ASPECTS IN DEATH: (POVERTY) CHAPTER 3.3

Question 1

What is destitution?

Answer 1

The state of having no money or possessions.

Question 2

What is vagrancy?

Answer 2

A way of life where individuals have to keep moving as they are homeless and have no job.

Question 3

How were the poor helped before the 1800s?

How did it work?

Answer 3

the old Poor Law.

1) The Parish would charge a “poor rate” (a compulsory tax to provide relief).
2) The parish would then appoint “overseers of the poor” and they would be approved by local magistrate.
3) The overseers of the poor would identify who was eligible for the help and what relief they would receive.

Question 4

Who were the overseers of the poor? (3 reasons)

Answer 4

1) 1-2 were appointed per Parish and approved by the local magistrate.
2) they were typically local farmers, landowners and Churchwardens.
3) they were unqualified and not paid.
4) They levied the poor rate and supervised its distribution.

Question 5

What were the positive aspects of the old Poor Law? (3 reasons)

Answer 5

1) The overseers of the poor knew the Parish members well so they could give more personalised relief.
2) the poor did not have to rely on self help.
3) the overseers of the poor were not paid so this saved money for the parish that could be redistributed.

Question 6

What were the negative aspects of the old Poor Law? 4 reasons

Answer 6

1) the overseers of the poor were not paid or qualified to undertake the role.
2) The overseers of the poor could have bias towards certain members of the parish and give them help.
3) this system made the lower classes reliant on the upper classes.
4) During economic crisis where harvest was not abundant this decreased the relief collected through taxes.

Question 7

How was it determined how much help the poor would get?

What was this method?

Answer 7

The pauper would be assessed by category and then given the relief
the categories were

impotent poor - pauper who had a disability

idle poor- able to get a job but didn’t work

underserved poor- People who had become poor from no fault of their own.

deserved poor- had become poor through their own fault eg prostitution,

Question 8

what was the change to the old Poor Law?

When could they be removed?

Answer 8

The settlement act 1662
it suggested that the Parish was responsible for those,
born, married, worked or had an apprenticeship or inherited property in?

Strangers could be removed from the parish if they were not working within 40 days.

Question 9

What would a deserving Pauper be given and what would an undeserving pauper be given?

Answer 9

A deserving pauper would be given food and a job by the church.

An underserving pauper would be given work in a workhouse.

Question 10

What is indoor relief?

Answer 10

Indoor relief is help that is given inside a building or institution.

Question 11

What are types of Indoor relief?

Answer 11

Almshouses
workhouses
orphanages
within church

Correction houses for criminals.

Question 12

Why was indoor relief attractive to Parishes?

4 reasons.

Answer 12

1. Parishes could amalgamate their work and create workhouses with other parishes. Called unions.
2. Workhouses could be privatised, used for, profit so would be useful to businessmen.

3- Parish could create revenue from the goods created by the workers.

4. in 1723 the “ workhouse test act was introduced’ which meant conditions should be worse inside than outside.
   This meant workhouses less desirable which meant less people wanted to go.

Question 13

What two people made workhouse administrative changes?

Answer 13

1. Thomas Gilbert was an MP and sponsored the “the poor relief act”
2. William Sturges Bourne in 1818 and 1819 chair of House of Commons supported two acts.

Question 14

What did Thomas Gilbert propose?
What did he change?
( 4 things)
Negative or positive

Answer 14

in his “poor relief act”

• he replaced ‘overseers of the poor’ with ‘guardians’ who were fully employed and were payed. POSITIVE
• Parishes were given permission to join a union if 2/3 of the rate payers agreed. This gave the gentry more power.
  POSITIVE and NEGATIVE
• Guardians were required to produce “poor law expenditure” this ensured the right amount of relief was going to the poor. POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE
• Churchwardens were required to give information about other charities. POSITIVE.

Question 15

What did William Sturges Bourne propose?
2 reasons?
Positive or negative?
Was he overall successful?

Answer 15

1808-He proposed a new voting system for selecting guardians in the parish.
Where those of a higher status had a higher weighted vote. (POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE)

1809- He added clergymen to the vestry.
They would determine if individuals were deserving on underserving of support.
(POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE)

He was overall successful because he decreased the cost of poor relief in 46 vestries.

