English Poor Laws

File:Walnutree Hospital Former Workhouse.jpg

Many former workhouses now house hospitals. Walnutree Hospital, Sudbury, Suffolk (pictured) was formerly the Sudbury Union Workhouse.

The English Poor Laws were the system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales from the reign of Elizabeth I to the emergence of the modern welfare state after the Second World War. Historian Mark Blaug has argued the Poor Law system provided "a welfare state in miniature, relieving the elderly, widows, children, the sick, the disabled, and the unemployed and underemployed".

English Poor Law legislation can be traced back as far as 1536 when legislation was passed to deal with the impotent poor although there is much earlier Tudor legislation dealing with the problems of vagrants and beggars. The history of the Poor Law in England is usually divided between two major statutes, the Old Poor Law passed during the reign of Elizabeth I and the New Poor Law passed in 1834 which significantly modified the existing system of poor relief. This transition altered the Poor Law system from one administered haphazardly at the parish level to a highly centralised system which encouraged the large scale development of workhouses by Poor Law Unions.

The Poor Law was not formally abolished until the 1948 National Assistance Act with parts of the law remaining on the statute book until 1967. However the Poor Law system fell into decline at the beginning of the 20th century after the introduction of the Liberal welfare reforms, the growth of friendly societies and the introduction of reforms which bypassed the Poor Law system.

Origins

The Poor Laws in the aftermath of the Black Death (pictured), when labour was in short supply, were concerned with making the able bodied work.

The origins of the English Poor Law system can be traced as far back as the fifteenth century. Monasteries were in decline and their eventual dissolution during the Reformation caused poor relief to move from a largely voluntary basis to a compulsory tax that was collected at a parish level. Early legislation was concerned with vagrants and making the able-bodied work, especially while labour was in short supply following the Black Death. Specific legislation was passed which prevented private individuals from giving poor relief to able-bodied paupers. In 1388, the Statute of Cambridge was passed, making each individual parish responsible for administering poor relief to the impotent poor.

Tudor attempts to tackle the problem originate during the reign of Henry VII. In 1495, Parliament passed a statute ordering officials to seize "[a]ll such vagabonds, idle and suspected persons living suspiciously and then so taken and set in stocks, there to remain by the space of three days and three nights to have none other sustenance but bread and water, and there after the said three days and three nights, to be had out and set at large and then to be commanded to avoid the town." No remedy to the problem of poverty was offered by this; it was merely swept from sight, or moved from town to town. Moreover, no distinction made between vagrants and the jobless; both were simply categorised as "sturdy beggars", to be punished and moved on.

In 1530, during the reign of Henry VIII, a proclamation was issued, describing idleness as the "mother and root of all vices" and ordering that whipping should replace the stocks as the punishment for vagabonds. This change was confirmed in statute the following year, with one important change: a distinction was made between the "impotent poor" and the sturdy beggar, giving the old, the sick and the disabled licence to beg. Still no provision was made, though, for the healthy man simply unable to find work. All able-bodied unemployed were put into the same category. Those unable to find work had a stark choice: starve or break the law. In 1535, a bill was drawn up calling for the creation of a system of public works to deal with the problem of unemployment, to be funded by a tax on income and capital. Though supported by the king, it was savaged in Parliament. The following year, an Act was passed that placed responsibility for the elderly and infirm with the parish or municipal authorities, though provision was reliant on voluntary donations.

For the able-bodied poor, life became even tougher during the reign of Edward VI. In 1547, a bill was passed that subjected vagrants to some of the more extreme provisions of the criminal law, namely two years servitude and branding with a "V" as the penalty for the first offence and death for the second. Justices of the Peace were reluctant to apply the full penalty and there is no evidence that the act was ever enforced before it was repealed in 1550.. The government of Elizabeth I, Edward VI's successor after Mary I, was also inclined to severity. An Act passed in 1572 called for offenders to be bored through the ear for a first offence and that persistent beggars should be hanged. However, the Act also made the first clear distinction between the "professional beggar" and those unemployed through no fault of their own. The first complete code of poor relief was made in the Act For the Relief of the Poor 1597 and some provision for the "deserving poor" was eventually made in the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. The more immediate origins of the Elizabethan Poor Law system were deteriorating economic circumstances in Sixteenth century England. Historian George Boyer has stated that England suffered rapid inflation at this time caused by population growth, the debasement of coinage and the inflow of American silver. Poor harvests in the period between 1595-98 causing the numbers in poverty to increase while charitable giving decreased after the dissolution of the Monasteries and disillusion of religious guilds.

