The Plight of the Poor
The term ‘pauper’ originally described someone in receipt of charity but later became used for anyone
lacking the means to support themselves or dependents. Even healthy and fit workers needed support at
times as well as the elderly, infirm, sick, etc. In medieval times many abbeys and religious orders founded
‘spitals’ to care for the poor and sick and support the frail or disabled.
The earliest legislation distinguishing between ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor was in 1388, the Statute
of Cambridge. Each hundred (a geographical area) had to care for its impotent poor, those unable to work
due to age or infirmity. They had to remain in their hundred and all labourers and servants wishing to leave
needed the authority of the magistrates. So ‘sturdy’ beggars were easily identified and could be branded.
The dissolution of the monasteries and demise of other religious houses that had cared for the poor had a
huge impact.
While today we can move around the country much as we please it was not always so. In times past there
were many rules and regulations that governed rights to move. It was believed that people ‘belonged’ to a
place, usually where you were born or has lived for three years or more.
A series of successive laws were drafted first to coerce and punish vagrants and second to support existing
parochial charities providing relief to ‘deserving’ orphaned children, the unemployed, sick or frail elderly.
In 1601 the Act for the Relief of the Poor provided relief to paupers only in the parish of their legal
settlement where they had lived for at least a month. This permitted wandering vagrants and migrant
workers to rapidly get poor relief in their adopted parish. There grew a growing demand for legislation
from the parishes.
Settlement Certificates and Removal Orders
These records are among the very best for revealing the movement of
poor people. Early in the Poor Law parish officers were aware of the
burden the poor could place on the parish particularly with the
distribution of poor relief.
The question of who was entitled to such financial support was
addressed by parliament in the 1662 Settlement Act. Everyone was
assumed to belong to a parish and any newcomers could be removed
within 40 days of arrival if deemed ‘likely to be chargeable’ as well as
any non-settled applicant for relief. Details of where people had moved
from and where they moved to can be found in Settlement and Removal
records and the Examination papers associated with them.
To begin with these roles only applied to vagrants but the 1662 rules
now applied to any newcomer. They were not removable if he rented a
tenement of £10 or more, or could offer security; a ‘Settlement Certificate’ to state that he would not
become a charge upon the parish. Failing these exemptions he would be returned to his own parish, the
place he was last legally ‘settled’ for 40 days as a native, sojourner, householder, apprentice or servant. An
appeal to Quarter sessions could be made by the returned parish.
Over the years numerous Acts amended reasons for a person claiming settlement in a particular parish.
Settlement entitled a person to claim help if in financial trouble.
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1665 settlement rights were given to serving parish officers, parish ratepayers, those bound by
indentures to a parishioner and single folk employed for 12 months in the parish.
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1697, soldiers, sailors and workmen in the King’s service were added. Any hired for a year but not
completing their service could not claim, and parish officers had to serve a year. £10 rent was
replaced by a £10 leasehold tenancy. Settlement certificates were deposited with parish officials for
future reference. Paupers were required to wear a ‘P’ badge on their right shoulder which also bore
the first letter of the name of their parish. Those who refused would lose their relief and could be
whipped or imprisoned with hard labour.
1712, apprentices and servants of certified persons could no longer gain settlement rights.
1723, payment of highway and scavenger rates no longer conferred settlement.
1732, prohibited the removal of pregnant women and in the first month after childbirth.
Children were often removed after the death of their parents. Child settlement was based upon legitimacy.
Illegitimate children were settled in the birthplace unless of vagrants. From 1744 they took their mother’s
settlements. Legitimate children took their father’s places of settlement. Half-siblings were often
separated as each child took their father’s place of settlement. Women took their husband’s settlement on
marriage. Foreigners had no rights (including Scots, Irish and Channel Islanders), although they could not
be removed until Acts of 1830 and 1833. Until 1795 they could gain settlements for any children born in
England.
After 1794 poor people lost the right to remain until they became chargeable. Now JPs could suspend
orders on the sick or infirm. Rogues, vagabonds, idle, disorderly and unmarried pregnant women were
excluded prom such protection. During the early 18th century certificates were readily issued so mobility
might have actually increased. Rural areas were more rigorous than the towns.
Between 1803 and 1818 Poor Relief in England and Wales rose from £4 million to £8 million and by 1832
the Government decided to overhaul the pool law system and the manner by which it was managed. This
ended after a Royal Commission in the 1834 Poor Law Amendment
Act which replaced the parish system with a centralised one
administered by the Poor Law Unions. In 1876 the entire system
was simplified but remained in place until the 1948 National
Assistance Act.
Settlement Certificates
Settlement Examinations papers are usually deposited at county
record offices. The applicant for relief had to provide details of their
circumstances and that of their family. This included where and by
whom they were hired to work; where and from whom they rented
property and the cause of their present decline. These vital proofs
of settlement were not only give to paupers but to craftsmen and
their labourers in case of the need to remove to another parish.
