WHAT IMPACT DID THE PROVISION OF PARISH INDOOR RELIEF HAVE UPON PAUPERISM?

Question 1

Where were the impotent poor looked after under the Elizabethan Poor Law?

Answer 1

• sick, old, infirm and mentally ill- looked after in poorhouses.

Question 2

Where were the able-bodied poor to receive relief under the Elizabethan Poor Law?

Answer 2

• sent to work in a workhouse while they continued to live at home.

Question 3

Where were those who refused work/ beggars/ vagrants sent to under the Elizabethan Poor Law?

Answer 3

• house of correction to be punished.

Question 4

What was to happen to pauper children under the Elizabethan Poor Law?

Answer 4

• they were apprenticed to a trade so they could support themselves when they grew up.

Question 5

Why did they system of dividing the poor to separate institutions not really work in practice?

Answer 5

• wasn’t cost effective for each parish to provide for paupers in this way.

Question 6

Which were the first urban parishes to combine for the purpose of workhouse building?

Answer 6

• Exeter, Hereford, Gloucester and Plymouth.

Question 7

By 1780, what areas parishes had significantly amalgamated for workhouse building?

Answer 7

• Suffolk- about half of their parishes combined.

Question 8

By 1780, how many workhouses were there across England and Wales and how many paupers could they hold?

Answer 8

• 2000 workhouses, providing 90,000 places for paupers.

Question 9

What was the most common form of relief under the Elizabethan Poor Law?

Answer 9

• outdoor relief.

Question 10

Why did parishes begin grouping together to form workhouses?

Answer 10

• they were at their maximum capacity as far as indoor relief was concerned.

Question 11

How did the amalgamation of parishes effect those in authoritative positions enforcing the Poor Law?

Answer 11

• transfer of authority away from parish overseers to elected guardians of the poor.
• larger areas to administer- guardians and overseers should have experience.
• overseers- tended to be local farmers abs tradesmen.
• guardians- magistrates, gentry, higher ranking tenant farmers.

Question 12

When was the Gilbert’s Act?

Answer 12

• 1782.

Question 13

By the end of the 18th century, why was the attention of parliament drawn to more formally reforming the poor laws?

Answer 13

• end of the American War of independence (1872)- demobilised soldiers flooding the labour market and not all could find work.
• enclosure- long term rural unemployment.
• early stages of industrialisation- attracted people to towns, increasing the pressure on parishes here to provide relief.

Question 14

What were the terms of the 1782 Gilbert’s Act?

Answer 14

• parishes were to combine into unions to build abs maintain workhouses if 2/3 landowners and ratepayers voted in favour (voting weighted according to value of property).
• overseers to be replaced by paid guardians, appointed by local magistrates chosen from a list of ratepayers.
• Gilbert unions were solely for the aged, sick and children.
• parish guardian to find work for able bodied workers- of this wasn’t found they could receive outdoor relief.

Question 15

What type of Act was the Gilbert’s Act?

Answer 15

• permissive act- parishes didn’t have to follow it.

* 1786- Gilbert attempted, but failed, to make it a mandatory Act.

Question 16

What further two pieces of legislation did Thomas Gilbert manage to pass through parliament?

Answer 16

• overseers required to submit annual returns of poor law expenditure- evidence on the cost of poor relief to be used by later reformers.
• ministers and church wardens required to provide information on charities which services mirrored that of the Poor Law.

Question 17

Why were parishes slow to adopt the Gilbert’s Act at first?

Answer 17

• they were under no compulsion to adopt the Act (permissive).

Question 18

By 1834, how many parishes had combined into Gilbert Unions?

Answer 18

• 924 parishes into 67 Gilbert Unions.

Question 19

By the end of the 18th century, in what way was it clear that there were 2 sets of largely rural Poor Law Unions in existence?

Answer 19

• one set created by local initiatives to amalgamate parishes.
• other set created under the stricter terms of the Gilbert’s Act.
• both of these in rural areas of the Midlands, south-east and east of England.

Question 20

When were the Sturges-Bourne Acts?

Answer 20

• 1818 and 1819.

Question 21

What are the Sturgess-Bourne Acts also known as?

Answer 21

• the Select Vestries Acts- direct outcome of the House of Commons Select Committee on the poor laws.

Question 22

What was the nature of the Sturges-Bourne Acts?

Answer 22

• permissive Act- only applied to those parishes who’s vestries voted to adopt it.

Question 23

What was the aim of the Sturges-Bourne Acts?

Answer 23

• tie the landowners, gentry and well respected people more firmly into the administration of the poor laws.

Question 24

What did the 1st Sturges-Bourne Act do?

Answer 24

• established how the voting of of men to the parish select vestries who were responsible for local administration of the poor laws was to work.
• land owners with land worth less than £50 had 1 vote, for every further £25 a man had another vote up to 6 votes maximum.

Question 25

Who did the 1st Sturges-Bourne Act give the most influence to?

Answer 25

• major landowners.

Question 26

Who did the 2nd Sturges-Bourne Act give voting power to?

Answer 26

• clergyman added to the members of the vestry.

Question 27

What did the 2nd Sturges-Bourne Act tell vestries to do?

Answer 27

• instructed vestries to take account of an applicants character and circumstances- decide wether they were deserving or undeserving.
• destitution alone wasn’t sufficient to revive relief- but if a select vestry refused to grant relief it could be overturned by 2 JPs if they agreed it was wrong.

Question 28

By 1825, how many select vestries had been formed under the Sturges-Bourne Act? What was the consequence of this?

Answer 28

• 46- cost of relief had dropped significantly.

Question 29

Nationally, how much had the cost of relief fell by after one year under the Sturges-Bourne Act? Why was this?

Answer 29

• 9% reduction after one year.
• reductions in costs were at the expense of the destitute- some who refused relief were genuinely destitute and we’re still in need of help.

Question 30

What example of an area of there where their costs of relief dropped significantly under the Sturges-Bourne Act?

Answer 30

• 2 parishes in Berkshire- 33% reduction in the first year of operation of their select vestries.

Question 31

What was the workhouse test?

Answer 31

• tested whether a persons request for relief was genuine- only the destitute would accept relief on terms of less eligibility.

Question 32

Where was an early example of the workhouse test and less eligibility being used before the Poor Law Amendment Act?

Answer 32

• Nottinghamshire- established a large Gilbert Union of 49 parishes, determined to eradicate outdoor relief, ran their Union on less eligibility.