The Elizabethan Poor Laws were passed as a response to
the increasing number of poor in Great Britain.
During earlier times the lords were directly responsible for the care of
their tenants. But the feudal system
began to crumble and the tenant farmers lost their land. Having no source of relief, they drifted to
the cities and larger towns. Few of this
population had the skills to earn a living wage, and as their numbers increased,
pauperism became a national problem. The
first attempt to correct this problem was the enactment of voluntary alms to be
collected in each parish. When this
enactment did not alleviate the problems, an act was passed that required
severe punishment for vagabonds and relief for the poor. This act led to an attempt to discriminate
between the criminal population and the poor.
Finally, the Poor Law of 1601 provided a clear definition of the
"poor" and articulated services that they were to receive. This legislation is the foundation for the
current social welfare system existing today in Great Britain.
The
origins of parochial poor relief extend back at least as far as the fifteenth
century. With the decline of the monasteries, and their dissolution in 1536,
together with the breakdown of the medieval social structure, charity for the
poor gradually moved from its traditional voluntary framework to become a
compulsory tax administered at the parish level.
Legislation
prior to this point largely dealt with beggars and vagabonds. In the aftermath
of the Black Death (1348-9) labor was in short supply and wages rose steeply.
To try and keep this in check, several Acts were passed aimed at forcing all
able-bodied men to work and keep wages at their old levels. These measures led
to laborers roaming around the country looking for an area where the wages
were high and where the labor laws not too strictly enforced. Some took to
begging under the pretence of being ill or crippled. In 1349, the Ordinance of Laborers (36
Edw.III c.8) prohibited private individuals from giving relief to able-bodied
beggars.
In
1388, the Statute of
Cambridge (12 Rich.II c.7) introduced regulations restricting the
movements of all laborers and beggars. Each county "Hundred" became
responsible for relieving its own "impotent poor" — those who,
because of age or infirmity, were incapable of work. Servants wishing to move
out of their own Hundred needed a letter of authority from the "good man
of the Hundred" — the local Justice of the Peace — or risked being put in
the stocks. Following this Act, beggars could pretend neither to be laborers
(who needed permission to wander), nor to be invalids (who were also forbidden
to wander). The 1388 Act is often regarded as the first English poor law.
However, lack of enforcement limited its impact and effect.
Further
legislation followed over the next two centuries. In 1494, the Vagabonds and Beggars Act
(11 Henry VII c.2) determined that: "Vagabonds, idle and suspected persons
shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have none other
sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town. Every beggar
suitable to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best
known, or was born and there remain upon the pain aforesaid." Worse was to
come — the 1547 Statute of
Legal Settlement (1 Edw. VI. c.3) enacted that a sturdy beggar
could be branded or made a slave for two years (or for life if he absconded).
The Act condemned "...foolish pity and mercy" for vagrants. On a more
positive note, cottages were to be erected for the impotent poor, and they were
to be relieved or cured.
The seeds of the future
direction of the poor laws in a short-lived Act of 1536 which required
Churchwardens in each parish to collect voluntary alms in a 'common box' to
provide handouts for those who could not work. At the same time, the idle and
the able-bodied poor were obliged to perform labor, with punishment for those
who refused. The Act also placed a prohibition on begging and on unofficial
almsgiving. In the following decades, compulsory poor-taxes were established in
London, Cambridge, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich, and York.
Here
are some key historical dates in the years prior to the 1601 law followed by
discussion of the law:
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1552
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Parish registers of the poor were
introduced so that there was an official record of those who fell into the
category of 'poor'
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1563
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Justices of the Peace were
authorized and empowered to raise compulsory funds for the relief of the poor
and, for the first time, the poor were put into different categories
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1572
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the first compulsory local poor
law tax was imposed making the alleviation of poverty a local responsibility
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1576
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the idea of a deterrent workhouse
was first suggested although nothing was done at this point
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1597
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Justices of the Peace once more
were authorized and empowered to raise compulsory funds for the relief of the
poor and the post of 'Overseer of the Poor' was created. The position
continued after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act
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1601
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the 'Elizabethan Poor Law' was
passed [43 Eliz I Cap. 2], consolidating all the previous legislation into
one massive law and made provision for
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In 1597, an Act For the Relief of the Poor
(39 Eliz. c.3) required every parish to appoint Overseers of the Poor whose
responsibility it was to find work for the unemployed and to set up
parish-houses for those incapable of supporting themselves.
