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Workhouse
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorhouses. The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' is from 1631, in an account by the mayor of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Abingdon reporting that "we have erected within our borough a workhouse to set poorer people to work". The origins of the workhouse can be traced to the Statute of Cambridge 1388, which attempted to address the labour shortages following the Black Death in England by restricting the movement of labourers, and ultimately led to the state becoming responsible for the support of the poor. However, mass unemployment following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the introduction of new technology to replace agricultural workers in particular, and a series of bad harvests, meant that by the early 1830s the established sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Poor Laws
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. English Poor Law legislation can be traced back as far as 1536, when legislation was passed to deal with the impotent poor, although there were much earlier House of Plantagenet, Plantagenet laws dealing with the problems caused by Vagrancy, vagrants and beggars. The history of the Poor Law in England and Wales is usually divided between two statutes: the Poor Relief Act 1601, Old Poor Law passed during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, New Poor Law, passed in 1834, which significantly modified the system of poor relief. The New Poor Law altered the system from one which was administered haphazardly at a local parish level to a highly centralised system which encouraged the large-scale development of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 76) (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the British Whig Party, Whig government of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Earl Grey denying the right of the poor to subsistence. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Relief Act 1601 (43 Eliz. 1. c. 2) and attempted to fundamentally change the social security, poverty relief system in England and Wales (similar changes were made to the Scottish Poor Laws, poor law for Scotland in 1845). It resulted from the 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws, which included Edwin Chadwick, John Bird Sumner and Nassau William Senior. Chadwick was dissatisfied with the law that resulted from his report. The Act was passed two years after the Reform Act 1832, Representation of the People Act 1832 which extended the Suffrage, franchise to middle-class men. Some histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Act For The Relief Of The Poor 1601
The Poor Relief Act 1601 ( 43 Eliz. 1. c. 2) was an act of the Parliament of England. The act, popularly known as the Elizabethan Poor Law, the "43rd Elizabeth", or the "Old Poor Law", was passed in 1601 and created a poor law system for England and Wales. It formalised earlier practices of poor relief distribution in England and Wales and is generally considered a refinement of the Poor Relief Act 1597 ( 39 Eliz. 1. c. 3) that established overseers of the poor. The "Old Poor Law" was not one law but a collection of laws passed between the 16th and 18th centuries. The system's administrative unit was the parish. It was not a centralised government policy but a law which made individual parishes responsible for Poor Law legislation. The 1601 act saw a move away from the more obvious forms of punishing paupers under the Tudor system towards methods of "correction". Several amending pieces of legislation can be considered part of the Old Poor Law. These include: *1662 – Poo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Poorhouse
The Scottish poorhouse, occasionally referred to as a workhouse, provided accommodation for the destitute and poor in Scotland. The term ''poorhouse'' was almost invariably used to describe the institutions in that country, as unlike the regime in their workhouse counterparts in neighbouring England and Wales, residents were not usually required to labour in return for their upkeep. Systems to deal with paupers were initiated by the Parliament of Scotland in the 15th century when a 1424 statute categorised vagrants into those deemed fit for work or those who were not able-bodied; several other ineffective statutes followed until the Scottish Poor Law Act of 1579 was put in place. The Act prevented paupers who were fit to work from receiving assistance and was reasonably successful. Any help provided generally took the form of outdoor relief, and although thirty-two main burghs were instructed to provide correction houses under the threat of being fined, it is doubtful any were bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Workhouse Test Act 1723
The Poor Relief Act 1722 ( 9 Geo. 1. c. 7), also known as the Workhouse Test Act 1722, Workhouse Test Act 1723 or Knatchbull's Act, was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. It was titled "An Act for Amending the Laws relating to the Settlement, Employment, and Relief of the Poor".George Nicholls, ''A History of the English Poor Law in Connection with the State of the Country and the Condition of the People, Volume II: A.D. 1714 to 1853'' (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898), pp. 12-13. The act repeated the clause of the Poor Relief Act 1691 ( 3 Will. & Mar. c. 11) that ordered that in every parish a book should be kept, registering the names of everyone receiving relief and the reasons why.Nicholls, p. 13. No one else was permitted to receive relief (except in cases of disease, plague or smallpox) except by authority of a justice of the peace who lived in or near the parish or who was visiting during quarter sessions. The act claimed that "many p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poor Relief
