A-Level Edexcel History - Paupers and Pauperism

What were the proposed reforms of the Gilbert's Act?

1) Parishes could combine Poor Law Unions for building and maintaining a workhouse. 2) Able-bodied workers were excluded from Gilbert Union workhouses. 3) It was the job of the Parish Guardian to find work for the able-bodied poor.

When was the Elizabethan Poor Law implemented?

1601

When was the Settlement Act?

1662

When were the Whigs formed?

1678

When was the Gilbert's Act introduced?

1782

When was the Speenhamland system introduced?

1795

When was the removal act?

1795

When were the Corn Laws?

1815-1846

When was the first Sturges-Bourne act introduced?

1818

When was the second Sturges-Bourne act introduced?

1819

When did the Whigs come to power?

1831

How many workhouses were there by 1780 in England and Wales?

2000

How many select vestries were there by 1825?

46

How were the rioters punished?

644 rioters were imprisoned and 7 were fined.

How many parishes had combined into Gilbert Unions by 1834?

924 parishes had combined into 67 Gilbert Unions.

What caused the Swing Riots?

A demand for higher wages and the removal of steam powered threshing machines.

What did the Elizabethan Poor Law say about settlement?

A person claiming relief had to be returned to the place of their birth in order to receive it, or where they have lived for more than a year, or the last parish they passed through without getting into trouble with the law.

What was the Roundsman system?

Able-bodied paupers were sent in rotation to farmers who found them work that needed doing or that had been invented for the purpose. The Roundsman's wages were paid partly by the farmer and partly by the parish.

What did the Corn Laws do?

Banned the import of foreign wheat unless the domestic price reached 80 shillings a quarter.

What were the advantages of the parish providing relief?

Defined who was supposed to be helping who. Distinguished who needed relief and who didn't.

What is the difference between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor?

Deserving poor - People who were poor through no fault of their own, e.g. the old and children. Undeserving poor - People who were poor due to their perceived moral failure, e.g. drunk people.

What did it say?

Destitution wasn't a sufficient reason to claim relief and a resident clergyman needed to be added to the members of the vestry.

What was the Labour Rate?

Different away of providing relief that avoided the pitfalls of a Roundsman system. A labour rate was established in addition to poor rate.

Why did the Government have to take action?

Due to the rising costs of looking after the poor.

Explain the reliance on the parish.

Each parish was to administer relief to its own poor and collect taxes to provide appropriate relief. The setting to the work of the poor was in the hands of churchwardens and overseers of the poor.

What did the Whig party focus on?

Expanding the electorate, defending religious minorities and abolishing slavery.

When was it announced by Lord Althorpe that a Royal Commission would conduct an investigation into the poor laws?

February 1832.

What did Lord Brougham do?

He announced that the Government was to consolidate and simplify the existing poor laws.

What did Thomas Malthus believe?

He believed that the Poor Law should be abolished. This would then mean that the poor would have to keep their families small as there would be no financial advantage to them if they had lots of children. Wages would then rise.

What did David Ricardo believe?

He believed that the poor law should be abolished. He put forward the idea of an iron law of wages. He believed that there was a wages fund from which money for wages and poor relief paid. the more that was paid out for poor relief, the less there was available for wages. Due to there being less money for wages, more and more people were drawn into pauperism.

What did Thomas Paine believe?

He criticised the poor law. He proposed a property tax on the very rich to be used for a variety of support systems for the poor. He had a problem with the able-bodied poor and implied the able-bodied poor had to go into workhouses before receiving relief.

What did Reverend Lowe do?

He insisted that in 1818 that outdoor relief should be abolished and made the workhouse a place to be feared.

What did Robert Owen do?

He said that no adult was allowed to work for more than 10 and a half hours a day and sick pay was provided. Children had to be educated in school until they were 10, and only then could they work in his mills. Corporal punishment of children and adults was forbidden.