Removal Orders
A Removal Order was signed by two magistrates and a copy deposited at each of the two parishes. Each
notes the place of legal settlement, their employment history, the reason for removal and the places they
had lived. All children are listed with ages and mother’s named with the names of former husbands, his
occupation and birth parish included. It may also state if an absent husband or father had absconded, was
imprisoned, transported or serving in the militia or navy. Reasons why removal had been delayed may also
be included and family members who had died as a result of illness may be added too.
The parish they were removed from may have to reimburse the parish that they had received relief from.
Any such transactions or other arrangements may appear in the parish accounts.
The Access to Archives website will help to connect to specific archives across the country (see
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a). It is possible to search for specific settlement papers by entering a
keyword, the geographic location and a year or range of years. It provides a list of available records in a
named record office.
Almshouses
An endowed institution that provided residential support for the elderly poor, most were religious. The
oldest still existing is the Hospital of St Cross, Winchester (c1132). Modern civil almshouses stem from
1597 when the English Poor Laws were enacted. By 1900 the elderly accounted for 85% of the residents.
There are several websites that can help search Almshouses. Access to Archives at TNA will help to track
down records deposited in county record offices (see www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a). You can try the
following:
www.british-history.ac.uk.
www.english-heritage.org.uk
www.imagesofengland.org.uk
www.stpancrasalmshouses.org
www.fachrs.com/alms/almsintrp.htm
www.buildinghistory.org/articles/heritagemercy.shtml
www.buildinghistory.org/buildings/charities.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almshouse - a comprehensive list is found here.
www.trinityhouseleith.org.uk
http://almshouses.org/almshouses/index.php/features/almshouseoldandnew
Parish Records
Wider parish records may provide additional information about those poor residents. These records were
kept with varying degrees of consistency so much is fragmentary and disorganised. In addition to poor
relief and rates bastardy records may help too. Often kept by local records societies many are supported
by local council archives. The Sussex Record Society website (www.sussexrecordsociety.org) provides an
online Poor Law database listing different legal orders and documents used to administer the laws
throughout the UK.
Bastardy records help because they were used as formal notices of fatherhood. Fathers were legally
obliged to support their children and if the man fled the parish a warrant for arrest could be issued. Such
records were placed in the parish chest. Overseer accounts, vestry minutes or churchwarden accounts may
also refer to paupers in the parish. Overseer accounts record money, fuel, clothing, food, medicine, rent,
medical bill payments and funeral costs. Some of these records may still be in hands of church officials.
Another qualification for poor relief was the successful completion of a seven-year apprenticeship.
Indentured to craftspeople, tradesmen and other semi-professionals sometimes through legal action as
legislation obliged householders to take them, however reluctantly. Apprenticeship records can be very
detailed listing the child, the parents and residence. In the Society of Genealogist’s Crisp Collection it lists
1,500 indentures from 1500 to the 1800s. Many others might be found at local history and records
societies.
Military records
Poor men might enrol in the military in return for a payment from those who might otherwise have been
forced into service. Parish records may include militia orders or magistrates’ orders listing men avoiding
service and those they paid to take their place. TNA is digitising many attestation papers signed by
servicemen on entry to the services (1806 to 1915). Muster records of militiamen and volunteers are
available for 1780 to 1878 (WO13 and WO68) and can be seen at TNAs website.
Being a debtor and unable to pay was a crime and imprisonment could result. County jail records and
quarter session accounts might list such cases. Once imprisoned it was very hard to become solvent again
as they were charged for food and accommodation.
Poor Law Records
Poor Law Unions were several parishes grouped together managed by an elected board of guardians. A
harsh regime, paupers were offered a place in a poorhouse but effectively abandoned to themselves and
their families if refused. Assistant commissioners (later Poor Law Inspectors) inspected the institutions
reporting to the Poor Law Commissioners in London. TNA gives access to the records which can be
searched at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/workhouse.asp. It can be searched by either
names, occupations, place names and other key words. Workhouse staff names can also be searched.
County record offices and regional archives should also have copies of a variety of poor Law records
including Guardians’ minute books, Admission and discharge registers, creed registers, indoor and outdoor
relief lists, registers of casual vagrants and Poor Law medical reports. www.genuki.org,uk/search will help
you to search for individual names, occupations, addresses, place, names and even specific types of Poor
Law records. Even those not really insane might be found in asylums. These can be searched on
www.countyasylums.com. One very good resource for Poor Law records is the Rossbret Institution pages
of www.institutions.org.uk.
Poverty Maps
Between 1886 and 1903 Charles Booth surveyed London and published his findings as the Inquiry into the
Life and labour of the People of London, in which he identified the levels of poverty he found there, having
stayed with several families himself, interviewing factory owners and ministers of religion and visiting the
many workhouses. One major result was the very detailed notebooks and street maps in which he showed
by colour codes the levels of poverty. These can now be accessed at www.umich.edu/risotto/imagemap.hmtl.