FRED & CLHiF
Diversity Festival week
th
19 Century Legal
Perspectives:
Inequality and Prejudice?
Worthy of Worthless: changing attitudes to the
poor
Dr Matt Garrett & Hayley Whitaker
For Consideration
• The Able-Bodied
• The Aged and Infirm
• Children
The Able Bodied
• Historically Undeserving of Support
• Physical Punishment, House of Correction and the Workhouse
• The Old Poor Law
• A local pragmatic response- Out Relief, Speenhamland Tables
• The new Poor Law
• Workhouse Test, Less eligibility
The Practical Reality
• Out Relief for the able bodied continued but was often masked
• "Ordered that the sum of 1/6 per week be given to Evan Evans an ablebodied Pauper...on account of the illness of his family.” Lampeter Union,
Board of Guardians Minute Book 5 December 1846
• Even if a workhouse did exist it wasn’t always possible to use it.
• "The Bradford Union could cater for 260 indoor paupers, yet on 1 July
1848 the Union was relieving 13,521 people, 1397 of these were adult
able-bodied men." Ashforth pg 133 of The new poor law in the 19th
century. Edited by D Fraser
Prejudices Remain
• “Were it not for the indiscriminate dole-giving which prevails
there would be little necessity for casual wards or labour
colonies for the vagrant, and idle vagrancy ceasing to be a
profitable profession, would come to an end.” Report of the
Departmental Committee on Vagrancy, 1906, Cd.2852, pg121
• “I took John Williams (Jack Llandilo) to Llandovery Workhouse
on Tuesday last Good Riddance he is an old scamp- He has
caught his last trout on the Teifi.” Lampeter Workhouse Masters
Report Book (unofficial entry)
Some Deserving
• Charity Organisation Society as described by J Burnett:“moral
overtones were even more audible in a Charity Organisation
Society Paper of 1886 which also divided the unemployed into
three groups: 1. ‘Thrifty and careful men’; 2. ‘Men of different
grades of respectability, with a decent home’; 3. ‘The idle, loafing
class, or those brought low by drink or vice’: this latter class should
be left to the poor law, while in the intermediate class the husband
should be taken into the workhouse and his wife and children
supported by charitable relief.” J Burnett, Idle Hands the
Experience of Unemployment 1790-1990, pg155
• “Resolved that in the opinion of this Board [Lampeter] His
majesty’s Government should be urged to undertake national relief
works on a large scale and of a remunerative description in various
parts of the country in order to give employment to those persons
who otherwise would have to seek relief from the Union” Lampeter
Union, Board of Guardian Minute Book 27th November 1903
A Change In Approach
• Chamberlain Circular 1886
• Municipal Works
• 1905 Unemployed Workman Act
• 1906 Workmen’s Compensation Act
• 1909 National Labour Exchanges
• 1911 National Insurance
The Aged & Infirm
• Historically Deserving of Support
• 22 Henry VIII cXII Allows for ‘aged’ persons to gain licence to beg
• The Old Poor Law-continued belief in deserving
• An Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601: “And also competent Sums of Money
for and towards the necessary Relief of the Lame, Impotent, Old, Blind, and
such other among them being Poor, and not able to work…”
• The New Poor Law- not the intended focus.
• S27 of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act: "that relief be given to any adult
Person who shall from Old Age or Infirmity of Body be wholly unable to work,
without requiring that such Person shall reside in any workhouse."
The Practical Reality
• "Ordered that the sum of £5.1.0 be repaid to the Tredegar
Union for relief advanced by the parish [in the Tredegar
Union]...to Margaret Davies, Widow aged 85 years a pauper of
the Parish of Llansaintffread in this Union it appearing that the
said Pauper is removable, not having been 5 years resident in
the [Tredegar Union] Parish." Aberaeron Union, Board of
Guardians Minute Book 1845-1849
• Pauper Census 31st March 1906- Poor Relief Figures By Age
Age
Number Relieved
Per 1000 of the Population
0-5
51,767
13.6
5-15
179,854
26.0
15-25
22,583
3.3
25-35
38,189
6.6
35-45
58,401
13.3
45-55
56,252
17.9
55-65
91,530
43.3
65-75
183,125
163.0
75-85
117,231
275.9
85-
18,080
353.1
Tolerance Continues
• “Some of these [aged paupers] may have deserved their fate.
They may have been brought to it by intemperance or
misconduct of some kind or another. But nobody will persuade
me it is true of all of them (cheers) - or even the larger
proportion of them.” Joseph Chamberlain 1891
• “But are we, because of the difficulties and because of the
complexity of the task, to sit still with dumb lips and bewildered
brains and palsied energies, while this great procession of the
poor and necessitous and unbefriended linger out the last days
of their lives of strenuous service given to industry and the
State? We say not.” (Asquith Parliamentary Speech 1908)
Some Prejudice
• “Mr. Allen [a witness] at the same time estimates that one-third
of old age pauperism may be fairly attributed to drunkenness,
the bulk of such cases coming from the third or “loafer” class”.
Report of the Royal Commission into the Aged Poor 1895
A Rebranding of Approach
• “Having regard to the suggestions made by the Local Government
Board Inspector at the last meeting, it was resolved on the motion of
Mr JC Jones seconded by Mr. Evan Davies that the workhouse be
closed subject to the approval of the Local Government Board,
because it is at present structurally unsuited as a workhouse and the
number of paupers relieved is and always has been so small that the
Guardians are of opinion that the workhouse as such is
unnecessary.” Aberaeron Guardian Minute Book 13th December 1911
• “Mr Lewis Davies gave notice that at the next meeting he will move
that weekly out door relief granted to old paupers of 72 years of age
and upwards be continued without being formally brought before the
Board Quarterly as other cases unless the circumstances of such old
paupers is such as to necessitate an alteration of the grant of relief.”
