HOW EFFECTIVE WAS OPPOSITION TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT?

Question 1

How was the Poor Law Amendment Act generally met in the parishes? However what is important to note about these feelings?

Answer 1

• mostly met with fear and anger.
• wasn’t completely universal- expressed in different ways at different times, there were geographical variations of opposition.

Question 2

How was the Poor Law Amendment Act met in Cumbria and north Yorkshire?

Answer 2

• few able-bodied paupers male paupers here- the Act was considered irrelevant so protest against it was unnecessary.

Question 3

How did Carlisle use old methods rather than directly following the new Act?

Answer 3

• continued to divide applicants into deserving and undeserving poor and treated them accordingly.

Question 4

How did the fact that union workhouses being built a distance away from from the homes of paupers seeking relief create rumours?

Answer 4

• belief began to spread that workhouses were actually extermination centres where paupers were being killed so poor rates were kept low.

Question 5

What book was written which was incorrect beloved to be the work of the poor Law Commissioners? What did it contain?

Answer 5

• the Book of Murder.

* contained suggestions that pauper children should be gassed.

Question 6

What rumour was spread around Devon about outdoor relief?

Answer 6

• believed that the bread distributed as a part of outdoor relief was poisoned to reduce those claiming this form of relief.

Question 7

What were the believes of anti-Poor Law campaigners as to why the Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced?

Answer 7

• it was introduced to lower the national wage bill.

* said workhouses were intended to force people onto the labour market, no matter how low the wages were.

Question 8

How did the fear or entering a workhouse impact mill owners in the north in terms of who they were employing? Why did they want these workers?

Answer 8

• they wanted unemployed agricultural workers from the south.
• this would deliberately limit rising wages and to bring about a workforce that lived at a subsistence level.

Question 9

Where was the Poor Law Commission based and why did this create opposition?

Answer 9

• London.

* the commissioners were viewed as being out of touch, with no real concern or understanding of life outside of London.

Question 10

In terms of social status and class relationships, why was the new Poor Law concerning?

Answer 10

• it would break the traditional paternalistic bonds between the rich and poor.

Question 11

Why were rural rate payers worried about the building of workhouses?

Answer 11

• they realised that outdoor relief was cheaper than indoor relief so we’re worried that building workhouses would actually lead to increased costs of poor relief.

Question 12

Why were ratepayers in northern industrial areas worries about the new workhouse system?

Answer 12

• the north was prone to cyclical unemployment, meaning that workhouses would have to be very large to contain all those who may need relief in times of depression- enormous costs.

Question 13

Where did the Poor Law Commission begin its work in 1835?

Answer 13

• the mostly heavily pauperised areas of southern England.

Question 14

When the Commission began to implement the Act in the south what was the economic situation like there? How did this effect opposition?

Answer 14

• they were in a period of economic recovery and employment prospects were generally good for most labourers.
• opposition was sporadic and came in irregular outbursts.

Question 15

In the south, why did local magistrates and clergy join paupers with acts of opposition?

Answer 15

• they viewed the centralisation of the Poor Law to be unnecessary.
• it removed the traditional master-servant relationship.

Question 16

What area in the south is an example of protests against the removal of paupers to new union workhouses?

Answer 16

• Buckinghamshire- people took to the streets as paupers were transported from the old workhouse in Chalfont St Giles to the new union workhouse in Amersham.

Question 17

In East Anglia, how did the poor and more influential citizens oppose the Act in different ways?

Answer 17

• poor- took to the streets to protest and attacked newly built workhouses, with the one at St Clements in Ipswich being particularly damaged.
• influential citizens- avoiding rules by refusing to apply the less eligibility rule and continuing outdoor relief.

Question 18

What conviction depressed the rural protests in the south?

Answer 18

• the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834)- sentenced to transportation for swearing to illegal oaths that bound them to a trade union.

Question 19

Why did farmers and land owners mostly enable to Act to be put into practice in the south?

Answer 19

• they were having good harvests.

* their workforce was more passive to the Act.

Question 20

Where did Edwin Chadwick urge the Poor Law Commission start its work? Why was this?

Answer 20

• the north of England.

* times were relatively prosperous- would be easier to implement.

Question 21

When did the commissioners actually turn their attention to the north? Which areas did they focus on?

Answer 21

• 1837- during the onset of a trade depression, they is noted Chadwick’s advice.
• industrial Lancashire and West Yorkshire.

Question 22

Why did guardians, magistrates, mill and factory owners resent the interference from the London commissioners?

Answer 22

• they had little knowledge of industrial conditions as their report was based on the rural south so had little relevance to them.
• they had already adapted their relief to meet the cyclical depressions they faced- relief on short term relief not removals of whole families to workhouses.

Question 23

What movement fired up opposition?

Answer 23

• the Ten Hours Movement- campaign in the 1830s to reduce the hours worked in textile mills to 10 per day.

Question 24

How did the Ten Hours Movement stimulate opposition? What influential members of society were involved?

Answer 24

• anti-Poor Law associations sprang up, adding to the network of short term committees already
existing from the movement.

Question 25

What examples of armed uprisings are there throughout the north?

Answer 25

• Oldham, Rochdale, Todmorden, Huddersfield, Stockport, Dewsbury and Bradford- armed riots, but were put down by local military.

Question 26

How did opposition arise in Huddersfield?

