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
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
. 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
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
) except by authority of a
justice of the peace who lived in or near the parish or who was visiting during
quarter session
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...
s.
The act claimed that "many persons have applied to some justices of peace without the knowledge of any officers of the parish, and thereby, upon untrue suggestions, and sometimes upon false and frivolous pretences, have obtained relief, which hath greatly contributed to the increase of the parish rates".
To rectify this, the act ordered that no justice of the peace could award poor relief until the recipient had taken an oath on the reason why they needed to claim relief.
This was applicable in cases where the overseers or the
vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...
had refused someone relief and the act ordered that the Justice of the Peace was first required to summon the overseer to discover why that relief had been refused.
The act reiterated the need for the Justice of the Peace to register this relief and stipulated that such relief should continue only so long as the causes for it continued.
Any overseer or parish officer who awarded relief without first registering it "except upon sudden and emergent occasions" was to be punished by forfeiting and paying £5 to be used for the poor of the parish.
The act also empowered churchwardens and overseers (with the consent of the vestry) "to purchase or hire any house or houses, and to contract with any persons for the lodging, keeping, maintaining and employing any or all such poor persons in their respective parishes, etc., as shall desire to receive relief, and there to keep, maintain, and employ all such poor persons, and take the benefit of Parishes their work, labour, and service".
[Nicholls, p. 14.] Where a parish could not afford to maintain a workhouse on their own, the act permitted the parish to join other parishes in purchasing a building for this purpose, so long as it had the permission of the vestry and a local Justice of the Peace.
If a poor person refused to be lodged in a workhouse, the act ordered them to be "put out of the book in which the names of persons who ought to receive relief are registered, and
heyshall not be entitled to ask or receive relief from the churchwardens and overseers".
Legacy
The whole act except section 3 was repealed by section 245(1) of, and the eleventh schedule to,
Poor Law Act 1927
The Poor Law Act 1927 ( 17 & 18 Geo. 5. c. 14) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated enactments relating to English poor law.
Provisions Short title, commencement and extent
Section 246(1) of the act provid ...
(
17 & 18 Geo. 5. c. 14).
Notes
References
External links
The text of the act
{{Authority control
Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1722
Repealed Great Britain Acts of Parliament
English Poor Laws
Poor Law in Britain and Ireland