Elizabeth I: Society - Poor Relief

Question 1

What was the 1572 Act

Answer 1

It established the principle that local ratepayers should be required to pay for the relief of their own poor

It made a distinction between those who were genuinely unemployed and the ‘idle poor’

Question 2

What was the 1576 Poor Law

Answer 2

The first attempt to create a national system of poor relief to be financed and administered locally

Question 3

What did the 1572 and 1576 acts do

Answer 3

1. Towns were required to make provision for the employment of the deserving poor
2. JPs had to buy raw materials to provide work for able men
3. The Poor Rate collected £12,000 and involved imprisonment for non-payment

Question 4

What did the further 1597 and 1601 acts do

Answer 4

Completed the legislative process

Question 5

What did the 1597 act do

Answer 5

Set down punishments for the undeserving poor

Setup up houses of correction in all cities

Required towns to setup Pauper Apprenticeships to train boys until 24 and girls until 21

Question 6

What did the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law act do

Answer 6

The Parish became designated as the institution required to raise the rates and administer Poor Relief

Question 7

How many Parish churches were there in 1552

Answer 7

15,000

Question 8

What did each Parish appoint

Answer 8

An overseer of the Poor

Question 9

What were the Overseers responsibilities

Answer 9

1. Relief of the impotent poor (helpless poor)
2. To find work for able-bodies
3. Apprenticing poor children

Question 10

Who supervised the Overseers

Answer 10

Justices of the Peace (JPs)

Question 11

What did the Elizabeth government do

Answer 11

Setup upon itself the responsibility of ensuring a minimum level of subsistence for the deserving poor

Question 12

How long did the Elizabethan achievements last

Answer 12

Until the 1800’s - successful

Question 13

How were the poor treated

Answer 13

Very harshly.

• Undeserving poor were whipped
• 1572 Act brought in Branding as a punishment

Repeat offenders executed

Question 14

What were the causes of Elizabethan povery

Answer 14

1. Elizabeth’s reign started with the Marian influenza, 20% of Londons population died in 1563
2. 43% increase in population from 1550-1603
3. Harvest failures in the 1550s/1590s
4. Embargo on wool in 1562/63 made unemployment worse

Question 15

Were Elizabethan poor laws a success or not

Answer 15

Success

Lasted until 1800s, employment levels rose

Failures

£12,000 not that much in context

Higher wages only matched higher food costs, so little difference