Question 16

What is outdoor relief?

Answer 16

Money, clothing, food, wage subsidies. (Any form of relief that did not happen inside an institution or building)

Question 17

What were the different forms of outdoor relief each government could choose?

Answer 17

The Roundmans system.

The Speenhamland system.

Labour rate.

Question 18

What did each form of outdoor relief entail?

Answer 18

The roundsman system- this was for Parishes that had many Paupers and not a lot of work.
They would be given work in rotation with other paupers.
The parish would pay half the wage and the employer would pay the other half. (ticket system)

The Speenhamland system (1795)
This was an allowance system that subsidised low wages and made a link between the price of bread and the dependents in a family. Gave relief for those who could not afford the price of bread. They were given either Money or flour.
Only increased relief if they were large families.

The Labour rate- This was an added tax on top of the poor rate that was made to support able bodied paupers.
The Paupers had their wages topped up.
by 1832 1 in 5 parishes were using this system

Question 19

What is a positive and negative aspect of each type of outdoor relief?

Answer 19

The Roundsman system
Positive- it gave the able bodied paupers an opportunity to work outside a workhouse
Negative- some employers exploited this because half the wage would be paid by the parish.

The speenhamland system.
Positive- this was an alternative to going to workhouses.
Negative- Those eligible were only of large families.

Labour rate- allowed paupers to break free from the cycle of poverty
negative- it was unpopular with the general public as it was an added tax.

Question 20

What are two positives and two negatives of outdoor relief?

Answer 20

Positives-
it gave the money and skills needed to break the cycle of poverty.
More pleasant than the workhouse.

Negatives-
it relied on taxes (bad in an economic depression)
It was exploited by employers making them have a pauper workforce as their wage was partly payed by parish.

Question 21

BENEFITS OF INDOOR RELIEF. 4 reasons

Answer 21

BENEFITS:
Thomas Gilbert proposed that guardians should replace overseers of the poor. This was positive as the guardians were payed and fully employed so they had a higher incentive.

Parishes could amalgamate their workers to create a “union”. This meant workhouses were a cost effective method as Parishes could work together.

The workhouses could be used to create revenue for parishes. The workhouses could also be privatised so they were attractive of businessmen.

The workhouse test act in 1723 outlined that conditions should be worse on the inside than the outside. This decreased the application rate to workhouses. This was positive as workhouses were no longer overcrowded and could cope with the demand.

William Sturges Bourne proposed a voting system that gave the gentry a higher weighted vote when choosing the Parish guardian. This made the gentry feel more involved which may have made them more inclined to help.

Question 22

NEGATIVES OF INDOOR RELIEF. 4

Answer 22

NEGATIVES.
Before the settlement act in 1662 there was confusion about which Parish you were eligible for. The settlement act outlined: place of birth, marriage work or apprenticeship.

These businessmen may have exploited workhouses purely for profit providing terrible working conditions for the workers.

workhouses were so overcrowded and were such poor working conditions that paupers wanted to avoid workhouses.

The voting system by William Sturges Bourne may have also have been negative as it gave the gentry too much power.

The poor law expenditure could have also been negative because if guardians were allocating too much money they could have been picked up on this.

Question 23

What were the POSITIVES OF OUTDOOR RELIEF systems

Answer 23

POSTIVES
1-The roundsman system. This was positive as it allowed able-bodied paupers in parishes that did not have much opportunity to work, to work. The rotation system was fair and all paupers got a fair share of work.

2-The speenhamland system. Was an allowance
system for families who could not afford the price of bread.
They were given flour or money, this was successful as it allowed them to provide for their family. Also prevented -them from having to go to a workhouse.

3-Labour rate: this was a tax payed on top of the poor rate that was to support able bodied paupers. It allowed the paupers to break free from the cycle of poverty.

4-Outdoor relief gave the pauper an alternative to the workhouse as the workhouses were of very poor condition and unpleasent

Question 24

NEGATIVES OF OUTDOOR RELIEF systems

Answer 24

NEGATIVES.
1-Roundsman system-Farmers would exploit this system and only employ paupers as the parish would pay 1/2 the wages.

2- speenhamland system- it was only really available for those with large families.

