Unit 3.4 Less Eligibility: the Poor Law Amendment Act and its Impacts 1832-47

Question 1

What was the Whig government?

Answer 1

Liberal government

Question 2

Who were the 2 main political parties?

Answer 2

The Whig party
The tory party

Question 3

When was the royal commission on the enquiry into the poor law? What government was it introduced by?

Answer 3

Created in 1832 and was introduced by the Whig government

Question 4

Why was the royal commission on the enquiry into the poor law necessary?

Answer 4

Many people think it needed reform - like malfus - different idea of how to reform it but many people wanted to
Napoleonic wars - things became more expensive due to prices going up - bread was more expensive - made outdoor relief more expensive
Poor law wasn’t there to stop poverty just to motivate the paupers - couldn’t end the cycle of poverty but continued it
Swing riots - political unrest

Question 5

How many people were in charge of the royal commission on the enquiry into the poor law? Examples?

Answer 5

9 people - like Edwin Chadwick and Nassau Senior (who was a professor of political economy at oxford)

Question 6

How many assistant commissioners were sent out with the commission? To how many parishes?

Answer 6

26 assistant commissioners, they were sent to 3000 parishes (1/5 of the poor law districts) to talk to paupers and ask questions

Question 7

How many parishes responded to the commission?

Answer 7

10%

Question 8

What were strengths of the royal commission?

Answer 8

-3 different questionnaires were produced - could accustom to different needs
-One of the commissioners was a professor (very educated and knowledgable)
-Government is finally taking some responsibility - they weren’t really before
-It sent the questionnaires to parishes and towns - wanted to see the differences
-Commissioners talked to the poor, attended vestry meetings and magistrates sessions
-Assistant commissioners visited 3000 parishes which were 1/5
-It’s focus was to focus on reforming the poor laws

Question 9

What were some of the weaknesses of the royal commission?

Answer 9

-Only 10% of parishes responded
-Only 9 commissioners - a wider knowledge would’ve been better
-The questionnaires weren’t compulsory - more people couldve replied if it were compulsory
-The questions could be biased as they as their own questionnaires, so, many witnesses were led along predetermined paths
-A lot of the information was difficult to analyse as many questions were phrased badly

Question 10

What are some of the things that the commission found out?

Answer 10

1. The overseers and the commissioners weren’t skilled and were careless when it came to collecting data - didn’t want to be unpopular - they also left demands unsettled and rates uncollected
2. The Roundsman system didn’t work well particularly in Oxford, the farmers were selfish and jealous and many of them dismissed paupers that worked for them so they didn’t have to pay for them and the parish could maintain them
3. Many were paid very low wages in outdoor relief - would be paid more if they had a family (wages were higher if you had a large family) family-less paupers had very little support
4. The poor relief suddenly stopped in Buckinghamshire as it was a struggle continuing to collect the poor rate - in 1801, only one person received relief and poor rate was £100, but in 1832 it was £367

Question 11

How long did the commission last? From what years to what years?

Answer 11

2 years, from 1832-1834

Question 12

What were some long term concerns if poor law didnt change?

Answer 12

Increasing cost of poor relief - rising population - many believed this was due to poor relief encouraging people to have more children - also due to more paupers (ideas of Malthus and Ricardo)
Growing belief that those administrating the poor law were corrupt or exploited the laws for their own benefit - common among farmers in outdoor relief
System like the Speenhamland system actually encouraged large families and perpetuated a cycle of poverty - Roundsman did nothing to encourage labourers

Question 13

What were some immediate concerns if poor law didn’t change?

Answer 13

Swing riots and political unrest
Wars with france

Question 14

When was the poor law amendment act?

Answer 14

1834

Question 15

What were the 4 recommendations of the royal commission on the enquiry of the poor law?

