Poor Relief Flashcards
How did the history of poor relief change between the 1860s and 1880s?
Move away from a focus on statutory provision for the poor, towards more of a ‘history from below’
What did some contemporaries estimate the number of poor to be?
50%
What do reliable tax records suggest the number of poor was, in 1520s and 1670s?
1/3 - 1/2 in or near poverty
Who argues that the numbers of poor were exaggerated?
Walter
Who argues that England had a large, landless proletariat?
Schofield
What crisis has Wrightston identified in the later 16th and early 17th centuries?
Economic change created uncertainty, and hostility in the relations between villagers - increased illegitimacy and litigation - “cultural polarization”
From what rank were most village puritans from?
Middling and upper ranks of village society
What was the name of a prominent Puritan who also helped the poor? (Think Lizzy)
Thomas Cartwright
How did Cartwright provide for the poor?
Provided for the 30 poorest in 25 Yorkshire communities
What were the conditions to Cartwright helping the local poor?
Provided they were not “drunkards, common wearers or of any other evil demeanour”
How many statutes were passed by parliament dealing with the poor between 1485-1649?
24
Summarise Beier’s argument on the state of the poor in this period
“The poor unquestionably got poorer between 1500-1650”
What was the main impact of government intervention in this period?
Without it, rising poor might have threatened the social order
What fuelled the rise in the poor?
A high birth rate (baby boom lasting 2 centuries)
What were the main variables of mass distress?
The appearance of great numbers of propertyless poor and authorities’ reactions to them
What is arguably the best division for the poor in this period?
Settled and vagrant
What is the key flaw is the distinction between settled and vagrant poor?
Settled poor could easily slip into vagrancy
Where did the stationary poor tend to leave?
Suburbs; where rents were low. Or, on rural wastelands and in forests
What is an example showing the volatility of poor populations?
50% of Warwick’s poor disappeared in 5 years in the 1580s (death/migration)
By what ratio did women paupers outnumber male?
2:1
In the general population, what fraction of heads of households were women?
1/6
What percentage of Elizabethan and early Stuart paupers were settled and able bodied?
70%
What kind of industries did the poor tend to be employed in?
Poorer trades e.g. cloth industry
What kind of occupations came under vagrancy laws and why?
Pedlars, ex-soldiers and mariners, entertainers, students, wizards. Potentially a threat to the state
What kind of people were vagrants?
Male, young adults or adolescents
What was the most common crime perpetrated by vagrants?
Larceny (also burglary and highway robbery)
What were most vagrants like in reality?
Cast offs from unstable master/servant relationships, rather than hardened members of an underworld
What do we not really know about the poor?
Housing, diet, healthcare, sources of income, beliefs, expectations
What does Beier argue happened to the poor, in order for them to get poor relief?
Means tested, separating the worthy sheep from the unworthy goats
What kind of poor are most commonly shown in official records and why?
Children and widows. Minority whom the parish were prepared to tax themselves to support
Who argues that laws intended to discriminate to make life easier for benefactors by relieving them of the obligation to make hard choices?
Bentham
What is the name for the kind of poor who neither received relief nor paid rates?
Borderline poor
What fraction of the population could be affected by bad harvests?
1/4 who did not usually receive assistance
What type of poor consisted of 20% of the population?
Conjectural poor
What type of poor made up 5% of the population?
Structural
What did traditional arguments blame poverty on?
Demographic expansion
Between when was there a 50% rise in the population?
1541-1601
By how much had food prices risen by the early 17th century?
6x
What type of group rose both absolutely and relatively, while real wages fell steadily, until the mid 17th century?
Landless labourers and cottagers
What is there no direct link between?
Price movements of grain and other commodities, and mortality trends
Who argues that dearth did not cause mortality on a large scale?
Appleby
What does Appleby see as a main cause of famine-related death between 1586-1624?
Not positive Malthusian checks, but overspecialisation in livestock and manufacturing
What is more affected than mortality with short-term changes in wheat prices?
