OLD POOR LAWS 1349 through 1781

Medieval (14th Century)

Tudor Poor Laws (1485-1558)

• Under Henry VII, 1495 Vagabond and Beggars Act (11 Henry VII c. 2) was passed setting forth: “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.”

• In the first half of the 16th Century, many Christian countries, both Catholic and Protestants began forming institutional poor relief, probably inspired by the humanist movements of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Juan Luis Vives which professed Christian charity and moral reform.[11]
• In 1538 and 1547, Protestant Reformation abolished monasteries and other religious institutions, as well as crippled gilds and fraternities, which had formerly provided poor relief.[12]

• Under Henry VIII, harsh treatment of vagabonds was continued with the 1531 Act Concerning Punishment of Beggars and Vagabonds (22 Henry VIII c. 12). Under this act, vagabonds could be whipped in addition to being placed in stocks, although impotent vagabonds could be granted a license to beg legally.[13] However, these licenses to beg were mostly limited to the sick, disabled, and elderly.
• In 1536, more structure was provided to the 1531 act in the 1536 Act For Punishment of Sturdy Vagabonds and Beggars (27 Henry VIII c. 25). The 1536 act provided that “sturdy” vagabonds should be set to work after being punished and that each parish should organize weekly collections for the licensed beggars; the goal of this latter provision was to control giving by creating common boxes of poor relief.[14] Although this act lapsed later in 1536, its designation of the parish as the administrator of charitable giving lasted into future poor law reforms.[15]

• From 1547 to 1555, additional laws were passed providing further regulation and infrastructure:[16]
  • 1547 Act For the Punishment of Vagabonds and Relief of the Poor and Impotent Persons (1 Edw. VI c. 3): Provided that vagabonds could be enslaved for two years and continued weekly parish collections for the poor.
  • 1550 Act Touching the Punishment of Vagabonds and Other Idle Persons (3 & 4 Edw. VI c. 16): Repealed the 1547 Act and reinstituted the 1531 Act requiring the licensing of impotent beggars.
  • 1552 Act For the Provision and Relief of the Poor (5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 2): Designated a specific position for “Collector of Alms” in each parish and created a register of licensed poor. Under the assumption that licensed poor would now be relieved by parish collections, begging was completely prohibited.
  • 1555 Act For the Relief of the Poor (2 & 3 Philip & Mary c. 5): Required licensed beggars to wear badges designating them as such.

Elizabethan Poor Laws (1558-1603)

• Even before her famous reforms in 1598 and 1601, Elizabeth passed more structured, but also more humanitarian, poor laws from 1563 to 1576.[17] The 1563 Act For the Relief of the Poor (5 Eliz. I c. 3) essentially required all parish residents to contribute to poor collections. Those that refused could be bound over to justices of the peace and fined.
• The 1572 Act For the Punishment of Vagabonds and for Relief of the Poor and Impotent (14 Eliz. I c. 5) provided comprehensive reform to the treatment of the poor. Firstly, Justices of the Peace were to survey and register “aged, decayed and impotent poor” and decide how much money was required for their relief, then assess parish residents weekly for the appropriate amount. Those refusing to contribute could be imprisoned. Vagabonds could be whipped and burned through the ear and then set to work. It also provided that if there were too many poor to be relieved through weekly collections, beggars could be licensed.
• Building on the 1572 Act, the 1576 Act For Setting of the Poor on Work, and For the Avoiding of Idleness (18 Eliz. I c. 3) required towns to created “stocks of material” for the poor to work on (predecessor to workhouses) and houses of correction for those who refused to work.

• The laws passed in 1598 and 1601 were meant to retain the effects of the 1576 Act while improving its administrability.[18]
  • The 1598 Act for the Relief of the Poor (39 Eliz. 1 c. 30) and the 1598 Act For the Punishment of Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars (39 Eliz. I c. 40) (“The Vagrancy Act”) limited the role of the Justices of the Peace to make administration of the poor laws less procedurally burdensome.[19] Notably, they placed the burden of setting poor to work and assessing parish collections in the hands of churchwardens and collections overseers and allowed the churchwardens and overseers to garnish property from those refusing to contribute. The Vagrancy Act also allowed parish officers, in addition to Justices of the Peace, to punish vagabonds, thus giving the Justices of the Peace a more supervisory role.[20] The 1601 Act For the Relief of the Poor (43 Eliz. I c. 2) reiterated these provisions.[21]

• Despite the passage of these laws, it is believed that by 1601, most large towns, but only few rural parishes actually implemented the assessment of rates on residents for poor relief.[22] However, a survey in 1696 revealed that nearly every parish assessed a tax for the poor.[23] Although the money was put to many purposes, most of it was given out as a cash dole to the poor, either as long-term pensions or short-term aid.[24]

---++ Reform After Elizabeth I (up to 1782)

• 1647 An Ordinance for the Relief and Payment of the Poor, and the Punishment of Vagrants and Other Disorderly Persons was an ordinance of Parliament creating a Corporation of the Poor in London.[25] It created work-houses for the poor, where both adults and children could either reside or visit daily for work.[26] However, under the Restoration of 1660, Charles II took back the properties from the Corporation.
• 1662 Act For the Better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom (13 & 14 Car. II c. 12) (“Act of Settlement”) restored the Corporation of the Poor in London and created new corporations in other places, including Westminster, Middlesex, and Surrey.[27]

• The Act of Settlement also codified the concept of “settlement,” which essentially means that every person had a parish to which he “belonged” and could be returned to. Under the Act of Settlement, newcomers to a parish could be removed unless they rented a house for £10 or more per year.[28] The relation of this to the poor laws is that its motivation was to prevent an influx of poor into a parish, since it was the parish members who were responsible for providing poor relief.[29]
  • Under the 1692 Act For Supplying the Defects of the Former Laws for the Settlement of the Poor (3 William & Mary c. 11), in addition to earning settlement in a parish by renting a house worth at least £10 per year, poorer migrants could earn settlement by paying local taxes for a year or by serving as an apprentice or servant for a year.[30]
  • The 1697 Act For Supplying Some Defects in the Laws for the Relief of the Poor (8 & 9 William III c. 30) made it easier for those persons receiving a certificate in their former parish to obtain settlement in a new parish.
  • A flaw of the Act of Settlement was that it encouraged neighboring parishes to fight over who had responsibility for certain poor people, which created a large administrative burden and highlighted the need for a larger unit that the parish for poor relief.[31]
• The 1697 Act also attempted to address the deficiency of work for the poor by requiring workmen to take on pauper apprentices. Recognizing that there was simply not enough money to supplement all of the poor, it also attempted shame parishes into giving more money by requiring those receiving pensions from the parish to wear outward badges.[32]

[12] Slack at 16.

[13] http://www.intriguing-history.com/statute-punishment-of-beggars-vagabonds/

[14] Paul Slack, The English Poor Law 1531-1782 17 (1990).

[15] Slack at 59.

[16] Slack at 59--60.

[17] Slack at 60.

[18] Slack at 18.

[19] Slack at 18--19.

[20] Slack at 60--61.

[21] Slack at 61.

[22] Slack at 26.

[23] Slack at 26.

[24] Slack at 27.

[25] Slack at 61.

[26] http://www.workhouses.org.uk/CityOfLondon/corporation.shtml

[27] http://www.workhouses.org.uk/CityOfLondon/corporation.shtml

[28] Slack at 62.

[29] Slack at 36.

[30] Slack at 62.

[31] Slack at 37.

[32] Slack at 39-40, 62.