Answer 15

1. Separate workhouses for the aged and infirm, children, able bodied women and able bodied men
2. Parishes should group into unions to proved workhouses
3. All relief outside workhouses should stop and conditions inside workhouse should be such that no one should enter them
4. A new central authority should be established with powers to make and enforce regulations concerning the workhouse system

Question 16

What were the 3 aims of the poor law amendment act?

Answer 16

1. To reduce the cost of providing poor relief
2. To ensure that only the genuinely destitute received relief
3. To provide a national system of poor relief - prior some were used in the south and some were used in the north

Question 17

What were the 4 main terms of the poor law amendment act?

Answer 17

1. A central authority should be set up to supervise the implementation and regulate the administration of the poor law
2. Parishes were to be grouped together to form poor law unions in order to provide relief efficiently
3. Each poor law union was to establish a workhouse in which inmates would live in conditions that were worse than those of th poorest independent labourer - less eligibility
4. Outdoor relief for the able bodied poor was to be discouraged but, significantly, was not abolished

Question 18

Who were the 4 key commissioners of the poor law commissions?

Answer 18

1. Thomas Frankand Lewis (Tory MP) who was involved in the sturges bournes select committee of 1817-18
2. George Nicholls (bank of England official) was a radical overseer in Nottingham’s under the old poor law
3. John Shaw-Lefevre (lawyer) was a Whig MP and under Secretary of State for war and the colonies
4. Edwin Chadwick who was the secretary to the commission (utilitarian lawyer)

Question 19

What were the 2 priorities of the amendment act?

Answer 19

1. The transfer of out of work and underemployed workers in rural areas to urban areas where employment was plentiful
2. The protection of urban ratepayers from a sudden urge of demand from rural migrants prior to their obtaining regular employment through the settlement laws

Question 20

When was the poor law commission created?

Answer 20

After the poor law amendment act of 1834

Question 21

Key differences between the royal commission on the enquiry on the poor law and the poor law commission?

Answer 21

Royal commission on the enquiry of the poor law - created by Whig government, had 9 commissioners
Poor law commission - independently ran, had 3 commissioners (the Bashaws of Somerset House)

Question 22

How long did the poor law commission last?

Answer 22

1834-1847

Question 23

What are the 8 key factors of what a workhouse was like from 1834?

Answer 23

Architecture & design
Rules and routine
Work
Diets
Discipline
Children
New paupers
Staff

Question 24

How were architecture and design a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 24

-The design and structure of workhouses were intended to be a deterrent to paupers and to instil discipline in the paupers
-Sampson Kempthorne - architect who was appointed architect to the Poor Law Commission in 1835 - he produced designs to create standards that new workhouses should be or altered existing ones
-The Y-shaped workhouse, two or three storeys high, had 3 wings with the master’s rooms in the middle that would look out onto three exercise yards
-The cruciform-shaped workhouse, two storeys high, the cruciform shape divided the space into four exercise yards
-divided paupers - enabled the workhouse officers to provide appropriately for each type of pauper
-They were a deterrence factor by splitting up families - quickly lost their individuality and bean to be treated as impersonal units

Question 25

How were rules and routine a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 25

-The routine was designed to be unpleasant and was intended to deter people from seeking relief e.g. on entry to a workhouse, the pauper was given a medical inspection and then split up - parents separated from children (mothers did often stay with their children until they were 7)
-Children were sent to the workhouse school, when they were 9-10, apprenticed (often to the cotton mills of Lancashire) without their parents’ consent or even without their knowledge
-Paupers had to wear a workhouse uniform - stripped away their personality
-All paupers had a weekly bath - staff watched while this happened - to prevent any attempt at drowning and add to the sense of loss of privacy
-No personal possessions were allowed and there were to lockers where paupers could put clothes or shoes - prevented any expression of individuality.
-The daily routine was designed to be boring and monotonous