Mariage and fertility
What was the percentage shift in marriage rates between 1548 and 1834 relative to yearly price fluctuations?
41%
What was more significant than harvest failures in causing mortality crises?
Epidemic diseases e.g. plague
What period did Beier identify as being key re. poverty? What happened in this period?
1590-1650. Marked deterioration in economic and demographic conditions
When were most acts not widely enforced until?
1620 downturn
How can poor rates be described by the Civil War period?
A fact of life
What key upheavals had occurred c. 1200?
Rising population levels, increased exactions from lords, growth in towns, Black Death and consequent labour shortage
What did of provisions did medieval towns have for their poor?
Craft guilds, endowed alms-houses and hospitals
When did the number of hospitals peak, and at what figure?
700, between 1216-1350
What kind of legislation began taking form c. 1350? What did this coincide with?
Vagrancy legislation targeting those who refused to work for statutory wages or begged; time of the appearance of the criminal underworld
What statute restricted alms giving in the medieval period?
Statute of Labourers, 1349
How was poverty increasingly seen in the 16th century, rather than an admirable and saintly characteristic?
A block to education and training, and thus economic usefulness and religious commitment
What did all religious ultimately stress? What was new?
The desirability of kindness and charity to the poor. Could not be left entirely to personal philantrophy
What kind of ‘revolution’ occurred in this period, relating to money?
Price Revolution
What was the impact of greater warfare and warfare on a raised scale?
More men drawn into armies > more injured > more discharged needing to find a living when campaigns ceased
What in particular was the impact of the march of armies?
Lived off local food supplies; may have forced many families to make the choice between vagrancy and starvation
How did the Reformation arguably increase provisions for the poor?
More organised poor relief, based on a strong discipline in the Protestant churches, concerned to see that communities supported the poor
What three distinct lines of thought called for state action?
Literary of roguery / commonwealth thinkers / renaissance humanism
What did popular tracts on the poor describe?
Their habits, haunts, specialised techniques for theft
What suggests that roguery literature was popular?
Much of it was translated, republished in several editions, pirated
How did the commonwealth idea relate to poverty / poor relief?
1) Idea that in a living body, no parts could be idle because then it would cease to function properly.
2) If society consisted on mutually dependent parts, the rich had to look after the poor, and the poor had an obligation to serve their masters and labour faithfully
How did renaissance humanism link to poor relief?
Belief that through the study of classics, people could be improved morally and intellectually. I.e. that through education (e.g. in a trade), the fit poor could be reformed and found work
What did renaissance humanists not like?
Idleness - condemned monks as well as beggars
What did they think would result from material deprivation?
Temptation, sin, crime
Who argued that humanist critiques were perhaps the single most important influence on policy makers in Early Modern Europe?
Beier
What gave a new shape to an ancient problem?
Greater numbers of poor and causes of their poverty, and the fear they roused
Who argues that reform in Protestant Europe was driven by the basic economic imperative resulting from the disempowerment of the Catholic Church, and its vast human and financial resources?
Cunningham and Grell
Who has stressed that Luther was involved in helping the poor?
Lindberg
What did Luther argue?
That God’s word taught the formula ‘faith forms charity’ rather than ‘charity forms faith’
What was one major drive for Protestants to have a role in poor relief?
Uncertain of salvation, experienced anxiety that drove them into worldly activity as a way of finding confirmation of their election
How did they view work/labour?
As one’s ‘calling’; diligence and thrift, and success, seen as signs of salvation
Who argued that English Protestants were in fact extraordinary generous to the poor?
Jordan
What did Jutte argue?
Increased secularisation and rationalisation of charitable efforts in light of rapid change and growing poverty
Who has argued that distinctions between rational and religious were inextricable for those involved in relieving the poor?
Safley
What is Ben Amos’ thesis?
Charitable giving surged rather than declined with the Reformation
How does Ben Amos view social relations?
As enmeshed in a cycle of offerings and reciprocation - culture of giving embedded in personal transactions
What does Ben Amos argue cultivated and encouraged support?
