Poor relief

Last updated October 09, 2024

In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of helping the poor. Alongside ever-changing attitudes towards poverty, many methods have been attempted to answer these questions. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the Parliament of England, poor relief has developed from being little more than a systematic means of punishment into a complex system of government-funded support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state.

Tudor era

In the late 15th century, Parliament took action on the growing^{[ citation needed ]} problem of poverty, focusing on punishing people for being "vagabonds" and for begging. In 1495, during the reign of King Henry VII, Parliament enacted the Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494. This provided for officers of the law to arrest and hold "all such vagabonds, idle and suspect persons living suspiciously and them so taken to set in stocks, there to remain three nights and to have none other sustenance but bread and water; and after the said three days and three nights, to be had out and set at large and to be commanded to avoid the town."^[1] As historian Mark Rathbone has discussed in his article "Vagabond!",^[1] this act of Parliament relied on a very loose definition of a vagabond and did not make any distinction between those who were simply unemployed and looking for employment and those who chose to live the life of a vagabond. In addition, the act failed to recognise the impotent poor; those who could not provide for themselves. These included the sick, the elderly, and the disabled. This lack of a precise definition of a vagabond would hinder the effectiveness of the Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 for years to come.

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The problem of poverty in England was exacerbated during the early 16th century by a dramatic increase in the population. This rose "from little more than 2 million in 1485, ... [to] about 2.8 million by the end of Henry VII's reign (1509)". The population was growing faster than the economy's ability to provide employment opportunities.^[1] The problem was made worse because during the English Reformation, Henry VIII severed the ecclesiastical governance of his kingdoms of England and Ireland and made himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England. This involved the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and Wales: the assets of hundreds of rich religious institutions, including their great estates, were taken by the Crown. This had a devastating impact on poor relief. According to the historian Paul Slack, prior to the Dissolution "it has been estimated that monasteries alone provided 6,500 pounds a year in alms before 1537 [equivalent to £4,700,000in 2023^[2]]; and that sum was not made good by private benefactions until after 1580."^[3] In addition to the closing of the monasteries, most hospitals (which in the 16th century were generally almshouses rather than medical institutions) were also closed, as they "had come to be seen as special types of religious houses".^[4] This left many of the elderly and sick without accommodation or care.

Vagabonds Acts

In 1531, the Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 was revised, and a new act, the Vagabonds Act 1530, was passed by Parliament which did make some provision for the different classes of the poor. The sick, the elderly, and the disabled were to be issued with licences to beg. But those who were out of work and in search of employment were still not spared punishment. Throughout the 16th century, a fear of social unrest was the primary motive for much legislation that was passed by Parliament. This fear of social unrest carried into the reign of Edward VI. A new level of punishment was introduced in the Duke of Somerset's Vagabonds Act 1547.^[5] "Two years' servitude and branding with a 'V' was the penalty for the first offense, and attempts to run away were to be punished by lifelong slavery and, there for a second time, execution."^[1] However, "there is no evidence that the Act was enforced."^[1] In 1550 these punishments were revised in a new act that was passed. The Vagabonds Act 1549 makes a reference to the limited enforcement of the punishments established by the Vagabonds Act 1547 by stating "the extremity of some [of the laws] have been occasion that they have not been put into use."^[1]

Parliament and the parish

Following the revision of the Vagabonds Act 1547, Parliament passed the Poor Act 1551. This focused on using the parishes as a source of funds to combat the increasing poverty epidemic. This statute appointed two "overseers" from each parish to collect money to be distributed to the poor who were considered to belong to the parish. These overseers were to 'gently ask' for donations for poor relief; refusal would ultimately result in a meeting with the local bishop, who would 'induce and persuade' the recalcitrant parishioners.^[1] However, at times even such a meeting with the bishop would often fail to achieve its object.

Sensing that voluntary donation was ineffective, Parliament passed new legislation, the Poor Act 1562, in 1563, and once this act took effect parishioners could be brought by the bishop before the justices, and continued refusal could lead to imprisonment until contribution was made.^[1] However, even the Poor Act 1562 still suffered from shortcomings, because individuals could decide for themselves how much money to give in order to gain their freedom.

