Poor Law

Poor Law

1. Old Poor Law

   • Elizabethan Poor Law
     • 1601-1834
     • Poor fell back on relief provided by the parish e.g. old, sick, disabled.
     • relief was paid for by propertied classes through local taxes called poor rates - administered by parish overseers.
     • Indoor relief and outdoor relief - deserving poor and able bodied poor
   • Act of Settlement
     • 1701
     • Anyone who was a Roman Catholic or married one became disqualified to inherit the throne - continue succession of protestant line.
   • Gilbert's Act
     • 1782
     • 'relief of the poor act' proposed by THOMAS GILBERT
     • Counties were organised into parishes which could set up workhouses - aimed to be humane
   • Speenhamland/Allowance System
     • 1795
     • Speedhamland authorities decided to top up peoples wages with allowances based on the price of bread/size of the family.
     • For families whose wages were low and could not afford to support their family.
     • However, it allowed for farmers to pay low wages in the knowledge that pay would be supplemented by authorities -encouraged laziness.

2. 1832 Royal Commission into Poor Law

   • Set up by the Whigs.
   • EDWIN CHADWICK was one of the leaders.
   • The 26 assistants knew what they were looking for and CHADWICK was set against poor law - there was little hope for it.
   • Long term concerns about poor law: cost, corruption, encouraging poverty, poor began seeing relief as their right.
   • Short term concerns about relief: Agricultural distress which turned violent - SWING RIOTS, fear of revolution due to French Revolution
   • 3000 places were visited - 1/5 of poor law districts - info collected and published in 13 volumes.
   • Evidence = unreliable - badly phrased leading questions BUT it was the first survey of its time - but poor law was never going to remain - predetermined.
   • The report was published in 1834 - criticised poor law for its corruption and claimed poor law was a root of poverty and radical change was needed to improve cost and efficiency

3. Pressures to Change Poor Law

   • Changes to Britain: expansion of industry, population growth, urbanisation, more living in the north and constitutional monarchy.
   • French Wars 1793-1815- curtailed import of corn, food shortages, high taxation, fear of revolutionary ideas
   • High food prices:Wheat: 1800-09 84s8d per quarter, 1810-19 91s5d per quarter, 1820-29 59s10d per quarter
   • Corn Laws: introduced by the Tories as they felt Britain needed to be self-sufficient - did not want cheap food to flood britain once the war had ended.
   • Post-war depression: problems with returning soldiers, effects of over expansion of staple industries e.g. coal, iron, increased unemployment - years 1817-19 = years of crisis.
   • Poor harvests = food shortages and higher food prices.
   • Radical Protests: Forces govt to introduce Six Acts, suspend Habeas Corpus, policy of repression.

4. Implementation of Poor Law

   • PLAA did not lead to immediate establishment of a new system
     • Pace of change was slow across the country - authorities had to deal with a number of problems before they could implement the new law
       • Local objections - Commissioners had to set up new unions of parishes - orginally planned to be equal size - around 30 parishes per workhouse - assistant commissioners were under pressure to get qucik results but interests of local landowners often prevailed.
       • Building new workhouses - often delay in this as building a new one required a majority of local board of guardians = slow process, although old workhouses could be altered
       • Gilberts unions - Commissioners had to deal with workhouses previously set up under old acts e.g. Gilberts Act 1782 - often refused to be brought into the new system
       • Select Vestries - set up under Sturges Bourne Act 1819 remained outside the control of new unions
       • Imposing commissions authority - greatest, longest term problem, insufficient commissioners which had to cover large areas - impossible to give each unions their requisite 2 years visit
   • Somerset house
     • Problems in the region were mirrored in this centre - it was impossible for underpaid and understaffed house to cope with the paperwork - this failing tended to be ignored meaning commission was less efficient than expected
   • Success?
     • By 1840 = 14,000 Parishes incorporated into Poor Law Unions - 800 remained outside the system
     • Rural south = outstanding success - by 1839 - 300 new workhouses been built.
   • Outdoor Relief
     • Theoretically banned under PLLA - made new workhouses vital. Ban began everywhere by 1842 - 3/4 of the country banned from giving relief to the able bodied - it could only be given for parish work.
     • 1842 = Labour Test Orders, 1844 = Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Orders, 1852 = Outdoor Relief Regulation Order
     • By 1871 only 1 in 6 unions were operating under 1844 law - banning outdoor relief to able bodied
     • This was one of the central planks of the new PLAA which was impossible to implement

5. Opposition to Poor Law

   • 1) Terror of the workhouse
     • Became known as Bastilles - French for prison - they came to symbolise a harsh new authority where they were punished for their poverty
     • The harsh conditions suggested poverty itself was a crime
   • Reasons for opposition: Hatred, fear, fear of wage cuts and centralisation took away control of local governments
     • Conditions: deliberately designed to be repellent, new buildings designed miles away from home - unpleasant, threatening and foreboding rather than familiar and friendly like the old ones - helped to fuel rumours about the new poor law.
       • Rumours - they have been built for the sole purpose of exterminating the poor. THOMAS MALTHUS "The Book of Murder"
       • 1832 Anatomy Act - allowed workhouses to deliver bodies of deceased inmates to medical schools for dissection/experimentation
       • Deserving poor: under the old poor law, officials made a distinction between those whose poverty was self-inflicted - hardworking people = fearful of being thrown with roughest of society inside workhouses
   • 2) Driving down wages: one of the claims was it forced labourers to take any form of employment no matter how badly paid to avoid the workhouse
     • Confirmed by the Commission
     • Northern Factory Towns: resistance more fierce - linked with TEN HOUR MOVEMENT.
       • CHADWICK urged for it to introduced - but ignored. Commissioners tried to set up poor law in time of depression. a mob of 6/7000 people disrupted proceedings and smashed down the gates - threatening to pull down buildings and attacking guardians
       • Todmordern - most determined resistance - area refused to build a workhouse until 1877
   • 3) Concerns about guardians: many operatives resisted to protect their existing powers - feared building costs would be prohibitive with excessive maintenance costs
     • Local authorities believed that workhouses would be too small to cope with demand
     • Rural rate payers realised outdoor relief would be cheaper
     • Many also believed the new law would destroy the paternalistic bond between the rich and the poor - used as a means of social control
     • Rural England - resistance often took form of riots and disorder - Anthem Workhouse May 1835
       • Quelled by reading the Riot Act, swearing in front of constables and reinforcements from Police/Yeomanry
         • These events did not result in blocking the new law - significant.