Lampeter Guardian Minute Book 23rd December 1892
The treatment of children
1834 - 1914
Initial standpoint:
Children & Workhouses
 Children not accountable.
 However… comparisons drawn between children in a workhouse and
those individuals outside of the workhouse.
 Should not even been conceivable that a child in the workhouse was to
experience an improved life on those that were exterior to the system.
 Therefore…children in the early stages were to be treated as adults,
ignoring the fact that they could no leave the workhouse at will and if they
did that they would be brought back forcibly.
Provisions for Children in the Workhouse:
 1839 – almost half of the populations inmates were children under 16.
 Children under 3 in the same workhouse as their mother would be
permitted to stay with them.
 Most children there due to parents admittance to the workhouse but also
orphans, either by way of desertion or their parents could not care for
them due to imprisonment or sickness.
 During working houses under 3 years were placed in a nursery with an
elderly female inmate. Little in the way of toys.
Provisions for Children in the Workhouse:
 Over 7 were allowed a daily ‘interview’ with their parents
however to prevent distress a weekly meeting with one or
other parent on a Sunday afternoon.
• Staffordshire Chell Workhouse – Charles Shaw 10 years described these
reunions ‘Sunday afternoon brought an hour of unspeakable joy’
 3 to 7 years live in the children’s section of the workhouse –
could in some workhouses sleep in the women’s quarters.
Aims of the Workhouse re: Children:
• 2 aims:
 Training make them employable later in life.
• Boys - carpentry bookmaking, tailoring, agricultural work.
• Girls - cooking, cleaning, laundering - domestic service.
 House them away from the rest of the population in the
workhouse. ‘Polluting association’
Poor Law/Parish Teacher:
Classed as a lower status as the Poor Law Medical Officer.
as per other workhouse officials led a restricted life:
• expected to look after the children not only just during teaching hours
but outside of this too.
• could only leave with master permission.
• food no better than that of the paupers.
• Underpaid, overworked and kept firmly under the masters control.
• Confused by aim to educate v the underlying principle of deterrence
and foreboding of the workhouse.
Poor Law/Parish Teacher Cont:
 Not trained - master economized and used pauper
inmates:
• Salisbury in 1840 - school master was an educated man
who had ended up in the workhouse and the school
mistress could not write.
• Poor Law Board Inspector 1868 - 'I need not call to your
recollection the numbers I have been obliged to instantly
dismiss for gross inefficiency, cruelty or immorality'.
Obstacles to Education in the Workhouse:
 Principle of the workhouse -v- provision of welfare for children.
 Over riding principle of finances.
Industrial schools:
 1840s industrial schools in the bigger cities:
• house and educate workhouse children.
• Again away from the workhouse population.
• Also referred to as ‘barrack schools’ housing in
some cases up to 1.000 children.
• Infectious disease, expensive, impersonal.
Change in Attitude:
 However even early on view prevailed that children could not
be morally responsible for their position in the workhouse.
 Education was believed to break this cycle of destitution.
 A decrease in the fear of an insurgent working class. a.
Anderson. History of education.
 Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth - developed curriculum and
teacher training and pioneered these in the poor law schools rolled out across country.
Developments:
 1860 opening up of the workhouse made many more people
aware of the serious failings in the workhouse schools and
demand for change had began to occur.
 1870 Education Act:
• Local schools board. Movement from poor law schools to local
district schools. Trained staff no influence from workhouse
master.
 Also cottage homes schemes miniature villages - number of
house and a school, infirmary, chapel. House 15-30 children.
 Scattered home system - children in ordinary town houses and sent to
local schools.
 Boarding out - for orphans and deserted children - unions paid foster
parents up to 4s (20p) a week to bring I pork house children.
 1890 onward start to see the welfare of children featuring in legislation
both with regards to education, work and home. Conditions for those in
workhouses slowly improved too.
 18th April 1905: Conservative government given power to Boards of Guardians to
make provisions for school meals under the Relief (schoolchildren) Order. Free
school meals 1906 - schools taking more responsibility for the welfare of a child.
 School medical inspection 1907.
 Children act 1908 – change in British social policy – relationship between state,
adult and child – child should not be held accountable for the failings of a parent
– reflected concerns on national efficiency, social discipline and demonstrated a
growing sense of humanitarian concerns. Expansion in the welfare of the child.
 1909 minority report suggested that 'number of children are now, each winter, fed
in the schools of the Local Education Authority, than are maintained as paupers
by the Destitution Authority'
 16th June 1910 – Circular from the Local Government Board
demonstrated a continued pressure placed upon guardians to cater for
children outside of the workhouse setting.
 Poor Law Institutions Order 1913 - After 31st March 1915, no child over
3 years shall be retained in the workhouse for a period exceeding 6
weeks.
1909
1914
19,968
15,951
Cottage & other homes 19,737
22,086
Boarded out
11,596
Workhouse
8,653
• Forty-third annual report of the LGB, 1913-1914 [cd. 74444,7610, 7611]
 War interrupted the progress of removing children from the
workhouse. Forcing the local government board to rescind its
request that all children be removed by 1915.
 After the war the Ministry of Health revisited this and requested
once again that all children be removed from the workhouse.
 However, it was not uncommon mainly due to the financial
pressures upon guardians, that this request was not complied
with.
 Despite this Ministry of Health determined that by 1920 90% of
children housed in some kind of poor law institution were so
housed in special accommodation. – consider Bromley
workhouse – special accommodation constituted a single wire
fence separating children from other inmates.