Parish Economies of Welfare, 1650–1834

Abstract

. This article argues for a more holistic approach to understanding the Old Poor Law. Using three detailed case studies from southern England, it focuses on the dynamics of differing social groups within the parish. It also looks at the role of the law, looking beyond the statutes to the parts played by King's Bench, Quarter Sessions and individual justices and petty sessions in creating a diversity of experiences for the poor. However, it also stresses the differential access to charitable funds, common rights, and poor relief in individual communities, and the ways in which parish elites attempted to put the total available resources to what they saw as the best uses. From to these combined resources allowed a generally humane approach to the treatment of poverty and misfortune, and maintained the independence of the cottager and labourer in southern England. Only after when population rose sharply and rural employment shrank did the flexibility of combined charitable and rate-based relief founder and more drastic devices were employed to cope with basic needs. In this process the independence of the labourer and cottager was undermined, charitable sources were marginalized, and the seeds were sown for the acceptance of the New Poor Law. IThe purpose of this article is to suggest new approaches to the study of the relief of poverty during the long eighteenth century and to sketch the outlines of a parochial economy of welfare. Some ten years ago, Tim Wales suggested that the life cycle needs of the poorest  or  per cent of the parish community on the verge of poverty were a powerful influence on the distribution of parish resources." Before the poor had recourse to the overseers for poor relief they used a range of other possibilities. These included personal and neighbourly charity, landlord and tradesman credit, subsidized housing, and whatever charitable sources were available. These last could add food, clothing, or fuel to family income, support the education, health, and training needs of young * Earlier versions of this article were read at the ' Long eighteenth-century ' seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, and at the University of Wolverhampton. My thanks are due for comments made by seminar members there, and more recently

Making the most of opportunity

“…Even here, though, we have recently been urged to take a more holistic view of the welfare process. 12 This call is even more relevant for other areas of the country. When the numbers of poor and the amount spent on them by the poor law started to be systematically recorded from the early nineteenth century there were very wide regional differences.…”

The extent and nature of pauperism in five Oxfordshire parishes, 1786–1832

“…People with access to such support would have had less need to turn to the Poor Law ; the vestry and overseers, aware of such resources, might also be more discriminating, or less generous, in their granting of parish aid. 81 Examples of co-residing kin can be found in all of the parishes with the exception of Salford, where the labelling of lodgers simply as 'inmates' makes identification impossible. The Ewelme census, for instance, lists Robert Bell, a married labourer in his sixties, as living with his son, who was also married with four children.…”

Dependency, Shame and Belonging: Badging the Deserving Poor, c .1550–1750

“…Badging the poor was, he insisted, a radical change of policy which would prevent casual almsgiving and deter any beggars from coming 'to mens doores to receave the reversion of meate and porridge' as they were encouraged to do in the late Elizabethan campaigns for general hospitality. 3 By all means let begging from door to door continue, Dutie agreed, so long as mendicants seeking victuals 'allwaies [wore] theire badges on their backe or breaste'. Dignitie nonetheless recognised that badging implied public humiliation: 'the shame of the badge', he insisted, 'will make somme kepe in and not to goe abroade'.…”