Poor laws

Home > Social Sciences and the Law > Sociology and Social Reform > Sociology: General Terms and Concepts

poor laws. During the Middle Ages, canon law required each member of the parish to pay a tax of one-tenth, a tithe, of their income to the church. From this income the rector was required to set aside one-third each year for the relief of the poor. The money was intended to provide for the regular needs of the poor in the parish, such as orphans, the old, and the infirm. It was not intended to remove the duty of Christian charity to give help in times of crisis and emergency.

This parochial system was undermined when tithe incomes began to be appropriated for other uses. For example, papal licences permitted tithe revenues to be claimed by other institutions within the church. In England some of the richer abbeys acquired tithe income in this way. The situation worsened when tithes became a fixed levy rather than a true tenth of incomes within a parish. By the beginning of the reign of Richard II in 1377, about one-third of parishes no longer had any tithes available for the support of the poor and others had depleted resources.

The state intervened to make good the shortcomings in the parochial system with the Acts of 1388 and 1391. These legitimized begging and stipulated that the able-bodied poor should look to their birth parish or the parish where they usually lived for support. Poor relief through the allocation of tithe income, where it existed, and begging elsewhere, continued until the Poor Law of 1536. This required the better-off members of each parish to collect money to support the ‘impotent’, who were defined as the infirm and children. Those who were fit but unemployed could expect no direct help. However, parish funds, where available, could be used to provide employment for them. Initially, giving to the parish collection was a matter of strong moral obligation, but in 1563 it became a legal requirement. Justices of the peace (magistrates) were given the task of determining what should be paid by each householder and an Act of 1572 required that the basis of payment should be reviewed regularly.

Such piecemeal legislation was replaced by a coherent system for England and Wales by the Poor Law Act of 1601. This required each parish to be responsible for its own poor. Justices of the peace had the duty of setting up a framework for the administration of the law, together with the minister of the parish and those householders designated as members of the parish meeting or vestry. The vestry had the authority to raise the necessary money by collecting a rate, the level of which depended on the estimated value of each property in the parish. In practice, some parishes, mainly in large towns, came under the control of a small group of powerful ratepayers including the magistrates and minister, who formed a select vestry. The decisions of all vestries were enforced, on a day-to-day basis, by the parish constable and, where appropriate, by paid officials, who collected rates and acted as overseers of the poor.

Care of the poor varied from place to place. Some parishes bought cottages to house the homeless or built a house where the poor might live. In small rural parishes relief, in money and in kind, was sometimes provided for the poor in their own home. Such a system assumed a settled agrarian society with few itinerants seeking help. In an effort to control the consequences of increasing population movements following the civil wars of the mid-17th cent., the Act of Settlement of 1662 obliged parish authorities to give poor relief only to those either long resident or born in the parish. All others seeking assistance had to return to their place of origin.

During the 18th cent. there were changes in response to increasing numbers of poor amongst those who had migrated to work in expanding industrial areas. The earlier system continued, but the law was amended to allow Poor Law authorities to attempt novel solutions to the problem of the increasing numbers of those seeking relief. Some parishes combined to form a union, which built a workhouse and required those who were poor but able to work to live within it. The poor who entered the workhouse had to wear a uniform and were referred to as paupers. It was hoped, not always justifiably, that the work undertaken in the workhouse would cover its costs. At the end of the 18th cent. rural poverty in southern England grew so persistently that the Berkshire magistrates met at Speenhamland and devised a system of poor relief in cash which supplemented inadequate wages. This system was taken up by other authorities and persisted in some places until the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

The Act of 1834 put into practice a system which had operated in the previous decade in the parish of Southwell (Notts.). Relief was given only to those poor who agreed to accept the strict regime of the workhouse, where the conditions provided were funded at a level below that affordable by a person in work. In addition, the new Act created a commission to supervise the establishment of unions of parishes in England and Wales. These unions were to be administered by boards of guardians comprising magistrates and parish ministers of the Church of England, ex officio, and representatives of parishes elected by ratepayers.

All the evidence from official reports and popular literature shows that the Act was loathed by the poor. However, although it was amended on several occasions to make it more appropriate to meet the needs of large urban areas and to respond to the problems of trade depressions and the special needs of children, the basic system remained in place until 1929 when provision for the poor was transferred to county and county borough councils.