Question 26

How was work a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 26

-It was essential that workhouse inmates worked - to restore them to the workforce outside
-It could not diminish available employment outside the workhouse, so that the able-bodied working poor wouldn’t become paupers
-Work done inside the workhouse could not pay more than the cost of the workhouse to maintain the pauper
-Women and children worked to help maintain the workhouse e.g. worked in the laundries, kitchens and sick rooms
-If work that was economical within a workhouse could not be found, monotonous work was given to the paupers e.g. unraveling ropes so that the fibres could be used again or crushing bones
-Paupers were doing the same work as convicts and with the same attendant degradation

Question 27

How were diets a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 27

-The supply of food to paupers was a form of discipline
-The Poor Law commissioners issued 6 model diets from which guardians could choose the one, that best suited their pockets
-The guardians didnt want to force paupers into starvation but fed them as much as the truly destitute
-The aim of the dietaries was to sustain life and make mealtimes as boring as possible - paupers should get no pleasure from the food they ate e.g. until 1842, all meals were eaten in silence
-All food like meats and breads were of poor quality
-1830s - some workhouses did not allow paupers to use cutlery, and they were forced to scoop up their food with their hands and drink from bowls.

Question 28

How was discipline a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 28

-Paupers could be punished for making too much noise or working too slowly but were rewarded with food or clean jobs
-Systems of rewards and punishments had no legal backing and had grown up through custom - some specific punishments were laid down by the Poor Law commissioners
-Under the old Poor Law, paupers were abused by overseers, now there were limits to powers that were universally applied by the Poor Law commissioners e.g. Girls and women could not be beaten
-Most workhouses had punishment cells or paupers were forced to spend the night in the mortuary
-Staff could not prevent paupers from leaving, neither could they refuse to readmit them
-1871 - Act of Parliament gave guardians the power to limit the number of times a pauper could leave the workhouse

Question 29

How were children a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 29

-Children could not be held responsible for their own poverty
-But they could not be made better than that of poor children outside the workhouse as they were paupers - some argue their lives were better anyways
-Pauper children received a basic education, better medical attention than on the outside and, when they were 9, they were apprenticed
-but they could be apprenticed to any passing tradespeople and taken far away from families
-If they ran away and were caught, they would be returned
-It was the Education Act (Forster’s Act) 1870 that placed the education of pauper children firmly within the elementary school system and so helped their integration into society.

Question 30

How were new paupers a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 30

-Workhouses provided short- and long-term care - around 1/5 of inmates were inside for 5+ years
-Young people - got temporary shelter and a solution to a personal crisis - moved in and out of workhouses, depending on the seasonality of employment or the severity of a local epidemic
-Vagrants - considered less deserving than any settled poor - given overnight accommodation, were fed a meal and sometimes had their clothes disinfected - beyond redemption
-The elderly - provided with shelter until death, mainly elderly men were helped as women when old, could be of domestic use to their families so they tended to be kept by their relatives
-Children - who made up between 25%-40% of all admissions - were both long and short-stay inmates, most workhouse children were abandoned, orphans or ill
-Single women - who could not claim outdoor relief - made up a significant proportion of any workhouse community and included widows, abandoned wives, single mothers and prostitutes.
-The mentally ill - grew from 1 per 100 to 1 per 8 inmates as the century progressed.

Question 31

How were staff a factor of what life was like in a workhouse from 1834?

Answer 31

-There were cleaners, cooks, chimney sweeps and more - some of this work was carried out by the paupers or by the poor who lived outside the workhouse who were payed low wages
-The master and matron were introduced - they were key individuals in a pauper’s day-to-day life. The master was responsible for the discipline and economy of the workhouse; the mation for the female paupers and the domestic side of life.
-Master and Matron could make a workhouse a place of dread, or a place where the most vulnerable in society were given help
-E.g. in Ashford, the union workhouse was run by a retired naval officer and his wife - famous for its efficiency and compassion, and was a model to which others should aspire, when the master retired, paupers wept.
-George Catch, an ex-policeman, moved from workhouse to workhouse in London, inflicting terror and cruelty wherever he went

Question 32

When was the consolidated general order? What was it?