A more structured system of donations was established by the Vagabonds Act 1572. After determining the amount of funds needed to provide for the poor of each parish, justices of the peace were granted the authority to determine the amount of the donation from each parish's more wealthy property-owners. This act finally turned these donations into what was effectively a local tax.^[6]

In addition to creating these new imposed taxes, the Vagabonds Act 1572 created a new set of punishments to inflict upon the population of vagabonds. These included being "bored through the ear" for a first offense and hanging for "persistent beggars".^[1] Unlike the previous brutal punishments established by the Vagabonds Act 1547, these extreme measures were enforced with great frequency.

However, despite its introduction of such violent actions to deter vagabonding, the Vagabonds Act 1572 was the first time that Parliament had passed legislation which began to distinguish between different categories of vagabonds. "Peddlers, tinkers, workmen on strike, fortune tellers, and minstrels" were not spared these gruesome acts of deterrence. This law punished all able bodied men "without land or master" who would neither accept employment nor explain the source of their livelihood.^[1] In this newly established definition of what constituted a vagabond, men who had been discharged from the military, released servants, and servants whose masters had died were specifically exempted from the act's punishments. This legislation did not establish any means to support these individuals.

A new approach

A system to support individuals who were willing to work, but who were having difficulty in finding employment, was established by the Poor Act 1575. As provided for in this, justices of the peace were authorized to provide any town which needed it with a stock of flax, hemp, or other materials on which paupers could be employed and to erect a "house of correction" in every county for the punishment of those who refused work.^[6] This was the first time Parliament had attempted to provide labour to individuals as a means to combat the increasing numbers of "vagabonds".

Two years after the Poor Act 1575 was passed into law, yet more dramatic changes were made to the methods to fight vagabondage and to provide relief to the poor. The Act of 1578^{[ clarification needed ]} transferred power from the justices of the peace to church officials in the area of collecting the new taxes for the relief of poverty established in the Vagabonds Act 1572. In addition, this Act of 1578^{[ clarification needed ]} also extended the power of the church by stating that "vagrants were to be summarily whipped and returned to their place of settlement by parish constables."^[1] By eliminating the need for the involvement of the Justices, law enforcement was streamlined.

End of the Elizabethan Era to 1750

Starting as early as 1590, public authorities began to take a more selective approach to supporting the poor. Those who were considered to be legitimately needy, sometimes called the "deserving poor" or "worthy poor", were allowed assistance, while those who were idle were not. People incapable of providing for themselves, such as young orphans, the elderly, and the mentally and physically handicapped, were seen to be deserving, whereas those who were physically able but were too lazy to work were considered as "idle" and were seen as of bad moral character, and thus undeserving of help.^[7] Most poor relief in the 17th century came from voluntary charity which mostly was in the form of food and clothing. Parishes distributed land and animals. Institutionalized charities offered loans to help craftsmen to alms houses and hospitals.^[8]

The Poor Relief Act 1597 provided the first complete code of poor relief, established overseers of the poor and was later amended by the Poor Relief Act 1601, which was one of the longest-lasting achievements of her reign, left unaltered until 1834. This law made each parish responsible for supporting the legitimately needy in their community.^[6] It taxed wealthier citizens of the country to provide basic shelter, food and clothing, though they were not obligated to provide for those outside of their community.

Parishes responsible for their own community caused problems because some were more generous than others. This caused the poor to migrate to other parishes that were not their own. In order to counteract this problem, the Poor Relief Act 1662, also known as the Settlement Act, was implemented. This created many sojourners, people who resided in different settlements that were not their legal one.^[8] The Settlement Act allowed such people to be forcefully removed, and garnered a negative reaction from the population. In order to fix the flaws of the 1662 act, the Poor Relief Act 1691 came into effect such that it presented methods by which people could gain settlement in new locations. Such methods included "owning or renting property above a certain value or paying parish rates, but also by completing a legal apprenticeship or a one-year service while unmarried, or by serving a public office" for that identical length of time.^[8]

The main points of this system were the following:

The impotent poor (people who could not work) were to be cared for in an almshouse or a poorhouse. In this way, the law offered relief to people who were unable to work, mainly those who were elderly, blind, or crippled or otherwise physically infirm.^{[ citation needed ]}
The able-bodied poor were to be set to work in a House of Industry. All materials necessary for this work were to be provided for them.^[9]
The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or prison.^{[ citation needed ]}
Pauper children would become apprentices.^{[ citation needed ]}

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the population of England nearly doubled.^[7] Capitalism in the agricultural and manufacturing arenas started to emerge, and trade abroad significantly increased. Despite this flourishing of expansion, sufficient employment rates had yet to be attained by the late 1600s. The population increased at alarming rates, outpacing the increase in productivity, which resulted inevitably in inflation.^[6] Concurrently, wages decreased, declining to a point roughly half that of average wages of a century before.

