Who were the poor?

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Who were the poor?

Deserving Poor:

Poverty = rife in England during 16th C.

Contemporary observers = distinction made between deserving poor and the undeserving <- historians tried to attach more objective assessments to the problem.

E.g. Historian, Heard: made the distinction between 'deep poverty' and 'shallow poverty'.

Deep =

represented by impotent poor or paupers - typically made up of the very young or very old.

Compromised about 5% of urban pop in normal times and slightly less in country parishes.

Consisted of widows, widowers, broken families with young children, etc.

This increases with the rising population and it was to help this group that much of the legislation was aimed.

Shallow =

Population of shallow poor = increasing at same rate.

Compromised the rapidly growing numbers of cottagers and labouring families living on the edge of survival and would benefit from a license.

Granting of licensing = indication that contemporary mechanisms for dealing with poor - not working smoothly.

Historian, Slack: New strains on legislation in 1589 against the building of new cottages on commons and wastes and the housing of lodgers or inmates. "The new squatter and labouring populations scraping a living on the commons and domestic industries threatened to impoverish whole areas of the country, especially in years of crisis of one kind or another"

Bad harvest or trade slump = temporary unemployment, as could illness or injury.

In bad years, hardship among this group could increase from 5% to 10% - whereas rural parishes could manage to support 2,3/4% of pop who were impotent they could not cope when 10-20% hovered on the poverty line - particularly in the crisis of the 1590's

From 1520's, towns = overwhelmed by the poor - due to natural increase of pop, migration and trade embargoes.

Faced with growing numbers of poor, towns like Bristol in 1562 - forced to impose limits on the immigration of apprentices.

In parishes and towns = poor became a public nuisance, threat to public order and a burden on the community in times of crisis.

Problem - worse in towns - poor tended to congregate on the periphery and as it increased they felt they had less control over the situation.

1580's, John Howes (London Hospital chronicler): "it is not the poor of London that pestereth the city; but the poor of England"

How did the poor cope?

Rural Parishes:

Alms - small sum from parish poor box or a weekly dole after intro of poor rates.

Customary charitable gifts to respectable poor households at Christmas.

Urban areas:

Begging

May get help from almshouses

Mutual aid in taking lodgers who might pay rent or contribute to the domestic labour force.

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Underserving poor/vagrants:

Historian, Heard: recent research conducted estimates that the itinerant poor (or vagrants) may have represented about 2% of the population in 1600.

Number of occupations came under the vagrancy laws (considered a potential threat to the state): pedlars, ex-soldiers, mariners, entertainers, students and wizards.

Regarded as a problem as they were thought to be trying to evade work rather than seek employment - it was assumed that anyone could find work if they wanted to.

Historian, Beier: "If they were idle, production in all sectors would grind to a halt and unimaginable disorders might ensue." Seen as a threat to social order, health and morality. Seen as dirty, contagious carriers of disease who were responsible for the outbreaks of the plague.

Historian, Slack: Itinerant poor = thought to be thieves and outlaws. "Members of a deviant sub culture with a social hierarchy and norms of behaviour of its own."

Above all, regarded as sinful, as full of vice and lust as wild animals.

Policy to vagrants = repressive both locally and nationally.

Wanderer perceived to be a criminal - potential or actual.

An adult was tied to a cartwheel and told to return to his place of birth.

End of E's reign - ^ in numbers on the road - mainly young men but also families and young children on their own or in groups. Mostly regarded as criminals than actual travellers.

Such fears = exaggerated:

Historian, Heard:

Most were young and single, between 15 and 25

Men predominated, 25% were women

They seem to be younger children who had been unable to work because of pop pressure.

Seen to be divided into those who were moving into towns and those migrating into the more industrial, open parishes.

Often, LT vagrants had fixed itineraries between temp employment, spending summer in country and seeking permanent shelter in towns in winter.

Govt reacted to increasing size of the problem by trying to force all itinerants to return to place of birth. Anyone caught without passport/license to travel = liable to punishment.

Difficult to enforce in practise and local authorities = often lax. Prob = made worse by the fact that large numbers of legitimate travellers were caught up in the legislation e.g. Actors, musicians, acrobats and discharged soldiers -- made legislation virtually unenforceable.

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Crime:

Impossible to supress violence - especially in times of dearth (times of hardship)

An attempt made to define, clarify and extent felonies in the Henrican period. Such felonies included:

Abducting women

Homosexuality

Witchcraft

William Harrison: "I believe not that chapman or traveller in England is robbed by the way without the knowledge of some innkeeper…"

Sometimes robbers worked in gangs:

Highwayman, Luke Gutton had 12 "apostles" (hanged @ York, 1595)

Normally vagabonds = less organised, only grouping together in 'bands' - most common figure = 'sturdy beggar' - armed with a heavy stick or sword and aggressively begged for money.

Crime common in the biggest UK towns, each had about 10,000 inhabitants:

Newcastle-on-Tyne

Norwich

Bristol

London (highest crime rate - 5x as big as any other town)

Problem = beggars and crooks in large towns. John Howe, 1587: "The streates yet swarme with beggars".

Some crooks would set up a stage and sell useless 'medicines' > gave opportunities for pickpockets and cutpurses.

Authorities did little to deal with the problem.

In 1589 - London besieged by a mass of vagabonds and unpaid sailors - only solution: threat of punishments.