Answer 32

1847 - states punishments mainly for young children e.g. no child under 12 should be punished by being put into a dark room or confined during the night, or no corporal punishment inflicted on a girl

Question 33

What are some examples of punishments that paupers received in the workhouses under the new Poor Law?

Answer 33

-were beaten
-children put into confinement
-deprived of the liberty of going out after the church service on Sunday
-beds were taken away
-dragged out of bed, stripped and had water thrown at them
-were given bread and water every other day - food was withheld - meat not given for 10 days
-put into a tramp room
-clothes taken away

Question 34

Some examples of how and why workhouse staff would treat paupers badly in the new Poor Law workhouses?

Answer 34

-if the paupers weren’t working or swore at them
-didnt allow paupers to see guardians
-neglected paupers and didnt care for them
-were intimidating and threatening
-harsh and abusive if they had an accident e.g. weed themselves
-set impossible targets and if the paupers didnt break as many rocks, the paupers were punished
-punished paupers if they tried to justify inability to work

Question 35

What were Guardians like under the new Poor Law?

Answer 35

-some of them tried to help reduce physical abuse
-most didnt do anything about the neglecting and didn’t respond to paupers concerns
-guardians sometimes responded and said they would visit the workhouse to fix the issue
-paupers were fed up of the guardians lack of support so were blamed for issues and called selfish

Question 36

Why was there opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 36

-People outside losing jobs, the able bodied poor and businessmen unhappy
-Humanitarians unhappy that the paupers were being treated in a certain way
-People unhappy with disease and illness within the workhouse - bad conditions
-Many people hated and feared the threat of the workhouse - workhouses seen as prisons
-Due to cyclical unemployment in rural areas, short term relief (outdoor relief) was needed - farmers lost labour so unhappy
-Centralisation of the poor law commission was resented by many in the midlands and the north who believed they had little knowledge of the industrial conditions

Question 37

What were the 5 main reasons for the opposition to the new poor law?

Answer 37

1. Rumours and Propaganda
2. Genuine Fears
3. Protest in the rural south
4. Opposition in the north: industrial Lancashire and West Yorkshire
5. Richard Oastler and John Fielden

Question 38

How was rumour and propaganda a reason for opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 38

-Union workhouses were built some distance from the homes of most of those seeking relief - workhouses believed to be extermination centres to keep the poor rates low
-The book of murder, widely circulated and believed to be the work of the poor law commissioners - contained suggestions that pauper children should be gassed
-In Devon, many of the poor believed that bread distributed as part of outdoor relief was poisoned in order to reduce those claiming this form of relief
-Rumours that all children over and above the first three in a paupers family were to be killed
-Many anti poor law campaigners said new Poor Law lowered the national wage bill, workhouses were supposed to force people into the labour market - ideas spread that mill owners in the north wanted unemployed workers from the south to work for them

Question 39

How was genuine fear a reason for opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 39

-Many attacked the centralisation in the new Poor Law, commissioners were seen as London based and had no real concern for life outside London
-Many feared the replacement of the old Poor Law as the new would break the traditional bonds between rich and poor which resulted in a social contract
-Rural ratepayers realised that outdoor relief was cheaper than indoor relief and were worried that workhouse building would lead to higher poor rates
-Ratepayers in northern industrial areas were prone to unemployment, they released that to build a large workhouse in the times of the depression would be an enormous cost

Question 40

How were protests in the rural south a reason for opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 40