"The boom-and-bust nature of European trade in woolen cloth, England's major manufacture and export" caused a larger fraction of the population of England to fall under poverty. With this increase in poverty, all charities operated by the Catholic Church were abolished due to the impact of protestant reformation.^[6]

Workhouse Test Act

A law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain and sponsored by Sir Edward Knatchbull in 1723 introduced a "workhouse test", which meant that a person who wanted to receive poor relief had to enter a workhouse and undertake a set amount of work. The test was intended to prevent irresponsible claims on a parish's poor rate.

The Industrial Revolution

Child labour

Girl pulling a coal tub in mine. From an official report of a UK parliamentary commission. Coaltub.gif — Girl pulling a coal tub in mine. From an official report of a UK parliamentary commission.

By the mid to late 18th century most of the British Isles was involved in the process of industrialization in terms of production of goods, manner of markets^{[ clarification needed ]} and concepts of economic class. In some cases, factory owners "employed" children without paying them, thus exacerbating poverty levels.^[10] Furthermore, the Poor Laws of this era encouraged children to work through an apprenticeship, but by the end of the 18th century the situation changed as masters became less willing to apprentice children, and factory owners then set about employing them to keep wages down.^[10] This meant that there were not many jobs for adult labourers.^[10] For those who could not find work there was the workhouse as a means of sustenance.

Gilbert's Act

The 1782 poor relief law proposed by Thomas Gilbert aimed to organise poor relief on a county basis, counties being organised into parishes which could set up workhouses between them. However, these workhouses were intended to help only the elderly, sick and orphaned, not the able-bodied poor. The sick, elderly and infirm were cared for in poorhouses whereas the able-bodied poor were provided with poor relief in their own homes.

Speenhamland system

The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The system was named after a 1795 meeting at the Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, Berkshire, where a number of local magistrates devised the system as a means to alleviate the distress caused by high grain prices. The increase in the price of grain most probably occurred as a result of a poor harvest in the years 1795–96, though at the time this was subject to great debate. Many blamed middlemen and hoarders as the ultimate architects of the shortage.

The authorities at Speenhamland approved a means-tested sliding scale of wage supplements in order to mitigate the worst effects of rural poverty. Families were paid extra to top up wages to a set level according to a table. This level varied according to the number of children and the price of bread.

In 1834, the Report of the Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws 1832 called the Speenhamland System a "universal system of pauperism". The system allowed employers, including farmers and the nascent industrialists of the town, to pay below subsistence wages, because the parish would make up the difference and keep their workers alive. So the workers' low income was unchanged and the poor rate contributors subsidised the farmers.^[11]

New Poor Law of 1834

Indoor relief versus outdoor relief

Following the onset of the Industrial Revolution, in 1834 the Parliament of the United Kingdom revised the Poor Relief Act 1601 after studying the conditions found in 1832. Over the next decade they began phasing out outdoor relief and pushing the paupers towards indoor relief. The differences between the two was that outdoor relief was a monetary contribution to the needy, whereas indoor relief meant the individual was sent to one of the workhouses.

The Great Famine (Ireland)

Following the reformation of the Poor Laws in 1834, Ireland experienced a severe potato blight that lasted from 1845 to 1849 and killed an estimated 1.5 million people. The effects of the famine lasted until 1851. During this period the people of Ireland lost much land and many jobs, and appealed to the Westminster Parliament for aid.^{[ citation needed ]} This aid generally came in the form of establishing more workhouses as indoor relief.^[12] Some people^{[ who? ]} argue that as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was in its prime as an empire, it could have given more aid in the form of money, food or rent subsidies.^{[ citation needed ]}

In other parts of the United Kingdom, amendments to and adoptions of poor laws came in and around the same time. In Scotland, for example, the Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 revised the Poor Laws that were implemented under the 1601 Acts.

Related Research Articles

The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s.

The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty in England and Wales at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The law was an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law. It was created as an indirect result of Britain's involvements in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793–1815).