3-Labour rate- Negative as it was an additional on top of the poor rate which would have been unpopular with the parish.

4- in times of economic depression it was difficult accrue
the taxes needed.

Question 25

Why did the old poor law need changing? (3) reasons

Answer 25

Outdoor relief was costly
The categories of paupers caused inconsistencies
settlement acts caused confusion

Question 26

What were the 4 pressures for change of the poor law?

Answer 26

1- The ending of the wars with France
2- The swing riots
3- regional differences
4-idealogical arguments

Question 27

What was the impact of the wars with France on the old poor law?

Answer 27

Cheap corn could be imported from Europe so English farmers had to keep their corn price low which impeded their ability to pay taxes. Was problematic as they had to pay wartime taxes.

Corn Laws were then introduced by the conservative government which put restrictions on corn imported from abroad. This Law kept bread price artificially high.

The post war distress meant more people than ever claimed relief as soldiers were returning from war.
Bad weather and poor harvests also caused poor expenditure to reach 8 million pounds a year.

The situation was exacerbated by radical protests which forced the government to suspend haebaes corpus.

Question 28

What was the impact of swing riots?

Answer 28

-Paupers demanded higher wages and machines not to be used in the winter and autumn.

A wave of “swing rioting spread” which was burning down workhouses and attacking overseers of the poor.

“Captain Swing” gave the impression of an organised revolt but this was not the case.

19 paupers were sent to death and 400 were exported to Australia. 644 were imprisoned.
This caused a climate of needed change.

Question 29

What was the impact of ideologies?

What were they?

Answer 29

Robert Bentham- Utilitarianism greatest good for the greatest amount of people this meant that outdoor relief should be abolished. It also meant that all pauper should be given the same relief to prevent revolts.

David Ricardo- He suggested that there is a limited amount of money in an economy at any time. Therefore taking poor relief from wages would cause more people to turn to pauperism. Therefore he suggested that the old poor system should be abolished.

Thomas Malthus - demographic economist. Suggested the more people there were the greater the strain there was on an economy. The old poor law system encouraged people to have more kids and Thomas Malthus was against this.

Thomas Paine- suggested a property tax on the very rich to be used for the a variety of ways of paupers.

Robert Owen- He was a radical factory worker. He believed that everyone should look after each other and share profits. (regulated working hours and gave sick pay)

Question 30

What was the impact of Regional differences?

Answer 30

There were regional differences with how Parishes dealt with the poor law.
Nottinghamshire was known as relatively prosperous but poor relief expenditure was 11 shillings per capita. However, it had exemplary poor relief. This is because Rev Becher built 2 new workhouses and joined a Gilbert union of 49 parishes. These acted as deterrent workhouses however they were kind to the elderly. Nicholls, an overseer, abolished allowance system as she believed they were what caused people .

Success Gloucestershire, Baker a JP managed to decrease paupers from 977 to 125 as he made workhouses very dreadful.

As Parishes were making these radical individual reforms the old poor law needed changing.

Question 31

Why was the Poor Law failing to cope? In 19th century.

Answer 31

This is because the increasingly mobile and industrialised population had different demands.
The Napoleonic Wars were putting pressure on the system.

Question 32

Who were the overseers of the poor appointed by?

Answer 32

Justices of the peace and approved by the local magistrate.

Question 33

What followed the first settlement act?

Answer 33

The removal act 1795 modified 1662 settlement act.

It prevented strangers from being removed unless they applied for relief.

Question 34

Why were the settlement Laws limited?

Answer 34

• They were not applied consistently from place to place.
• They gave rise to litigations between the various parishes.
• They were unable to keep up with the mobile population as thousands of people were on the move.

Question 35

What was particular about Gilbert’s act and The Sturges Bourne Acts.

Answer 35

It was a permissive act so it did not become legislation

Question 36

What was Gilbert able to make legislation?

Which became law

Answer 36

• Overseers were required to submit annual returns of poor Law expenditure
• Ministers and Church Wardens were required to let people know the charities and other support available.

Question 37

What was the point behind the Gilbert and the Sturges Bourne act?

Answer 37

They were in an effort to tie the gentry, landowners and well off more into the administration of the Poor Law.