-1835 - commissioners began their work in the most heavily pauperised districts in the south - where Poor Law Amendment Act was first enforced
-Local magistrates and clergy angered that there was unnecessary centralisation and that the master-servant relationship was present, so they joined paupers in protest
-The 2 key reasons for protests were to protest against centralisation and then also against the institutionalism of the workhouse
-E.g. East Anglia where newly built workhouses were attacked e.g. at St Clements in Ipswich - particularly damaged, where relieving officers were assaulted, the poor took to the streets and the more influential citizens used their positions to refuse to apply the less eligibility rule strictly, continuing to use outdoor relief and circumventing inhumane law
-Tolpuddle Martyrs - Dorset labourers - were sentenced to transportation for swearing illegal oaths - rural protests were often depressed

Question 41

How was opposition in the north particularly industrial Lancashire and West Yorkshire a reason for opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 41

-1837 during the onset of a trade depression, attention was turned towards the north
-Guardians, magistrates, mill and factory ownsers resented interference from Londoners who had little info of industrial conditions in the north
-demands of the Ten Hours’ Movement (sustained campaign in 1830s to reduce hours worked in mills to ten per day for women and children) also increased opposition - helped the working class
-Anti poor law associations arose uniting Tory paternalists like Richard Oastler and John Fielden with socialists such as Laurence Pitkeithly
-huge public protests were held at which the commissioners of Somerset House (poor law commissioners) and their bastilles (prisons in Paris stormed at the beginning of the French revolution in 1789) were denounced
-e.g. Bradford 1838, assistant commissioners Alfred Power was threatened by a mob and pelted with stones, troops were sent from London to stop riots

Question 42

How was Richard Oastler a reason for opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 42

-Was a successful steward of Fixby (large estate) for 14 years
-Supported the Ten Hours’ Movement and involved in anti poor law agitation
-believed the poor law commissioners were too powerful and that poor law reduced the factory wages as well as living conditions
-1838 - he was urging workers to involve themsleves in strikes

Question 43

How was John Fielden a reason for opposition to the new Poor Law?

Answer 43

-1832 - entered the commons
-radical member of the Whig party
-voted against the poor law ammendment bill and tried to get the act repealed
-member of the Commons committee between 1837 and 1838 investigating the working of the new poor law
-shut down his mill as opposition to the new poor law, this caused mass unemployment and upset

Question 44

Reasons why opposition to the Poor Law amendment act was successful?

Answer 44

-Anti poor law movement was well organised and effective in the short term
-Use of violence would force the government to take action
-Rumours and propaganda got a lot of support and made people fearful
-The government made some concessions (granted some things due to great demands) with some unions
-In Todmorden, the Poor Law was paused until 1877

Question 45

Reasons why opposition to the Poor Law amendment act was not successful?

Answer 45

-The government did not repeal the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834
-The new Poor Law established relatively easily in other areas besides Todmorden
-Opposition was short lived and was often a spontaneous reaction to unwelcome change, therefore unorganised and little chance of success
-Gov responded with imprisonments and combatted riots with troops e.g. in Bradford
-The treatment of the Toldpuddle martyrs put rural communities off protesting

Question 46

Less eligibility

Answer 46

Conditions in workhouses had to be worse than conditions available to the poorest of labourers outside so that there was a deterrence to claiming poor relief

Question 47

Ways less eligibility was met?

Answer 47

-Families split up upon arrival
-workhouses looked like prisons
-Food was taken away as punishment, food weighed in front of paupers, it was poorly prepared
-Until 1842, all meals were to be eaten in silence
-You couldnt bathe without being watched
-Mundane and monotonous routine and work in general
-Children taken from parents without them being aware when they were apprenticed
-Lost free will, wore a uniform, no personal possessions

Question 48

Ways less eligibility was not met?

Answer 48

-Children could not be held responsible for their own poverty
-Women couldn’t be beaten
-Children inside workhouses had better life than outside - basic education, medical attention, apprenticed
-There were good staff e.g. Ashford where a union workhouse was run by a retired naval officer and his wife - paupers wept when they retired
-Guaranteed food and shelter - could not be reduced to starvation which was made likely on the outside due to corn laws and rising bread prices
-weekly baths and men given razors