‘Begging for a burial’: form, function and conflict in nineteenth-century pauper burial

Hurren, Elizabeth T.; King, Steve

doi:10.1080/03071020500185448

Cited by 28 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Prior to the end of the Second World War the failure of families to provide sufficiently for a funeral for a loved one was regarded as a public declaration of poverty and stigmatised (Hurren, 2005). Provision for funerals was largely the responsibility of the individual or 'the province of the industrial insurance companies' (Fraser, 2009: 272), which was often seen as characterised by 'inefficiency and selectivity' (Evans and Williams, 2009: 176).…”

Section: The State and Funding Of Funerals: A Historical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

What cost the price of a good send off? The challenges for British state funeral policy

Foster

Woodthorpe²

2013

Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

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The period immediately after death has often been overlooked in social policy, particularly in relation to funerals. The challenges presented by projected increases in death rate owing to the ageing population mean that greater attention to state support for funding funerals is required. This paper examines issues around the present provision of state support for funerals via the Social Fund Funeral Payment, exploring potential failures in the way in which the payment meets people's needs. It concludes that considerable change is needed to state funeral policy to ensure that those from low income backgrounds are able to have a 'good send off'.

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Section: The State and Funding Of Funerals: A Historical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

What cost the price of a good send off? The challenges for British state funeral policy

Foster

Woodthorpe²

2013

Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

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“…80 Whilst the individual's own burial payments have not been traced, during the thirty-two year period four individuals endured the death of one child. Hurren and King have stressed the need to reconsider 'accounts of the economic, social and emotional crises of death and burial', both by and of the poor, to examine 'feelings, experiences and motivations' surrounding these events.…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dependent Poor? (Re)constructing The Lives of Individuals ‘On the Parish’ in Rural Dorset, 1800–1832

Shave

2009

Rural History

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Social commentators in the early decades of the nineteenth century considered the 'poor classes' to be a homogenous sub-group of society dependent on parish poor relief. Whilst in recent decades studies of the Old Poor Law have added much to our understandings of the complexity of poor relief practices, the concept of dependency has proved remarkably durable. This article challenges this central assumption by focusing upon the very individuals who constituted this supposedly homogenous dependent group. The relief histories of eight individuals from two cohorts who resided in the Dorset parish of Motcombe are (re)constructed and linked to demographic data to produce detailed biographies. On the basis of these biographies it is argued that even in north Dorset, where opportunities for employment and alternative forms of subsistence were few, 'the poor' experienced complex fluctuations of dependence on, and independence from, poor relief. It is also shown that traditional assumptions about the factors prompting relief, including the expansion of the family, did not have a uniform impact on all individuals. Such a methodology also makes it possible to explore how the parish managed to respond to the differing and similar needs of individuals. It is thus stressed that instead of following one policy for all, parish officials applied and tailored relief to suit each individual.His skill is unappreciated, his zeal unrewarded, the strong and intelligent Labourer sinks to the lowest point in his class . . . at last he is degraded to a Parish slave, and passes his days in the cheerless endurance of the present, and in sullen recklessness of the future.

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“…Death, funerals, and commemoration remain of considerable interest. Hurren and King unpick the symbolism and reality of pauper funerals in the nineteenth century, arguing that the stereotype of the ‘stark’ pauper funeral does not always stand up to close inspection. Even during the crackdown on poor relief expenditure after 1870, and in the most parsimonious poor law unions, funerals could be funded by a ‘partnership’ of poor law and private sources.…”

Section: (V) 1850–1945  Mark Freeman and Julian Greaves  University Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature published in 2005

Pratt¹,

Schofield

French

et al. 2007

The Economic History Review

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‘Begging for a burial’: form, function and conflict in nineteenth-century pauper burial

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

What cost the price of a good send off? The challenges for British state funeral policy

What cost the price of a good send off? The challenges for British state funeral policy

The Dependent Poor? (Re)constructing The Lives of Individuals ‘On the Parish’ in Rural Dorset, 1800–1832

Review of periodical literature published in 2005

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