How dependent were the ‘dependent poor’? Poor relief and the life-course in Terling, Essex, 1762–1834

French, Henry

doi:10.1017/s0268416015000223

Cont. Change

2015

DOI: 10.1017/s0268416015000223

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How dependent were the ‘dependent poor’? Poor relief and the life-course in Terling, Essex, 1762–1834

Henry French

Abstract: Despite the volume of research on the Old Poor Law, only in the last two decades have detailed local studies begun to assess the impact of relief payments across the life-courses of individuals. Their conclusions have been mixed. While many have found that the rural labouring poor of southern England were increasingly frequent recipients of poor relief after the 1780s, recent studies have indicated that ‘dependence’ on relief was generally intermittent, not permanent. Based on a new dataset for the Essex villa… Show more

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Cited by 3 publications

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Pre-industrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes: rural poor relief in Flanders around 1800

2018

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This study uses data on income and distribution of relief payments from local poor relief tables for 512 rural parishes in Flanders (present-day Belgium) in 1807 to examine spatial variation in poor relief practices in a region characterised by well-established local poor relief institutions and marked socio-economic differences. By combining data on poor relief with local data on population, landholding and occupational structure, we map out the relative importance of regional economies and local variation in producing distinct poor relief regimes. The results show that although local variation was considerable, the nature and extent of this variation interacted with structural socio-economic characteristics to produce regional patterns, signalling that local variation did not so much contradict as constitute regional patterns in poor relief regimes. The importance of socio-economic characteristics in determining both regional patterns and local variation supports our more general contention that local and regional levels of analysis represent a more fruitful avenue for understanding variations in poor relief practices than national differences in legislation, and therefore has implications for the comparative study of poor relief practices in a wider international context.

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Pre-industrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes: rural poor relief in Flanders around 1800

2018

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Poor Relief as ‘Improvement’: Moral and Spatial Economies of Care in Scotland, c.1720s–1790s

Bujokova,

Desportes

2023

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This article takes as a point of departure the paucity of scholarship on Scottish poor relief, which has been predominantly depicted as an inferior and underdeveloped version of its southern counterpart. We adopt a case study approach looking at two examples of Lowland and Highland urban infrastructures of poor relief to illustrate the application of the ideology of ‘improvement’ philosophy onto the treatment of the poor between c.1720 and 1790. Situating the study within the context of Scottish ‘improvement’, we explore the ways theoretical and practical approaches towards the poor were shaped by the combination of commercial and evangelical attitudes to human capital investment and long-term reform, echoing similar developments across Europe. At the close of the eighteenth century, the Scottish system transitioned from a community based, localised system of reciprocal hierarchy operated by the parish and kirk structures to a system increasingly rooted in legalism and the concept of rights based social provision.

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Regulating Poor Migrants in Border Regions: A Microhistory of Out-Parish Relief in Bulskamp (1768–96)

Schepers

2018

Rural History

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Abstract:The regulation of poor migrants increasingly became a problem for local governments in eighteenth-century West Flanders and Flandres Maritime. Conflicts arose about which parish migrants should address for requesting poor relief. Migrants moreover physically moved over the boundaries of the different national French and Flemish legislative systems. This article will analyse how local parishes dealt with these problems in practice by focusing on a local agreement: the Concordat of Ypres of 1750. This Concordat offers an abundance of archival material and provides a unique insight into the practices of settlement and poor relief in continental Ancien Régime Europe. The aim of the article is to understand how out-parish relief functioned within the agreement. With that aim in mind, I will analyse, inter alia, the micro practices of how out-parish relief was paid (for example, removal or out-parish relief), how it reached the poor and, more importantly, how the number, expenses on and spread of out-parish poor evolved through the years. This article strengthens the claim that extensive relief practices were not unique to England and Wales. It also provides further insights into the relations between rural and urban areas (as most migration and settlement literature had either an urban or a rural focus) and sheds light on the differences of interests between local and central administrations.

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How dependent were the ‘dependent poor’? Poor relief and the life-course in Terling, Essex, 1762–1834

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

Pre-industrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes: rural poor relief in Flanders around 1800

Pre-industrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes: rural poor relief in Flanders around 1800

Poor Relief as ‘Improvement’: Moral and Spatial Economies of Care in Scotland, c.1720s–1790s

Regulating Poor Migrants in Border Regions: A Microhistory of Out-Parish Relief in Bulskamp (1768–96)

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