Feasts, gifts, enhanced reputation that giving brought
What suggests that status was a major part of giving relief in this period?
Gifts listed and evaluated in account books kept by the middling and upper ranks
What was one impact of the expansion of the state and market, according to Ben Amos?
Provided new venues for and new techniques of gift giving
Who argues that the period 1530-70 was a generally positive period?
Wrightston; one of expanding economic opportunity
Who conducted a study of Terling?
Wrightson
What does the study of Terling show?
Marked division between an increasing number of labour poor and an established economic elite
What was discovered in a mid-century urban census?
Labouring poor
What summarises Beier’s argument re. charity?
“Still a good deal of residual public sympathy for the itinerant beggar”
What change has Beier identified at the turn of the 16th century?
Increasingly, local and central government policy was punitive and restrictive
What new punishment was added in 1597? What did it add to?
Transportation. Imprisonment, flogging, impressment
What idea had faded by the later 1570s and 80s and what was it replaced with?
‘Commonwealth’. Replaced with concept of ‘public service’
What quote by St Paul reflects his attitude towards the poor?
“Those who would not work should not eat”
How did the moral economy positively impact the poor?
Rich sold below market prices, prohibitions on profiting from dearth, charity
What became less of a problem in this period?
Plague
What four types of responses were there to plague outbreaks in this period?
Administrative codes, response of intellectuals/doctors/divines, activities of local governors, reactions of ordinary people
Who argues that plague was effectively eliminated and how?
Slack; through positive public policies like quarantine
What was a main hindrance in controlling plague?
No awareness of the role played by rats and fleas
How does Slack define “social response”?
How people in affected communities tried to control, interpret and come to grips with the situation posed by the plague
What did Walter and Schofield identify as crucial variables in the impact of famine and responses to it?
Social, economic and family structures - human choices as important as autonomous fluctuations in climate and disease
Who argues that England’s family structure made England better placed to deal with harvest failure?
Schofield
What kind of society was England?
Individualistic, rather than familistic
How did the poorer classes protect themselves from dearth, according to Walter?
Sharecropping, receiving wages in kind, living in as servants, small grants of land, use of credit and wholesale purchases at farm gates
How did the written word serve to help the poor receive relief, according to Ben Amos?
Petitions, tomb inscriptions testifying to generosity, begging letters and appeals for help in newspapers
What has Hindle identified as a positive aside of work, other than providing a financial contribution to a poor person’s budget?
Gave them a store of moral and cultural capital - vital in negotiating with givers
What radically altered the power relationship between collectors/givers and receivers?
Threat of the work house
What does Heal argue became fragmented and marginalised by 1600?
Ideal and practice of hospitality; the ‘vision of neighbourliness’
In what did Thomas also identify a change?
A change in language - e.g. ‘middle sort’ becomes ‘better sort’
What was a key way to move out of the poverty trap?
To work in a position of direct dependency
What fraction of the labour force worked in households as masters, servants, or in husbandry, in 17th century villages? What was the proportion in towns?
1/2 - 2/3 2/5
What were the dangers of a system of dependency?
Unstable and could lead to vagrancy; breaking contracts, quarrelling, neglect of duties, female servants became pregnant
What percentage left their towns each year in the 1520s?
15%
How many migrated to the American Colonies in the 17th century?
200 000
Who were a mobile / vulnerable group?
Small holders; forced out if, it not evicted from villages becoming enclosed
By how much did the urban population increase between 1500-1700?
4x
By how much did woodland villages in the midlands grow?
30-50%
What kind of opportunities were there in woodland areas?
Industrial opportunities; mining, metallurgy, cloth industry
What meant that forest areas eventually had to rely upon outside corn supplies?
Expansion of pastoral farming
What theory did Hufton have for 18th century France?
An economy of makeshifts
In Terling, what percentage of people were related to each other?
40%
In Gosforth, how many were related to another household, according to Williams?
80%
What was a key clause in the Elizabethan poor laws?