In 1601, the 43rd year of the
reign of Elizabeth I, saw the passing of An
Acte for the Reliefe of the Poore (43 Eliz. I c.2) which,
although it was essentially a refinement of the 1597 Act, is often cited as
marking the foundation of the Old Poor Laws.
Although
it was in many respects a consolidation and reiteration of earlier legislation,
the 1601 Act for the Relief of the Poor has come to be regarded as a
milestone in British social legislation.
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Interesting Facts and Information about Elizabethan
England and The Poor Law, the Acts of Acts of 1552, 1563, 1572, 1576 and 1597 related to provision for
the poor on a parish basis whilst the 1601 Poor Law created a National system
to provide for the poor.
Under
the 1601 Act, each parish was obliged to relieve the aged and the helpless, to
bring up unprotected children in habits of industry, and to provide work for
those capable of it but who were lacking their usual trade.
The main objectives of the 1601
Act were: - The establishment of the parish as the administrative unit responsible for poor relief, with churchwardens or parish overseers collecting poor-rates and allocating relief.
- The provision of materials such as flax, hemp and wool to provide work for the able-bodied poor. Any able-bodied pauper who refused to work was liable to be placed in a 'House of Correction' or prison.
- The relief of the 'impotent' poor — the old, the blind, the lame, and so on. This could include the provision of 'houses of dwelling' — almshouses or poorhouses rather than workhouses. The Act also made the relief and maintenance of such persons, the legal responsibility of their parents, grandparents, or children, if such relatives were themselves able to provide such support.
- The setting to work and apprenticeship of children
Collection of the poor rates
was done by the parish overseers who were unpaid and elected annually by the
parish vestry. This was never a popular job and even missing one of their
regular monthly meetings could result in an overseer receiving a hefty one
pound fine. The poor-rates were dispensed to the needy of the parish as
'out-relief', usually in the form of bread, clothing, fuel, the payment of
rent, or money.
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Interesting Facts and Information about Elizabethan England
and The Poor Law, the Acts of Acts of 1552, 1563, 1572, 1576 and 1597 related to provision for
the poor on a parish basis whilst the 1601 Poor Law created a National system
to provide for the poor.
Main points of the 1601 Act
- The impotent poor (people who can't work) were to be cared for in almshouse or a poorhouse. The law offered relief to people who were unable to work: mainly those who were "lame, impotent, old, and blind".
- The able-bodied poor were to be set to work in a House of Industry. Materials were to be provided for the poor to be set to work.
- The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or even prison.
- Pauper children would become apprentices.
The
Poor Law Act 1601 formalized earlier practices making provision for a National
system to be paid for by levying property taxes. The 1601 Poor Law act made
provision to:
- To levy a compulsory poor rate on every parish
- To provide working materials
- Provide work or apprenticeships for children who were orphaned or whose parents were unable to support them
- Offer relief to the 'Deserving Poor'
- Collect a poor relief rate from property owners
- Parents and children were responsible for each other, so poor elderly parents were expected to live with their children
By this act,
two or more "substantial householders" were to be yearly nominated by
the justices of the peace to serve as overseers of the poor in each
parish. The overseers were to raise
"weekly or otherwise, by taxation of every inhabitant, such competent sums
of money as they shall think fit,"
a) For setting to work the children
of all such whose parents shall not be
thought able to keep and maintain them;
b) For
setting to work all such persons, married and unmarried, having no means
to maintain them, and who use no ordinary and daily trade of life to get their
living by;
c) For
providing a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, and other ware
and stuff, to set the poor on work;
d) For the necessary
relief of the lame, old, impotent, blind, and such other among them being poor
and not able to work. Children whose
parents cannot
maintain them are to be apprenticed till the age of four-and-twenty years in
the case of boys and twenty-one years or the time of marriage in the case of
girls. The overseers may, with the leave
of the Lord of the Manor, erect houses for the impotent poor on any waste or
common.
