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"Poor laws England London History 19th century."
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Pauper Capital
Few measures, if any, could claim to have had a greater impact on British society than the poor law. As a comprehensive system of relieving those in need, the poor law provided relief for a significant proportion of the population but influenced the behaviour of a much larger group that lived at or near the margins of poverty. It touched the lives of countless numbers of individuals not only as paupers but also as ratepayers, guardians, officials and magistrates.
This system underwent significant change in the nineteenth century with the shift from the old to the new poor law. The extent to which changes in policy anticipated new legislation is a key question and is here examined in the context of London. Rapid population growth and turnover, the lack of personal knowledge between rich and poor, and the close proximity of numerous autonomous poor law authorities created a distinctly metropolitan context for the provision of relief.
This work provides the first detailed study of the poor law in London during the period leading up to and after the implementation of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources the book focuses explicitly on the ways in which those involved with the poor law - both as providers and recipients - negotiated the provision of relief. In the context of significant urban change in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, it analyses the poor law as a system of institutions and explores the material and political processes that shaped relief policies.
eBook
Parish apprenticeship and the old poor law in London
This article offers an examination of the patterns and motivations behind parish apprenticeship in late eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century London. It stresses continuity in outlook from parish officials binding children, which involved placements in both the traditional and industrializing sectors of the economy. Evidence on the ages, employment types, and locations of 3,285 pauper apprentices bound from different parts of London between 1767 and 1833 indicates a variety of local patterns. The analysis reveals a pattern of youthful age at binding, a range of employment experiences, and parish-specific links to particular trades and manufactures.
Journal Article
The Morning Chronicle Survey of Labour and the Poor
In the years 1849 and 1850, Henry Mayhew was the metropolitan correspondent of the 'Morning Chronicle' in its national survey of labour and the poor. Only about a third of his Morning Chronicle material was included in his later and better known, publication, 'London Labour and the London Poor'. First published in 1981, this series of six volumes constitutes Henry Mayhew's complete 'Morning Chronicle' survey, in the sequence in which it was originally written in 1849 and 1850. It addresses a wealth of topics from cholera in the Jacob's Island area and to the food markets of London. This first volume contains letters from October to November 1849.
eBook
Pauper protests: power and resistance in early nineteenth-century London workhouses
Far from creating docile bodies, the workhouse was a deeply contested institution, especially after the new poor law was introduced. Paupers challenged the disciplinary apparatus of the new poor law in a wide variety of ways. This article explores the frequency, nature and role of pauper misbehaviour in London workhouses in the first few decades of the new poor law. Both individuals and groups of paupers were involved in protests of various kinds. The context in which problems of discipline emerged, notably the demise of pauper farming after 1834, is discussed. The article then examines the numbers of paupers committed to prison for offences in the workhouse, taking note of the geography of committals. Reluctance to prosecute difficult paupers, however, meant that disorderly and refractory behaviour was far more frequent in workhouses than prosecutions would suggest, as a detailed analysis of the West London union makes clear. Considerations of age, sex and status provided paupers with varying degrees of power with which to challenge authority. By examining who participated in acts of insubordination and the contexts in which such actions took place we can begin to understand the reasons underlying pauper protests.
Journal Article
