flocked to visit the shrine of St John of Beverley, spending on accommodation, food and souvenirs then often continuing their journey north or along the river to Hull and across to the continent to visit Santiago de Compostela.