The Old Poor Law

The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 was the first complete code for poor relief. It refined and formalised practices by consolidating previous legislation dating back to the late-medieval period. Later amendments led to the creation of the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601, known as The Old Poor Law or The Elizabethan Poor Law. This marked the likely beginnings of the old poor law system, shaped by future amendments over the next 233 years. Social, economic, and political pressures led to the creation of the New Poor Law in 1834.

The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601 is regarded as the start of the old poor law system. It is also known as The Old Poor Law or The Elizabethan Poor Law. It amended the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 by refining and formalising the practices it legislated. The act consolidated previous legislation, which dated back to the late-medieval period. Later amendments further shaped the Old Poor Law system. This system lasted over 200 years until reforms in 1834. Social, economic, and political pressures led to the creation of the New Poor Law.

Background

Poverty became an increasing problem during the 1500s and this led to the creation of a series of laws that eventually became part of the old poor law.

The rapid expansion in the population of England and Wales lead to higher levels of unemployment. The population grew faster than the number of employment opportunities the economy was able to provide. The land once worked by peasants became subject to the practice of enclosure in order to make it more profitable. The popularity of wool led to much land given over to sheep rearing because it required less labour than arable farming. This forced many peasants to leave their rural dwellings in search of work in the towns. The medieval Feudal system, that once supported them, had since collapsed and they were no longer the responsibility of the lord of the manor upon whose land they worked, and to whom they would have had allegiances.

In addition, charitable acts towards the poor became increasingly infrequent. The hasty change in religion and the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, which also brought about the end of monastic welfare and charity, had led to a decline in Christian moral expectations and values. These charitable acts towards the poor, previously led by the examples set by monks and nuns, were no longer undertaken as they were no longer seen as a Christian duty but more as the responsibility of the government. It therefore became necessary to regulate by law the relief of poor. So, with the increasing problem of raising and administering poor relief, the government legislated in 1552, although there is much earlier legislation dealing with the impotent poor and the problems caused by vagrants and beggars.

The Poor Law Act of 1552

In 1552 the source for the funding of poor relief came from asking parishioners for a voluntary donation. Those who refused, had to meet with the bishop. Although these meetings may have been intimidating, they weren’t always successful in obtaining a donation. The law also required parishes to compile a register of its poor parishioners which provided the information need by the government in order to assess the extent of the problem.

The Poor Law Act of 1563

Civil disorder was becoming a threat to Elizabethan society forcing the government to pass another poor law act in 1563. For the first time, the poor were categorised in order to determine the help they would receive. The Deserving Poor consisted of the young, the old and the sick and they received food, clothes and money as appropriate. The Deserving Unemployed were those willing and able to work but were unable to find employment and so were cared for in almshouses, orphanages and workhouses. The Undeserving Poor were those who turned to a life of crime or became beggars and faced punishment.

As the voluntary donations were not raising sufficient funds, the weekly collected contributions became more of an obligation. Those who refused to donate were taken by the bishop to stand before justices of the peace. Persistent refusal could lead to imprisonment. However, the amount contributed for poor relief still remained the discretion of the donor.

The Poor Law Act of 1572

This Act introduced the first poor law tax which became known as the Poor Rate. The Justice of the Peace for each parish would determine the amount of funding require to provide for the poor and then calculate how much each of the wealthy landowners of the parish was required to pay. This weekly collection was performed by assigned collectors and failure to pay resulted in imprisonment. The funds were allocated to the Deserving Poor.

The alleviation of poverty was now clearly the responsibility of the parish as the law required each one to provide for its own poor, elderly and sick parishioners.

The Poor Law Act of 1576

As levels of vagabonding increased, the government attempted to provide work for those individuals who were willing to work, but were unable to find any. Effectively, this established the first workhouses or poor houses, without accommodation, where the unemployed were able to work on such materials as flax, hemp and wool that the Justice of the Peace was now permitted to supply the parish with. The old and the disabled were also required to work in this way and did so from their own homes.

A house of correction was also established in each county and, under the law, reserved for the punishment of those who were unwilling to work.