In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of helping the poor. Alongside ever-changing attitudes towards poverty, many methods have been attempted to answer these questions. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the Parliament of England, poor relief has developed from being little more than a systematic means of punishment into a complex system of government-funded support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state. Tudor era In the late 15th century, Parliament took action on the growing problem of poverty, focusing on punishing people for being " vagabonds" and for begging. In 1495, during the reign of King Henry VII, Parliament enacted the Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494. This provided for officers of the law to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statute Of Cambridge 1388
The Statute of Cambridge 1388 ( 12 Ric. 2. c. 7) was an act of the Parliament of England that placed restrictions on the movements of labourers and beggars. It prohibited any labourer from leaving the hundred, rape, wapentake, city, or borough where he was living, without a testimonial, showing reasonable cause for his departure, to be issued under the authority of the justices of the peace. Any labourer found wandering without such letter, was to be put in the stocks until he found surety to return to the town from which he came. Impotent persons were to remain in the towns in which they were living at the time of the act; or, if the inhabitants were unable or unwilling to support them, they were to withdraw to other towns within the hundred, rape, or wapentake, or to the towns where they were born. The act is often regarded as the first poor law, for within its many restrictions each county "hundred" was made responsible for relieving its own "impotent poor" who, because of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relief Of The Poor Act 1782
The Relief of the Poor Act 1782 ( 22 Geo. 3. c. 83), also known as Gilbert's Act, was a British poor relief law proposed by Thomas Gilbert which aimed to organise poor relief on a county basis, counties being organised into parishes which could set up poorhouses or workhouses between them. However, these workhouses were intended to help only the elderly, sick and orphaned, not the able-bodied poor. The sick, elderly and infirm were cared for in poorhouses whereas the able-bodied poor were provided with poor relief in their own homes. Gilbert's Act aimed to be more humane than the previous modification to the Poor Law, the Workhouse Test Act ( 9 Geo. 1. c. 7). During the 1780s, there was an increase in unemployment and underemployment due to high food prices, low wages and the effects of enclosing land. This caused poor rates to increase rapidly, which wealthy landowners found unacceptable. The whole act was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1871. Attempts to pass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oakum
Oakum is a preparation of tarred fibers used to seal gaps. Its traditional application was in shipbuilding for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships. Oakum was also used in plumbing for sealing joints in cast iron pipe, and in log cabins for chinking. In shipbuilding it was forced into the seams using a hammer and a caulking iron, then sealed into place with hot pitch. It is also referenced frequently as a medical supply for medieval surgeons, often used alongside bandages for sealing wounds. History The word oakum derives from Middle English ', from Old English ', from ' ( separative and perfective prefix) + ' (akin to Old English ', "comb")—literally "off-combings". Oakum was at one time recycled from old tarry ropes and cordage, which were painstakingly unravelled and reduced to fibre, termed "picking". The task of picking and preparation was a common occupation in prisons and workhouses, where the y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speenhamland System
The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty in England and Wales at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The law was an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law (the Poor Relief Act 1601). It was created as an indirect result of Britain's involvements in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793–1815). Operation The system was named after a meeting held on 6 May, 1795 in the George and Pelican Inn, Pelikan Inn, Speenhamland, Berkshire, where local magistrates devised the system as a means to alleviate the distress caused by high grain prices. The increase in the price of grain may have occurred as a result of a poor harvest in the years 1795–96, though at the time this was subject to great debate. Many blamed middlemen and hoarders as the ultimate architects of the shortage. The Speenhamland scale read, "When a gallon loaf of bread cost one shilling:... every Poor and Industrious Man should have for h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
