Under the ‘Old Poor Law’
Before 1834 the system for looking after the poor, sick and those who could not support themselves was based on Acts of Parliament dating from the late Tudor period. These were consolidated by the 1601 Act for the Relief of the Poor the objective of which was to maintain order and was aimed at establishing parochial responsibility, suppressing begging, providing work, ‘correction’ of vagrants and setting children to work or apprenticeships. It aimed primarily to relieve the poor in their own homes. An Overseer of the Poor would be appointed in each parish and householders would pay a ‘poor rate’. There was a distinction made between the ‘deserving’ (old, ill, or unemployable through disability) and ‘undeserving’ poor (those considered strong enough to work). However, some able-bodied poor who could not support their families on their wages did receive help. After 1795 English parishes supplemented wages according to the cost of bread locally in what was known as ‘the Speenhamland system’. Those who could not stay at home, or did not have a home ended up in Parish workhouses or poor houses which were meant to reduce cost of poor relief and to provide discipline, though many were just places of last resort for the sick, orphaned or old. Children of poor families might find themselves in the House of Industry which was not residential but where they would be given work during the day.
Under the ‘New Poor Law’
By the early 1800s a division between those who believed poverty was due to insufficient wages and those who felt it was rooted in a lack of moral strength became apparent. The idea that poor relief could undermine the incentive to work hard and that it encouraged idleness and immorality began to grow. The emergence of the new term ‘pauper’ was closely tied to this belief. It denoted someone who lacked not only the means of financial support but also moral strength, responsibility and independence.
Despite heavy disagreement from some quarters, calls for reform of the outdated and often badly administered poor laws lead to the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. Under this Act relief was almost entirely given within the workhouse for which there was an entry test designed so that only the truly destitute would apply. This was aimed at deterring the able-bodied poor (mainly agricultural workers who were suffering after enclosure) from applying for relief to supplement their wages in their homes. In effect, to claim relief an individual would have to give up home, family ties and the dignity of some form of partial independence. Husbands, wives and children were often separated and conditions in the workhouse were terrible.
Parishes were organised into Poor Law Unions, with large joint workhouses and a board of governors supervised by the Poor Law Commission in London. This scheme was heavily influenced by the utilitarian thinking of Edwin Chadwick who designed workhouses to be ‘uninviting places of wholesome restraint’ (cited in Gardiner and Wenborn p.608).
Timeline
1597 – Act for the Relief of the Poor. The first complete system for poor relief
1601 – The ‘Old Poor Law’ consolidated and would remain the same till 1834
1662 – Poor Relief Act. To establish the parish to which a person belonged to deal with problems of settlement
1723 – Knatchbull’s Act. Work House Test Act. People claiming relief had to do a certain amount of work to avoid irresponsible claims.
1723-50 – 600 parish workhouses built as a result of Knatchbull’s Act.
1777 – A parliamentary survey of workhouse expenditure by Thomas Gilbert identifies Egham as having a workhouse with 36 places.
1782 – Gilbert’s Act. To organise relief by county and parish and only for the sick and elderly, not the able-bodied poor who were provided relief in their own homes. Aimed to be more humane than the 1723 Act. Authorised neighbouring parishes to unite. Gilbert’s Unions were controlled by a board of Guardians. Not all parishes took this up.
1795 – ‘Speenhamland system’ Supplementing wages according to the price of bread.
1798 – Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population
1815 – French wars end
1830 – Swing riots. Breaking of threshing machines that threatened winter employment.
1832 – Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws
1834 – Poor Law Amendment Act – The ‘New Poor Law’ – intended to reduce the cost of poor relief and address the abuses of the old system.
1847 – Poor Law Commission replaced by Poor Law Board after Andover Workhouse Scandal.
1865 – Union Chargeability Act. Spread the burden of paying for workhouses across the Union rather than the Parish
1929 – Workhouse system abolished
1948 – Poor Law system abolished
Researched and Authored by Katharine Stimston
References
The Companion to British History, ed. J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn, Collins and Brown, 1995.
Higginbotham, P. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Lloyd, S. ‘Poverty’ in An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age. British Culture 1776-1832. OUP, 1999, pp.114-125.
Surrey History Centre, Archive Sources:
SHC 2516/6/2: Vestry Minute book with plans for the new Work House. These records cover 1817-1824.
SHC 548/2/4/4 Rent Book c.1805-1844 with specific reference to Egham Work House (ff.43 and 63 and 164).
SHC 2516/2/10 Minute book for those overseeing the care of the poor 1831-35.