Old Poor Law

Main article: Elizabethan Poor Law 1601

The House of Correction at Wandsworth.

The Poor Law Act 1601 formalized earlier practices of poor relief. It created a collectivist national system, paid for by levying local rates (or property taxes). Relief for those too ill or old to work, the so called 'impotent poor', was in the form of a payment or items of food ('the parish loaf') or clothing also known as outdoor relief. Some aged people might be accommodated in parish alms houses, though these were usually private charitable institutions. Meanwhile able-bodied beggars who had refused work were often placed in Houses of Correction (indoor relief). However, provision for the many able-bodied poor in the workhouse, which provided accommodation at the same time as work, was relatively unusual, and most workhouses developed later . The 1601 Law said that poor parents and children were responsible for each other - elderly parents would live with their children.

The 1601 Poor Law could be described as 'parochial' as the administrative unit of the system was the parish. There were around 1,500 such parishes based upon the area around a parish church. This system allowed greater sensitivity towards paupers, however this system also made tyrannical behavior from Overseers possible. Overseers of the Poor would know their paupers and therefore be able to differentiate between the deserving and undeserving poor. The Elizabethan Poor Law operated at a time when the population was small enough for everyone to know everyone else, therefore people's circumstances would be known and the idle poor would be unable to claim on the parishes' poor rate.The act levied a poor rate on each parish which Overseers of the Poor were able to collect. Those who had to pay this rate were property owners.

The 1601 Act sought to deal with 'settled' poor who had found themselves temporarily out of work - it was assumed they would accept indoor relief or outdoor relief. Neither method of relief was at this time in history seen as harsh. The act was supposed to deal with beggars whom were considered a threat to civil order. The Act was passed at a time when poverty was considered necessary as fear of poverty made people work.In 1607 a House of Correction was set up in each county. However this system was separate from the 1601 system which distinguished between the settled poor and 'vagrants'. There was much variation in the application of the law and there was a tendency for the destitute to migrate towards the more generous parishes, usually situated in the towns. This led to the Settlement Act 1662 also known as the Poor Relief Act 1662 – this allowed relief only to established residents of a parish – mainly through birth, marriage and apprenticeship. A pauper applicant had to prove a 'settlement'. If they could not, they were removed to the next parish that was nearest to the place of their birth, or where they might prove some connection. Some paupers were moved hundreds of miles. Although each parish that they passed through was not responsible for them, they were supposed to supply food and drink and shelter for at least one night. The Act was criticised in later years for its effect in distorting the labour market, through the power given to parishes to let them remove 'undeserving' poor. Some of the legislation was punitive. In 1697 an act was passed requiring the poor to wear a "badge" of red or blue cloth on the right shoulder with an embroidered letter "P" and the initial of their parish. However, this was often disregarded.

The workhouse movement began at the end of the 17th century with the establishment of the Bristol Corporation of the Poor, founded by Act of Parliament in 1696. The corporation established a workhouse which combined housing and care of the poor with a house of correction for petty offenders. Following the example of Bristol, some twelve further towns and cities established similar corporations in the next two decades. As these corporations required a private Act, they were not suitable for smaller towns and individual parishes.

Soliders returning from fighting in the French Wars put pressure on an already overstretched Poor Law system.

Starting with the parish of Olney, Buckinghamshire in 1714 several dozen small towns and individual parishes established their own institutions without any specific legal authorization. These were concentrated in the South Midlands and in the county of Essex. From the late 1710s the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge began to promote the idea of parochial workhouses. The Society published several pamphlets on the subject, and supported Sir Edward Knatchbull in his successful efforts to steer the Workhouse Test Act through parliament in 1723. The act gave legislative authority for the establishment of parochial workhouses, by both single parishes and as joint ventures between two or more parishes. More importantly, the Act helped to publicise the idea of establishing workhouses to a national audience. By 1776 some 1,912 parish and corporation workhouses had been established in England and Wales, housing almost 100,000 paupers. Although many parishes and pamphlet writers expected to earn money from the labour of the poor in workhouses, the vast majority of people obliged to take up residence in workhouses were ill, elderly, or children whose labour proved largely unprofitable. The demands, needs and expectations of the poor also ensured that workhouses came to take on the character of general social policy institutions, combining the functions of creche, and night shelter, geriatric ward and orphanage.In 1782, Thomas Gilbert finally succeeded in passing an act that established poor houses solely for the aged and infirm and introduced a system of outdoor relief for the able-bodied. This was the basis for the development of the Speenhamland system, which made financial provision for low-paid workers.