Ian John Ernest Keil

poor laws During the Middle Ages, canon law required each member of the parish to pay a tax of one‐tenth, a tithe, of their income to the church. From this income the rector was required to set aside one‐third each year for the relief of the poor. This parochial system was undermined when tithe incomes began to be appropriated for other uses. The situation worsened when tithes became a fixed levy rather than a true tenth of incomes within a parish.

The state intervened to make good the shortcomings in the parochial system with the Acts of 1388 and 1391. These legitimized begging and stipulated that the able‐bodied poor should look to their birth parish or the parish where they usually lived for support. Poor relief through the allocation of tithe income, where it existed, and begging elsewhere, continued until the Poor Law of 1536. Those who were fit but unemployed could expect no direct help. However, parish funds, where available, could be used to provide employment for them.

Such piecemeal legislation was replaced by a coherent system for England and Wales by the Poor Law Act of 1601. This Act required each parish to be responsible for its own poor. Justices of the peace had the duty of setting up a framework for the administration of the law and, together with the minister of the parish and those householders designated as members of the parish meeting or vestry, had the task of organizing poor relief. The vestry had the authority to raise the necessary money by collecting a rate.

Care of the poor varied from place to place. Some parishes bought cottages to house the homeless or built a house where the poor might live. In small rural parishes relief, in money and in kind, was sometimes provided for the poor in their own home. Such a system assumed a settled agrarian society with few itinerants seeking help. The Act of Settlement of 1662 obliged parish authorities to give poor relief only to those either long resident or born in the parish. All others seeking assistance had to return to their place of origin.

During the 18th cent. there were changes in response to increasing numbers of poor amongst those who had migrated to work in industrial areas. The earlier system continued, but the law was amended to allow Poor Law authorities to attempt novel solutions to the problem of the increasing numbers of those seeking relief. Some parishes combined to form a union, which built a workhouse and required those who were poor but able to work to live within it. The poor who entered the workhouse had to wear a uniform and were referred to as paupers. At the end of the 18th cent. rural poverty in southern England grew so persistently that the Berkshire magistrates met at Speenhamland and devised a system of poor relief in cash which supplemented inadequate wages. This system was taken up by other authorities and persisted in some places until the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

By the Act of 1834 relief was given only to those poor who agreed to accept the strict regime of the workhouse, where the conditions provided were funded at a level below that affordable by a person in work. In addition, the Act created a commission to supervise the establishment of unions of parishes in England and Wales. These unions were to be administered by boards of guardians comprising magistrates and parish ministers of the Church of England, ex officio, and representatives of parishes elected by ratepayers.

All the evidence from official reports and popular literature shows that the Act was loathed by the poor. However, although the Act was amended on several occasions to make it more appropriate to meet the needs of large urban areas and to respond to the problems of trade depressions and the special needs of children, the basic system remained in place until 1929 when provision for the poor was transferred to county and county borough councils.

poor law. The Irish poor law (1838) was modelled on the new English poor law of 1834. Its introduction followed the rejection by Whig ministers of the report of Archbishop Whately's commission, which had recommended a package of reforms, including large‐scale public works and state‐sponsored emigration, designed to address the problems of overpopulation and underdevelopment. Whilst the English act had curtailed provision for the poor, the Irish act represented a considerable advance on the existing situation. It created a nationwide system of poor relief financed by poor rates paid, in large part, by Irish landowners. There was not, as in England, a legal right to relief. Instead relief, provided within the workhouse, was granted at the discretion of local poor law guardians, with preference being given to the aged, the sick and disabled, and children. The guardians operated under the direction and control of the Poor Law Commission, though the commission could not interfere in individual cases. The country was divided into 130 unions, with a workhouse in each, and 2,049 electoral divisions (later increased to 163 unions and 3,438 divisions). Boards of guardians were composed of elected guardians chosen by those paying poor rates, and local magistrates sitting ex officio. An amendment to the act in 1847 recognized the right of some vulnerable people to relief, and made provision for the granting of outdoor relief under certain circumstances. In the post‐Famine period the scope of the system was substantially extended. From 1851 the poor rate supported not only the workhouse system but also a network of dispensary stations (see Hospitals and Dispensaries) staffed by qualified medical officers. Poor law boards also became responsible for administering and enforcing the growing body of sanitary and other public health‐related legislation, and their role in local government now rivalled that of grand juries. Poor law expenditure rose from around £0.5 million in 1859 to over £1 million in 1876, and reached £1.5 million in 1895.