Kinship obligation clause
What towns were particularly badly hit by the dissolution of monasteries?
Abingdon, Coventry, Oxford
How many were unemployed after the dissolution of the monasteries?
9000 servants etc.
Who argued that post-Reformation charity made up whatever losses resulted from the dissolutions? By how much does he argue bequests increased? Why was his study flawed?
Jordan. 10x increase. Failed to take price inflation into account.
What are crucial problems with recent studies of charity?
Mostly derived from wills. Do not record all giving, neglecting casual handouts. Gifts often in kind.
What is Thomas’ theory?
Tradition of mutual help
What did many communities do in response to dissolutions?
Private feoffees and communities bought back property formerly belonging to monasteries and assigned part of them to poor relief
When did the foundation of alms-houses peak?
1580s
What was reintroduced as part of the 1597 act?
Begging license - attempt to regularise a customary practice
What relevant homily was published in 1547? When was it reissued?
Homily of alms-deeds and mercifulness towards the poor and needy. Reissued in 15463/95/1626
What did churchwardens do in some parishes?
Went from home to home when prayers ended on Wednesday and Fridays and collected alms in cash and kind
How many proclamations were issued between 1596 and 1640 forcing gentry to return to their estates?
17
What were benefactors allowed to found as part of the poor law?
Alms-houses, houses of correction, hospitals - without letters patent/charters
What in Parliament shows the continued relevance of giving? (shared desire to maintain the customary patterns of domestic giving)
Lords stipulated a clause that protected the alms of noblemen. Commons fought for a right to give money/fragments
From where to where did vagrants move?
North-South, West-East
What percentage apprehended for vagrancy between 1570-1622 were under 16?
43%
Who shows vagrancy to have been a diverse social problem?
Beier
What stereotype surrounded vagrants and crime?
That the poor were perpetrators rather than victims of property offences
What bill was proposed in 1597/8 relating to vagrancy/crime?
Summary corporal punishment on those convicted of grain theft, pilfering from gardens and orchards
Who were two writers who propagated the stereotype of vagrants?
Richard Head, Thomas Harman
How did commoners come to be described?
“The vulgar sort of people”
What two types of poor did a clergyman identify in 1668?
“Of the poor there are two sorts, God’s poor, and the Devil’s”
When was there an upsurge in vagrancy?
1571-1642
What did vagrancy laws primarily intend to deal with?
A new social problem - a large landless element in society with few prospects
What increased vagrancy c 1586?
Disbanding of soldiers and sailors
What was there a link between in Essex?
High grain prices and levels of indicted crime
What was an example of summary justice on vagrants? Why did jurists challenge this?
Constables and JPs were authorised to commit vagrants upon examination. Contrary to Magna Carta
How have socialist historians seen bridewells?
As a ideological experiment, aimed at forcing lower orders into a labouring existence, and dictated by needs of the labour houses
When was an Act introduced against the taking of lodgers and inmates? What did it stipulate?
- Only 1 family/inmate per cottage
What was the damaging spiral with vagrancy?
Labelling a vagrant helped make him one - first punishment decisive stage in the downward social spiral producing a dangerous and incorrigible rogue
What has Beier identified as a key problem with bridewells?
Underfunded - private contractors exploited them for private gain
Why did vagrancy legislation generally fail?
Aim of social engineering was not universally apparent and backed up by the means to carry it through
What led to a decline in the vagrancy problem?
Changing economic conditions
How did policy towards vagrants change in the 1660s? What generally improved their position in this period?
Paupers removed to place of origin and relieved under provisions of poor laws. Labour in great demand - linked to a laissez faire economy
What two aspects did the relief system/poor law have?
1) To arrange for the support of those in need on a local/central basis
2) To control those to be recipients, and decide on the qualification which would define the poor
What did the poor law system and related legislation simultaneously try to do?
Relieve and constrain the poor
How have Marxist historians seen vagrancy laws?
As an early experiment in social engineering and a crude attempt to froce masterless labourer into labour market
How keen were communities to give support, according to Hindle?