Opposition

Main article: Opposition to the Poor Law

Punch Magazine criticized the New Poor Law's workhouses for splitting mothers and their infant children.

Dissatisfaction with the system grew at the beginning of the 19th century. The 1601 system was felt to be too costly and was widely perceived as encouraging the underlying problems - pushing more people into poverty even while it helped those who were already in poverty. Jeremy Bentham argued for a disciplinary, punitive approach to social problems, whilst the writings of Thomas Malthus focused attention on the problem of overpopulation, and the growth of illegitimacy. David Ricardo argued that there was an "iron law of wages". The effect of poor relief, in the view of the reformers, was to undermine the position of the "independent labourer".

In the period following the Napoleonic Wars, several reformers altered the function of the "poorhouse" into the model for a deterrent workhouse. The first of the deterrent workhouses in this period was at Bingham, Notts. The second was Becher's workhouse in Southwell, now maintained by the National Trust. George Nicholls, the overseer at Southwell, was to become a Poor Law Commissioner in the reformed system. The 1817 Report of the Select Committee on the Poor Laws condemned the Poor Law as causing poverty itself.

The Royal Commission on the Poor Law

Main article: 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws

Sir Edwin Chadwick was employed by the Royal Commission to consider how the Poor Law system should be overhauled.

The 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws was set up following the widespread destruction and machine breaking of the Swing Riots. The report was prepared by a commission of nine, including Nassau William Senior, and served by Edwin Chadwick as Secretary. The Royal Commission's primary concerns were with illegitimacy (or "bastardy"), reflecting the influence of Malthusians, and the fear that the practices of the Old Poor Law were undermining the position of the independent labourer. Two practices were of particular concern: the "roundsman" system, where overseers hired out paupers as cheap labour, and the Speenhamland system, which subsidised low wages without relief.

The 13 volume report pointed to the conclusion that the poor law itself was the cause of poverty. The report differentiated between poverty, which was seen as necessary, as it was fear of poverty which made people work, and indigence - the inability to earn enough to live on.

• "less eligibility": that the position of the pauper should have to enter a workhouse with conditions worse than that of the poorest 'free' labourer outside of the workhouse.
• the "workhouse test", that relief should only be available in the workhouse. The reformed workhouses were to be uninviting, so that anyone capable of coping outside them would choose not to be in one.

When the act was introduced however it had been partly watered down. The workhouse test and the idea of "less eligibility" were never mentioned themselves and the recommendation of the Royal Commission - that 'outdoor relief' (relief given outside of a workhouse) should be abolished - was never implemented.

The report recommended separate workhouses for the aged, infirm, children, able-bodied females and able-bodied males. The report also stated that parishes should be grouped into unions in order to spread the cost of workhouses and a central authority should be established in order to enforce these measures.

The Poor Law Commission took two years to write its report, the recommendations passed easily through Parliament support by both main parties the Whigs and the Tories. The bill gained Royal Assent in 1834. Of those who opposed the Bill - of whom there were few - were more concerned about the centralisation which the bill would bring rather than the underpinning philosophy of utilitarianism.

New Poor Law

File:Southwell workhouse.jpg

The New Poor Law aimed to introduces workhouses into every parish. This workhouse in Southwell, Nottinghamshire dates from the 19th century and is considered to be the best preserved in England.

Main article: Poor Law Amendment Act 1834

The Bill established a Poor Law Commission to oversee the national operation of the system. This included the forming together of small parishes into Poor Law Unions and the building of workhouses in each union for the giving of poor relief.

The act stated that:

(a) no able-bodied person was to receive money or other help from the Poor Law authorities except in a workhouse;

(b) conditions in workhouses were to be made very harsh to discourage people from wanting to receive help;

(c) workhouses were to be built in every parish or, if parishes were too small, in unions of parishes;

(d) ratepayers in each parish or union had to elect a Board of Guardians to supervise the workhouse, to collect the Poor Rate and to send reports to the Central Poor Law Commission;

(e) the three man Central Poor Law Commission would be appointed by the government and would be responsible for supervising the Amendment Act throughout the country.