Criticism
/Limitations of the Poor Law of 1601
Criticism of the Poor Law grew in the
early nineteenth century after the Napoleonic Wars with France, especially
among political economists. David
Ricardo supported the abolition of the Poor Law in his book 'Principles of
Political Economy and Taxation' published in 1817. Any tax raised to pay for
welfare such as poor rates reduced the money available to pay wages. He also
argued that it rewarded laziness, discouraged people from saving for old age or
illness, and encouraged irresponsibly large families. There
are some limitations describe below-
Implementation
and variation
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. There was wide variation in the amount of poor relief given out.
As the parish was the administrative unit of the system there was great
diversity in the system. Since there were no administrative standards, parishes
were able to interpret the law as they wished. Some cities, such as Bristol,
Exeter and Liverpool were able to obtain by-laws which established their
control onto several of the urban parishes within their jurisdiction. Bristol
gained a private Act of Parliament in 1696 which allowed the city to create a
'manufactory' so that the profits from the paupers' work could be used for
maintenance of the poor relief system.
Outdoor
relief
Outdoor
relief continued to be the most popular form of relief for the able-bodied poor
even though the law described that "the poor should be set to work".
In 1795 the Speenhamland system was introduced as a system of outdoor relief.
Again, there was variation within the system with some parishes subsidising
with food and others with money. Some parishes were more generous than others
so there was no uniformity to the system. The Speenhamland system was popular
in the south of England. Elsewhere the Roundsman and Labour rate were used. The
system was designed for a preindustrial society, industrialization, a mobile
population, a series of bad harvests during the 1790s and the Napoleonic Wars
tested the old poor law to the breaking point.
Settlement
The
1601 Act states that each individual parish was responsible for its 'own' poor.
Arguments over which parish was responsible for a pauper's poor relief and
concerns over migration to more generous parishes led to the passing of the
Settlement Act 1662 which allowed relief only to established residents of a
parish – mainly through birth, marriage and apprenticeship. A pauper applicant
had to prove a 'settlement’. If unable to, 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.
Individual
parishes were keen to keep costs of poor relief as low as possible and there
are examples of paupers in some cases being shunted back and forth between
parishes. The Settlement Laws allowed strangers to a parish to be removed after
40 days if they were not working, but the cost of removing such people meant
that they were often left until they tried to claim poor relief. In 1697 Settlement
Laws were tightened when people could be barred from entering a parish unless
they produced a Settlement certificate.
Effect
on the labor market
The
Act was criticized in later years for its distortion of the labor market,
through the power given to parishes to let them remove 'undeserving' poor.
Another criticism of the Act was that it applied to rated land not personal or
movable wealth, therefore benefiting commercial and business interests.
Cost
The
building of different types of workhouses was expensive. The Workhouse Act of
1772 allowed parishes to combine and apply for a workhouse test, where
conditions were made worse than those outside.
The
Act stated that workhouses, poorhouses and houses of correction should be built
for the different types of pauper. However, it was not cost effective to build
these different types of buildings. For this reason parishes such as Bristol
combined these institutions so that the profits paupers made were plunged back
into the maintenance of the system.
Reliance
on the parish
The system's
reliance on the parish can be seen as both a strength and a weakness. It could
be argued it made the system more humane and sensitive, but a local crisis such
as a poor harvest could be a great burden on the local poor rate.
Chadwick therefore criticized the
Old Poor Law because its decentralized administration meant significant
variation in the treatment of paupers. Chadwick held that the able-bodied poor
should be put to work in workhouses which met the condition of less
eligibility: they could not claim outdoor relief as they did under the existing
Poor Law. Conditions had to be worse than those for the poorest laborer
outside the workhouse, so that people would not want to claim relief. This
would decrease the poor rate, allow wages to rise to their true levels, and
promote honest toil.