What did George Nicholls do?

He was an overseer. He claimed to end outdoor relief through the creation of a well-regulated workhouse.

What did Reverend Becher do?

He was the driving force behind the amalgamation of 49 parishes in 1823 into a large Gilbert Union and the building of two new workhouses.

How did the cost of providing poor relief increase?

In 1783-85 average expenditure wad 5s 2d a head. However, in 1829-33 the average expenditure was 9s 8d.

Why did the ending of the wars with France cause pressure for change?

In 1813 and 1814, harvests were good which meant that cheap foreign corn could be imported from Europe which forced English farmers to keep their prices low. However, this mean that they couldn't afford to pay wartime taxed.

What were the problems after 1750?

Industrialisation and a mobile population tested the limits of the Poor Law. Lagging wages and increasing food prices meant that families struggled.

What was the impact of the Gilbert's Act?

It was permissive, so parishes were slow to adopt it. However, it passed two pieces of legislation through Parliament: 1) Overseers were required to submit annual returns of Poor Law expenditure. This provided evidence for the use of future reformers. 2) Ministers and Churchwardens were required to provide information about local charities that mirrored or supplemented support given by the Poor Law.

Explain the situation in Nottinghamshire.

It was the fifth most industrial county in Britain. In 1820-23 the expenditure per head was less than 11 shillings, well below national average.

What did the Settlement Act say?

Legal settlement was by birth, marriage, apprenticeship or inheritance. Strangers could be removed if they weren't working within 40 days.

What happened in Gloucestershire?

Lloyd Baker started reforming poor law administration in Uley with little regular employment from the woollen industry. Abolished outdoor relief. An allowance system was in place.

What was the Speenhamland system?

Most widely used allowance system. provided relief by subsidising wages. Established a formal relationship between the price of bread and the number of dependents in a family.

What was the workhouse test?

Only the genuinely needy and desperate would accept help on these terms.

What were the disadvantages of the parish providing relief?

Overseers of the poor manipulated the system as they used it to settle old scores. Also, the attempts to categorise the poor weren't always fair.

Where were the impotent poor looked after?

Poorhouses or almshouses.

What was outdoor relief?

Providing relief to the poor in their own homes.

What was added to the settlement act in 1697?

Strangers could be removed from parishes if they didn't present a certificate from their home parish.

What did the removal act add to the 1662 settlement act?

Strangers could only be removed if they applied for relief.

What is meant by less eligibility?

The belief that order within the Poor Law system could only be restored and maintained if potential paupers were forced to provide for themselves because they feared the workhouse. Conditions in the workhouse had to be worse than conditions outside.

What was the impact of wars with France?

The ending of the wars led to greater demands for poor relief. pressure brought the Poor Law almost to a state of collapse.

What was the impact of the Speenhamland system?

The system was widely adopted in the south and east of Britain at the beginning of the 19th century. Allowance systems were rarely used in the rural areas of the north where livestock farming provided full employment throughout the year.

What did the Swing Riots involve?

There were repeated arson attacks against the property of overseers of the poor and workhouses.

What took place in Headley and Selbourne?

They wanted titches to be reduced and they broke threshing machines and pulled down the workhouse.

What were the problems with the settlement acts?

They were designed to control a migrant population. They weren't applied consistently over time or from place to place. Overseers argued. The laws were hated by the poor. Magistrates couldn't keep up with issuing and carrying out settlement orders.

What did it say?

Those occupying land less than £50 rateable value had one vote, for every further £25 a man had another vote up to a maximum of 6. Therefore, larger landowners would have six times the influence.

Where were those who refused to work sent?

To houses of correction.

Where were the able-bodied poor sent?

To work in a workhouse.

What did Jeremy Bentham believe?

Utilitarianism - Society should be organised to secure the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people. He believed that relief was a public responsibility, all outdoor relief should be abolished and there should be no discrimination between the deserving and the undeserving poor.