Answer 26

• Huddersfield- guardian warned the commissioners in 1837 that it would be dangerous to implement the act considering the alarming state of the district.

Question 27

What happened when an assistant commissioner went to Bradford?

Answer 27

• Bradford 1838- assistant commissioner threatened and attacked by mob, troops were sent from London to calm the riots.

Question 28

How did the authorities react to opposition in Dewsbury?

Answer 28

• Dewsbury 1838- London troops sent to stop riots.

Question 29

How difficult was it to implement the Act in Todmorden?

Answer 29

• very- Act couldn’t be implemented until 1877 due to fierce opposition from mill owners and their workers.

Question 30

How did the citizens of Stockport oppose the Act?

Answer 30

• Stockport 1842- workhouse attacker and bread distributed.

Question 31

Who was Richard Oastler?

Answer 31

• steward of Fixby- large estate in West Yorkshire.

Question 33

What did Oastler believe about the Poor Law commissioners? What did he specifically oppose?

Answer 33

• that they had too much power.
• opposed the ability of the commissioners to supply factories with cheap labour in the form of pauperised agricultural workers- would lead to a fall in wages and a deterioration in living conditions of the industrial working class, resulting in further pauperism.

Question 34

What was Oastler’s opinion on the amalgamation of parishes into unions?

Answer 34

• opposed it as it depersonalised the system by taking away interaction between the giver and receiver of relief.

Question 35

How did Oastler encourage workers to oppose the Act?

Answer 35

• urged workers to involve themselves in strikes and sabotages.
• led workers in violently resisting attempts to impose the new Poor Law in his local township of Fixby.

Question 36

How did Oastler get released from debtors prison after 4 years?

Answer 36

• immensely popular with the working people- they created Oastler committees to raise funds to get him released.

Question 37

Who was John Fielden? What were his views like and how did this effect his parliamentary presence?

Answer 37

• MP for the northern industrial town Oldham.
• radical views and has his own ideas- say with the Whigs as he thought they were more likely to support his ideas than the Tories- but he didn’t always vote with them.

Question 38

What was Fielden’s view on the Poor Law Amendment Act? How did he show this in Parliament?

Answer 38

• voted against it and tried for years to get the Act repealed.
• worked on the Commons Committee investigating the work of the new Poor Law- when the committee reported favourably he was highly critical claiming evidence had been taken from only the commissioners and pro-Act guardians.

Question 39

What was Fielden’s other profession as well as MP?

Answer 39

• mill owner in Todmorden and Lancashire.

* the cotton mill owned by him and his brother was the largest employer in the area.

Question 40

What did Fielden do when the commissioners attempted to implement the new Poor Law in Todmorden? How did the commissioners react?

Answer 40

• he threatened to close down his family mills unless the guardians of the Poor Law union resigned.
• the commissioners refused- so the mills closed down throwing 3000 people out of work.

Question 41

What was the aftermath of Fielden’s mill closures in Todmorden? What was the role of both the workers abs Fielden?

Answer 41

• Fielden opened them back up after a week, but the violence continued.
• workers attacked the homes of local guardians- troops arrived to restore order.
• Fielden- wasn’t involved in the riots but refused to cooperate with the authorities in finding the ringleaders, he also refused to pay poor rates.
• caused the late implementation of the new Poor Law in Todmorden in 1877.

Question 42

When was opposition it’s most well organised and effective?

Answer 42

• the short term.

Question 43

Despite the government not backing down and not repealing the Act, what concessions did the make in the North?

Answer 43

• 1838 General Prohibitory Order- allowed Lancashire and West Yorkshire unions to administer relief according to the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law.
• very few workhouses were actually built until the 1850s and 1860s.

Question 44

Which urban areas demonstrated little opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 44

• industrial North East England.

* Nottingham- despite recession.

Question 45

Why is it wrong to assume the absence of violence meant there was no opposition?

Answer 45

• guardians could subtly ignore, adapt and amend directions from the commissioners- many did.

Question 46

How was the general nature of opposition unsuccessful?

Answer 46

•short lived- spontaneous reaction to unwelcome changes meant it was in organised.

Question 47

How was organised opposition such as the anti-Poor Law associations in Lancashire and Yorkshire limited?

Answer 47

• combination of paternalistic Tories and working class radicals was unlikely and would eventually fall apart.

Question 48

How did the working class who still wanted to oppose the Act continue their opposition? Was this successful?

Answer 48

• Chartism- movement to try and gain more political rights for the working class, thought it was the only way to improve their lot.
• not successful- rate payers saw an immediate change in the rates they paid.

Question 49

What were the two main issues with the implementation of the Act that were not met as the Poor Law commissioners wished?

Answer 49

• Act was implemented unevenly and interpreted in different ways by different guardians- due to local resistance, already established local customs, vested interests of the those in power.
• parishes were not insisting on the removal of paupers under the Settlement Laws- continued paying resident relief (payed for those they were responsible for but who lived elsewhere.)

Question 50

What happened to cause Oastler’s downfall?

Answer 50

• word of his involvement reached the commissioners- they approached his employer Thomas Thornhill to help them calm the situation in Fixby that Oastler was causing.
• Thornhills reaction was to dismiss Oastler immediately.
• Oastler continued to campaign for the next 2 years whilst he had more from not working.
• eventually with no income, he ended up in a debtors prison.