The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597

The changes in agriculture, where arable land was turned over to pasture for the purposes of sheep rearing in order to cater to the more profitable wool trade, increased the prospect of famine. In the 1590s a series of poor harvests increased the price of food which saw much of the increasing population experience starvation and threaten society through acts of desperation. The Acts of 1597-1598, and later 1601, were designed to prevent starvation and maintain civil obedience.

Consolidating and extending the previous Acts, the 1597 act gave Justices of the Peace more authority to raise additional compulsory funds in order to provide for the poor. The position of Overseer of the Poor was created which was an unpaid position that involved calculating and then collecting the poor rate before distributing it in the form of poor relief. These unwilling appointees, elected in pairs every Easter, tended to be church wardens and landowners and were also responsible for the supervision of the poorhouse.

The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601

This amendment to the Act of 1597 combined all previous legislation into one law. The law therefore made provision to levy a compulsory poor rate on every parish. Two Overseers of the Poor in each parish would determine the required amount of funding necessary to provide sufficient poor relief to the deserving poor of the parish. The amount that each landowner and tenet had to pay, known as the poor rate, was then calculated and collected on a weekly basis.

People who were unable to work, such as the old, the blind, the lame and the impotent were offered relief and cared for in almshouses and poorhouses, rather than workhouses. Raw materials such as hemp, flax, wool, iron and thread, were provided so that those who were able to work could be set to work in a House of Industry. The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or prison.

Parents and children now had to be responsible for each other, and so there was the expectation that elderly parents would live with there children. However, it wasn’t always possible for parents to support their children in which case the law made provision for such children and orphans to be apprenticed in other parishes. They were a source of cheap labour for their masters whose responsibility it was to feed and clothe them whist teaching them the skills of their trade.

Provision for the poor was provided in two forms of relief, indoor and outdoor. Indoor relief was that which was supplied inside the workhouses and houses of correction such as that given to the idle poor and beggars. The cost of building the workhouses meant that this form of relief was least popular. The normal form of poor relief, therefore, was called outdoor relief. This was given outside of the workhouse in the form of money, clothes and food to the impotent poor, those who were unable to work. Such out-relief was also in the form of fuel and rent payment, and it was the job of the Overseers to ensure the relief was distributed appropriately. Any Overseer who failed to do his job properly could be fined 20 shillings.

As the Elizabethan population was comparatively small, the Overseers of the Poor knew the circumstances of the paupers of the parish very well and so were able to identify the deserving poor and separate them from the undeserving poor. The idle poor found it difficult to claim outside relief, the parish poor rate, as everyone knew everyone else.

The act also made provision for those who were out of work temporarily due to seasonal work or illness known as the settled poor. They would receive either indoor or outdoor relief.

Further Acts for the Relief of the Poor

A lack of administrative standards meant that the interpretation of the 1601 Act varied between the parishes. Without any mechanisms to enforce its measures, the poor law was inconsistently applied. Some towns, for example, were able to obtain local by-laws that enabled them to establish corporations of the poor and extend their responsibilities over several urban parishes within their jurisdiction.

Varied interpretation of the act also lead to an imbalance in the amount of relief parishes offered. As a result the poor migrated to the more generous parishes of the towns. Ratepayers started to object to this abuse of the system and questions as to who in the parish was entitled to poor relief started to be asked. The Settlement Act of 1662 addressed this growing problem.

The Settlement Act of 1662

Under the terms of this Act, the parish to which an individual belonged was established. This was referred to as the place of settlement. The parish then took responsibility for the individual and provided the necessary poor relief when there was need. The poor had to prove their place of settlement if they were to receive relief and those who were unable to faced removal. This often lead to them being sent from parish to parish as each one was keen to keep down the costs of poor relief.

It is thought that the Settlement Act caused a halt in the mobilisation of the workforce. Unemployed people became inclined to remain in their own parishes rather than seek work in others. In this way, their claims, when in need, for poor relief were more likely to be successful as it was easier to establish their place of settlement.

In 1691 a new poor law provided further criteria in establishing the place of settlement designed to encourage individuals to move in seeking work.