Notwithstanding the increasing influence of Catholic and nationalist representatives in its administration, especially after the Local Government Act of 1898, the poor law remained an unpopular form of welfare. The first Dáil declared its intention of abolishing ‘the present odious, degrading and foreign poor‐law system’ and replacing it with a ‘sympathetic native scheme’. Boards of guardians were formally abolished in 1925 and replaced by county boards of health and public assistance, empowered to grant outdoor relief to all needy persons. However, the anxiety of the new local authorities to limit expenditure prevented the needy from deriving any significant benefit from the changeover. The poor law remained in operation in Northern Ireland until 1946.

Bibliography

Barrington, R. , Health, Medicine and Politics in Ireland 1900–1970 (1987)
Burke, H. , The People and the Poor Law in Nineteenth Century Ireland (1987)

Virginia Crossman

Poor Laws Legislation that provided the basis for organized relief and welfare payments, originating in England in the 16th century. They gradually reduced the charitable obligations placed upon ecclesiastical institutions, guilds, and other private benefactors in the Middle Ages. With the Dissolution of the MONASTERIES an important source of charity was abolished. Originally only those physically incapable were deemed worthy of charity and able-bodied beggars were dealt with harshly. However, a statute passed in 1576 recognized that men fit and willing to work might be genuinely unable to find employment and were in need of support. Three categories of poor were subsequently recognized: sturdy beggars or vagabonds, regarded as potential trouble-makers, the infirm, and the deserving unemployed. In 1834 a Poor Law Amendment Act tried to end the giving of assistance outside the workhouse; it established the principle that all citizens should have the right to relief from destitution through accommodation. The workhouses were run by locally elected Boards of Guardians, who raised money through a poor-rate. The system proved inadequate in the growing cities, where the Guardians sometimes resorted to relief without the guarantee of accommodation. The Poor Law was gradually dismantled by social legislation of the 20th century, particularly that of the Liberal governments (1906–14) by important Acts in 1927, 1929 (when Boards of Guardians were abolished), 1930, 1934 (when Unemployment Assistance Boards were created), by social security legislation following the BEVERIDGE Report (1942), and by the establishment of the WELFARE STATE.

poor law in English history, legislation relating to public assistance for the poor. Early measures to relieve pauperism were usually designed to suppress vagrancy and begging. In 1601, England passed the Elizabethan poor-relief act, which recognized the state's obligation to the needy; it provided for compulsory local levies to be administered by the parish, and it required work for the able-bodied poor and apprenticeships for needy children. Local reluctance to support the poor from other areas led to settlement laws limiting migration. Institutional relief was provided by poorhouses, where the aged, sick, or insane were grouped together. From c.1700 workhouses were established where the poor were expected to support themselves by work. However, because of widespread unemployment and low wages, it became customary in the late 18th cent. to give home relief. Poor-law amendments of 1834 sought to establish uniform assistance by placing relief under national supervision; they curtailed home relief and modified the settlement laws. Those amendments assumed that pauperism stemmed partly from unwillingness to work rather than from inadequate employment opportunities. As a result poor relief was maintained at a level below that of the poorest laborer. The Local Government Act of 1929 established the basis for a more far-reaching and humane approach to the conditions of the poor.

Bibliography: See S. Webb and B. Webb, English Poor Law History (1927–29, repr. 1963); J. R. Poynter, Society and Pauperism (1969); M. E. Rose, English Poor Law, 1780–1930 (1971).

poor laws Legislation that was designed to relieve poverty in England. In 1601, the Poor Law Act required individual parishes to provide for the local poor via the levying of property rates. Three categories of poor were identified: vagabonds and beggars, the infirm and the ‘deserving’ unemployed. In 1795, the Speenhamland system provided levels of poor relief based on the price of bread and the size of families. In 1834, the Poor Law Amendment Act forbade the giving of assistance to the impoverished outside of the workhouse. In the 20th century, the poor laws were finally abolished by social security legislation and the creation of the welfare state.