Poverty and Pauperism

Question 1

First Poor Law Act?

Answer 1

1601

Question 2

When was the Poor Law Amendment Act?

Answer 2

1834

Question 3

How many Poorhouses existed in 1766?

Answer 3

2,000 + (w/ 20-50 inmates each)

Question 4

What was Gilbert’s Act (1782)?

Answer 4

Only orphaned children or those who physically could not work were admitted to Poorhouses

Question 5

What was the Speenhamland System?

Answer 5

Value of relief given was tied to the cost of a loaf of bread, number of children and wages

Question 6

When was the Royal Commission formed?

Answer 6

1st February 1832

Question 7

Two members of the Royal Commission?

Answer 7

Nassau Senior and Edwin Chadwick

Question 8

Which organisation offered a blueprint for workhouses?

Answer 8

National Charity Company (utilitarian)

Question 9

How much of GDP (as a percentage) was spent on poor relief between 1814 and 1820?

Answer 9

2%

Question 10

How many workhouses built by 1839?

Answer 10

350

Question 11

Cost to build a single workhouse?

Answer 11

£6,200

Question 12

1862 - cost to keep one pauper in workhouse compared to giving them outdoor relief?

Answer 12

Workhouse: 4s 8d
Outdoor: 2s 3d

Question 13

Provisions of first Poor Laws?

Answer 13

Parish of birth looks after poor, compulsory poor rate, creation of overseers of relief, poor relief rate collected from property owners

Question 14

Workhouse conditions

Answer 14

10 hour working day, no alcohol or drugs, diet was bread and gruel, workers forced to wear uniform, segregation of men and women

Question 15

Provisions of new poor law?

Answer 15

Poor relief to only be given in workhouses, up to £20 fine for failing to comply

Question 16

How much did population increase by between 1815 and 1831?

Answer 16

6 million

Question 17

When were the Napoleonic Wars?

Answer 17

1793-1815

Question 18

Average cost of poor relief per year 1814-18?

Answer 18

£6.4 million

Question 19

Cost of poor relief in 1834?

Answer 19

£7 million

Question 20

Wages for people in urban areas 1803?

Answer 20

12 shillings a week

Question 21

Who criticised the old poor law in 1786?

Answer 21

Joseph Townsend in Dissertation on the Poor Laws

Thought it encouraged idleness

Question 22

What act was passed in 1817?

Answer 22

Poor Employment Act - public money spent to employ poor in public works

Question 23

Which act allowed elected committees to scrutinise relief claims?

Answer 23

Act for the Regulation of Parish Vestries (1818)

Question 24

Recommendations of the Royal Commission?

Answer 24

Remove outdoor relief, use gruelling workhouses as a deterrent, group parishes together, creation of central board to implement changes

Question 25

What did Thomas Paine believe?

Answer 25

Wrote Rights of Man (1791)

Wanted Pension provision for 50+, and child benefit of £4 per year for under 14s

Question 26

What was passed in 1836 that affected poor relief?

Answer 26

General Prohibitory Order banning outdoor relief

Question 27

Prominent members of Anti-Poor Law Movement in the South?

Answer 27

Media: The Times
Politicians: Robert Peel and Duke of Wellington
The people: Riots in 1835 in Bedfordshire, Kent and Suffolk

Question 28

Prominent members of Anti-Poor Law Movement in the North?

Answer 28

Radical Tory reformers Michael Sadler and Richard Oastler

Question 29

When was the Andover workhouse scandal?

Answer 29

1845

Question 30

Number of workhouses built 1834-40 and 1851-66?

Answer 30

1834-40: 402

1851-66: 100

Question 31

When was the Huddersfield workhouse scandal?

Answer 31

1848

Question 32

What group was established in 1858?

Answer 32

Workhouse Visiting Society

Made unofficial checks on workhouses

Question 33

What did the Metropolitan Poor Act (1867) achieve?

Answer 33

Medical facilities put separate to workhouses and established Metropolitan Asylum Board

Question 34

What was Urania Cottage?

Answer 34

Home for poor women opened by Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts in 1847

Question 35

Reformist writers?

Answer 35

Thomas Carlyle (Past and Present; 1843), Henry Mayhew (London Labour and London Poor; 1851), Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist; 1837); Samuel Smiles (Self Help; 1859)