The Act of 1697 introduced the Settlement Certificate which was a document required in order to move into another parish. It was a guarantee that people would not become a burden for the new parishes, into which they moved, should the need for poor relief arise. In issuing the certificate, the parish identified as the individuals place of settlement, agreed to fund the removal costs so that the individual was able to move back into the home parish from where poor relief was claimed. The same Act also stipulated that all paupers (i.e. people in receipt of poor relief) should wear the on their right shoulder the initial letter of their parish followed by the letter “P” in red or blue cloth. This was known as badging the poor, although not all parishes adopted the measure which continued in law until the Act of 1810.

Knatchbull’s Act of 1723 (The Workhouse Test Act)

Following the establishment of Corporations for the Poor around the end of the seventeenth century, momentum for the workhouse movement was ignited. This cumulated in Sir Edward Knatchbull’s Act of 1723. Under this Act, a workhouses were established, either through purchasing or renting property, by individual parishes or by a joint venture of neighbouring parishes who shared the cost. The management of these workhouse could be sub-contracted out by Justices of the Peace to third parties who would feed, clothe and house the poor in return for a weekly rate charged to the parish.

Poor relief was now provided inside these workhouses, however, there existence represented a deterrent intended to reduce casual and irresponsible claims made on the poor rate. Key to this deterrent was the workhouse test. In order to gain entry to the workhouse, the poor were obliged to undertake set work in return for the relief which they received. Any profits from such work was allowed to be kept by the management of the workhouse and not ploughed back into the system. These profits though were fairly minimal as it was mainly the old, the ill and children who who were obliged to accept a place in the workhouse. The character of the workhouses therefore resembled various social institutions functioning as a night shelter, an orphanage, a crèche and a geriatric ward.

Gilbert’s Act of 1782

During the 1780s poor rates increased rapidly as large numbers of agricultural labourers found themselves making claims for poor relief in order to survive. Economic factors as the high food prices causing unemployment in rural areas, the effects of land enclosure and low wages. These demands were considered unacceptable by the landowners who were the rate payers. Also the cost of the indoor relief provided by the workhouses was proving to be expensive, especially when they were wasteful.

In 1782, Thomas Gilbert passed legislation designed to address these issues and shifted power from the parish to the landed gentry. Under the Act, parishes were able to form unions with other parishes in order to set up and share the costs of a common workhouse. In order to do this, counties were divided into large districts, corresponding to a Hundred, with each district representing a union. Unions could also be formed by large collections of neighbouring parishes. Corporations for the poor already existed, as previously noted, but under the terms of this Act, forming a union became a simple and cheap process, and supplied model rules for the running of a workhouse.

The workhouses were for the benefit of those paupers who were either old, sick or infirm. Orphaned children were also taken in. For the able-bodied, outdoor relief was provided and work was found close to their own homes, as they were not permitted to enter the workhouse. Their employers would receive an allowance from the poor rate to supplement their wages to adequate levels of subsistence. This practice became known as the Speenhamland System named after the Berkshire parish where, in 1795, magistrates decided to use a sliding scale linked to the price of bread and the number of children to calculate the wage supplement. However, this was not a legal requirement and some parishes refused to adopt it fearing that able-bodied labourers would lack industry and respect for their employers when in work, and would believe that they were entitled to parish relief when not.

Local magistrates were responsible for appointing a Board of Guardians to take control of the Union. Each board comprised of a Guardian from each parish who was elected by the ratepayers. Their work was to be supervised by a Visitor who was also appointed by a magistrate.

Time for Change

Dissatisfaction amongst corporations and unions grew during the early 1800s as making the enterprise a financially viable one was difficult. The cost of building the workhouses was high and often left the corporations with debts. With the high costs of living, including medical relief, and the failure of the inmates’ manufactured goods to generate sufficient income, prevented the expected reduction in the poor rate. Some corporations faced insolvency and being disbanded.

The effects of the industrial revolution had left many unemployed. The increase in child labour left many adults without work. Soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars swelled the numbers of unemployed. The cost of bread was also high due to a trade blockade following the war and poor harvests in 1818 and 1819. Consequently the poor rate remained high. A change to the poor relief system was therefore required and in 1834 the New Poor Law came into being.