Not very; tried to encourage poor to ‘shift’ for themselves as long as possible
What does Hindle argue helped fashion the distinctive shape of rural and social relations?
Negotiations over issues of entitlement and eligibility in the sphere of poor relief
What policy had a major effect on both the administration and experiences of welfare?
Apprenticeship of pauper children
What does Hindle see as being the fundamental objective of poor relief?
“Social control rather than social justice”
What does Slack argue dominated thinking about public welfare at the start of the 16th century? What did they hope it would lead to?
Concept of reformation - the radical comprehensive and once and for all change in society
A well ordered utopia
What was implemented instead of ‘reformation’?
Gradual, piecemeal changes that tried to make society better step by step
What shift occurred in thinking by the end of this period?
Intellectual shift away from zeal towards a cooler, yet more sensitive set of attitudes to welfare
What must be remembered about economic and demographic pressures?
Whilst they triggered action, they did not determine the ideological frmaework in which policies were constructed
What are two examples of “Second Genevas”?
Coventry and Stratford
What was banned in Kingston upon Hull in the 1560s? What was stipulated?
Cards, dice, dowls
One member of the household had to attend sermons on Sundays and Wednesdays. Curfew after 9pm
What did a 1537 Bishop’s Book stipulate?
Those living by graft of begging slothfully “Should be excluded from charity”
What did acts in 1495 and 1531 mainly aim at?
Keeping the poor from wandering
When did major change occur and what did this mark? What did churchwardens have to do?
- Germ of a state, parish based system of relief. Collect alms which would be distributed through common boxes and common gathers
What was significant about a 1552 statute?
First to introduce an element of compulsion into poor relief. Would be exhorted by parson if refused to contribute and thereafter bishop
Who argues that Elizabethan poor relief legislation brought about a revolution in government?
Elton
When did an act stipulate that anyone refusing to contribute would be sent to a JP and eventually could be imprisoned? Who else did it penalise?
1563.
Penalties for those who failed to correct
What was important about the acts of 1597 and 1601?
Codified existing principles
What formal change occurred as part of the late Lizzy acts?
Formally named overseers of the poor as the chief parochial officers in charge of collections and relief
What did it establish in all but name?
A poor tax
What could be built according to the late Lizzy legislation?
Housing built at parish expense on waste/common land
What did the late acts stipulate?
That neighbouring parishes had to share relief costs if one was more heavily burdened with poor
What act relating to children was introduced in 1536?
Children could be placed in service in husbandry, aged 5-14
What was introduced as part of the 1576 act?
“Act for the setting of the poor to work”. All corporate towns to raise stocks of will, and other materials, and to build houses of correction
What shows that Protestants did not have a monopoly on “work ethic”?
More’s Utopia - 1516
Poor Law Draft 1536
Why was relief localised?
Because resources had to be local - hence denial of those from other places
What did JPS complain about in West Riding in 1598?
The return home of poor northerners due to the Poor Law legislation
Where did Appleby find evidence of death by starvation between 1586-1624?
Cumberland and Westmorland
What has Appleby stressed the existence of? What is the problem with this?
“Two Englands”
Also mortality crises in Staffordshire, Devon, Essex, Sussex
Whose study has stressed that the sick and poor were best served in their birth parish? Where were their studies conducted?
Pelling
Norwich, and Wear parish, London
What is thus the significance of local conditions?
Produced a variety of environments in which the relations between secular and religious motivations and practices were not clear-cut/uniform
What problems in urban centres made them likely candidates for early action on poor law matters?
Suffered from London’s competition/trade and had depressed economies
Centres of immigration and population growth
Dissolution of hospitals/alms-houses forced their hand - had been generally located in towns
Towns were centres of intellectual and religious activity
How can urban places be labelled?
Natural laboratories
When was the first census?
Norwich 1570
What traditional policy dominated market life?
That prices should be controlled and just and that all dealings should be public
When were the first compulsory rates introduced?
London 1547, cambridge 1556
What were the key figures of the Scottish poor relief system?