The Poor Law Amendment Act

The Amendment Act did not ban all forms of outdoor relief. Not until the 1840s would the only method of relief be for the poor to enter a Workhouse. The Workhouses were to be made little more than prisons and families were normally separated upon entering a Workhouse.

When the new Amendment was applied to the industrial North of England (an area the law had never considered during reviews), the system failed catastrophically as many found themselves temporarily unemployed, due to recessions or a fall in stock demands, so called 'cyclical unemployment' and were reluctant to enter a Workhouse, despite it being the only method of gaining aid.

The abuses and shortcomings of the system are documented in the novels of Charles Dickens and Frances Trollope. Despite the aspirations of the reformers, the New Poor Law was unable to make the Workhouse as bad as life outside. The primary problem was that in order to make the diet of the Workhouse inmates "less eligible" than what they could expect outside, it would be necessary to starve the inmates beyond an acceptable level. It was for this reason that other ways were found to deter entrance to the Workhouses. These measures ranged from the introduction of prison style uniforms to the segregation of 'inmates' into yards - there were normally male, female, boy and girls yards.

Fierce hostility and organised opposition from workers, politicians and religious leaders eventually led to the Amendment Act being amended, removing the very harsh measures of the Workhouses to a certain degree. The Andover workhouse scandal, where conditions in the Andover Union Workhouse were found to be inhumane and dangerous, prompted a government review and the abolishment of the Poor Law Commission which was replaced with a Poor Law Board. From now on a Committee of Parliament was to administer the Poor Law, with a cabinet minister as head.

There were a number of provisions that aimed at stopping previous discrimination against non-conformists and Roman Catholics.

Poor Law Policy 1847-1900

Main article: Poor Law policy after the New Poor Law

After 1847 the Poor Law Commission was replaced with a Poor Law Board. This was because of the Andover workhouse scandal and the criticism of Henry Parker who was responsible for the Andover union as well as the tensions in Somerset House caused by Chadwicks failure to become a Poor Law Commissioner.

The Poor Law had been altered in 1834 because of increasing costs. The Union Chargeability Act was passed in 1865 in order to make the financial burden of pauperism be placed upon the whole unions rather than individual parishes. Most Boards of Guardians were middle class and committed to keeping Poor Rates as low as possible

After the Reform Act 1867 there was increasing welfare legislation. As this legislation required local authorities' support the Poor Law Board was replaced with a Local Government Board in 1871. County Councils were formed in 1888, District Councils in 1894. This meant that public housing, unlike health and income maintenance, developed outside the scope of the Poor Law. The infirmaries and the workhouses remained the responsibility of the Guardians until 1930. This change was in part due to changing attitudes on the nature and causes of poverty - there was for the first time an attitude that society had a responsibility to protect its more vulnerable members.

Demise and abolition

Main article: Demise and abolition of the Poor law system

The reforms of the Liberal Government 1906-14 (see Liberal reforms) made several provisions to provide social services without the stigma of the Poor Law, including Old age pensions and National Insurance, and from that period fewer people were covered by the system. Means tests were developed during the inter-war period, not as part of the Poor Law, but as part of the attempt to offer relief that was not affected by the stigma of pauperism.

One aspect of the Poor Law that continued to cause resentment was that the burden of poor relief was not shared equally by rich and poor areas but, rather, fell most heavily on those areas in which poverty was at its worst. This was a central issue in the Poplar Rates Rebellion led by George Lansbury and others in 1921.

Workhouses were officially abolished by the Local Government Act 1929, which from 1 April 1930 abolished the Unions and transferred their responsibilities to the county councils and county boroughs. Some however persisted into the 1940s. The remaining responsibility for the Poor Law was given to local authorities before final abolition in 1948.

External links

• History/chronology of poor law, transcripts of main Acts, much on workhouses, unions etc.
• Article on the Poor Laws from EH.NET's Encyclopedia
• Annotated text of an Act of 1598 of which the 1601 Act was a revision (scroll down to (H))
• Report of the Royal Poor Law Commission 1834
• Poor Law - 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
• Poor Law Unions at visionofbritain.org.uk
• List of Poor Law Unions in England
• The Poor Law at a Web of English History
• A famous depiction of women in the Victorian workhouse - 'A scene in the Westminster Union, 1878'
• British Social Policy 1601-1948
• Poor Law research guide from The National Archives, UK
• Southwell Workhouse - National Trust
• Workhouse - The Story of Workhouses