Discretionary relief Recipients had fewer rights Voluntary giving, begging and informal charity crucial Fewer institutions No relief to able-bodied
What does Mitchinson argue was avoided?
“Evils of assessment”
What was still expected in Scotland?
Contribution from individual donors
What was the impact of political circumstances in Scotland?
Marked localism of its poor relief administration
From when until when did the Old Poor Law of Scotland function?
1574-1845
Why did the Church take over the administration of poor relief in Scotland?
No other body had an effective system of local government
What was the financial base of poor relief in Scotland? What was the significance of this?
Charitable giving
Meant it was particularly under the influence of changes in social and religious thought
What were significant pressures / influences on the Scottish system?
Charitable impulses, protestant desire for a well ordered society, landowners’ fears of a regular land tax but wish to appear generous, emphasis of evangelical movement on personal independence and responsibility
What was a unique Scottish legal principle?
Desuetude
What reflects the fact that Scottish rulers had a more limited understanding of economy?
Irresponsible debasing of the coinage
By how much did food prices increase in Scotland?
6X-8X
What was the impact of the structure of society?
Meant that those governing it knew little of the life of those who worked with their hands - parish life neglected
In what way did government under James VI begin to act differently?
State authority differentiated from the exercise of private, baronial authority
When was the first statute issued by the Scottish Parliament? What was it largely a copy of? What was the main aim of both?
1574
English Act of 1572
To primarily control beggars
What were the essences of the 1574 act?
Poor/aged/impotent to be supported by a local tax or stent
Vagrant and sturdy beggars to be arrested/imprisoned/branded/sent away
What was the key difference between the English and Scottish legislation?
English parishes ordered to provide work/employment
Also difference in likelihood of application
What did the English government have that the Scottish lacked?
Means of extracting obedience e.g. courts, JPs, Star Chamber
What fraction of Scotland was not under royal jurisdiction? Who controlled it?
Half. Held in franchise by the nobility
Where in particular were nobles the effective rulers?
Western Islands and highlands
What were big names in Scotland?
Hamiltons, Gordons
When was the JP office introduced? What powers did it not include?
1609
Supervision of the poor law
Who was it difficult to make obey?
Burgh councils
What were 2 key problems?
Novelty and reluctance to pay money
When did Edinburgh try to levy a rate? What did they do when it failed?
1575
Issued tokens licensing begging
What had Edinburgh created by 1591?
A list of the poor forbidden to beg
What were burghs slow at responding to?
Demand for a stent
Glasgow didn’t raise one until 1638
What did the Scottish PC object to in 1619?
Beggars flocking to funerals and wedding
What act shows nervousness at large assemblies of any class, esp. gypsies?
1621 Sumptuary Act
What was the blueprint for the new kirk?
The First Book of Discipline
What did the First Book of Discipline declare?
Every Kirk must provide for the poor within itself… we are not patrons for stubborn and idle beggars whom the civil magistrate ought to punish
What did a 1570 session at St Andrews declare?
That relief should only be given to those who attended sermon and knew by heart the lord’s prayer, creed, 10 commandments
Where only had half of its parishes with their own minister?
Aberdeenshire
When was there the beginning of some general civil government in rural areas in Scotland?
1609 with the borrowing of English JPs
What act accepted the kirk session as the instrument of supervision of relief?
Act of 1592
Who argues that England conquered famine at a high social price, one of a crisis of dependence?
Walter
In what way does Slack think England was unique?
In its fine balance between governmental and voluntary approaches
What does Hindle argue about the rate by which the parish rating and pension system spread?
Faster than hitherto argued; well entrenched by civil wars
What does Hindle argue we must remember when judging the impact of legislation?
Sheer-scale of economic problems and problems of securing compliance
What does Wrigley stress?
The impact of alternative factors in reducing the poor problem
By how much did Gross yields increase in this period?
100%
Where’s population grew 4x between 1563-1666? How was this problem mitigated?
Whickham
Better trade links with London and East Anglia