In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses. The earliest known use of the term workhouse is from 1631, in an account by the mayor of Abingdon reporting that "we have erected wthn [sic] our borough a workhouse to set poorer people to work".

A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy.

The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey denying the right of the poor to subsistence. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Relief Act 1601 and attempted to fundamentally change the poverty relief system in England and Wales. It resulted from the 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws, which included Edwin Chadwick, John Bird Sumner and Nassau William Senior. Chadwick was dissatisfied with the law that resulted from his report. The Act was passed two years after the Representation of the People Act 1832 which extended the franchise to middle-class men. Some historians have argued that this was a major factor in the PLAA being passed.

The Poor Relief Act 1601 was an Act of the Parliament of England. The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601, popularly known as the Elizabethan Poor Law, the "43rd Elizabeth", or the "Old Poor Law", was passed in 1601 and created a poor law system for England and Wales.

The Relief of the Poor Act 1782, also known as Gilbert's Act, was a British poor relief law proposed by Thomas Gilbert which aimed to organise poor relief on a county basis, counties being organised into parishes which could set up poorhouses or workhouses between them. However, these workhouses were intended to help only the elderly, sick and orphaned, not the able-bodied poor. The sick, elderly and infirm were cared for in poorhouses whereas the able-bodied poor were provided with poor relief in their own homes. Gilbert's Act aimed to be more humane than the previous modification to the Poor Law, the Workhouse Test Act. During the 1780s, there was an increase in unemployment and underemployment due to high food prices, low wages and the effects of enclosing land. This caused poor rates to increase rapidly, which wealthy landowners found unacceptable.

The Poor Law Commission was a body established to administer poor relief after the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The commission was made up of three commissioners who became known as "The Bashaws of Somerset House", their secretary and nine clerks or assistant commissioners. The commission lasted until 1847 when it was replaced by a Poor Law Board – the Andover workhouse scandal being one of the reasons for this change.

From the reign of Elizabeth I until the passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 relief of the poor in England was administered on the basis of a Poor Relief Act 1601. From the start of the nineteenth century the basic concept of providing poor relief was criticised as misguided by leading political economists and in southern agricultural counties the burden of poor-rates was felt to be excessive (especially where poor-rates were used to supplement low wages. Opposition to the Elizabethan Poor Law led to a Royal Commission on poor relief, which recommended that poor relief could not in the short term be abolished; however it should be curtailed, and administered on such terms that none but the desperate would claim it. Relief should only be administered in workhouses, whose inhabitants were to be confined, 'classified' and segregated. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 allowed these changes to be implemented by a Poor Law Commission largely unaccountable to Parliament. The act was passed by large majorities in Parliament, but the regime it was intended to bring about was denounced by its critics as un-Christian, un-English, unconstitutional, and impracticable for the great manufacturing districts of Northern England. The Act itself did not introduce the regime, but introduced a framework by which it might easily be brought in.

The 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws was a group set up to decide how to change the Poor Law systems in England and Wales. The group included Nassau Senior, a professor from Oxford University who was against the allowance system, and Edwin Chadwick, who was a Benthamite. The recommendations of the Royal Commission's report were implemented in the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.

The Vagabonds Act 1597 was an Act of the Parliament of England, which aimed to address concerns of vagrancy.

The Scottish poor laws were the statutes concerning poor relief passed in Scotland between 1579 and 1929. Scotland had a different poor law system to England and the workings of the Scottish laws differed greatly to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 which applied in England and Wales.

Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, vagrancy was historically a crime punishable with forced labor, military service, imprisonment, or confinement to dedicated labor houses.

The Historiography of the Poor Laws can be said to have passed through three distinct phases. Early historiography was concerned with the deficiencies of the Old Poor Law system, later work can be characterized as an early attempt at revisionism before the writings of Mark Blaug present a truly revisionist analysis of the Poor Law system.

Poor Law policy after the New Poor Law concerns the time period c. 1847–1900 after the implementation of the Poor Law Amendment Act until the beginnings of the decline of the Poor Law system at the start of the 20th century.

The following article presents a timeline of the poor law system in England from its origins in the Tudor and Elizabethan era to its abolition in 1948.

The Tudor poor laws were the laws regarding poor relief in the Kingdom of England around the time of the Tudor period (1485–1603). The Tudor Poor Laws ended with the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law in 1601, two years before the end of the Tudor dynasty, a piece of legislation which codified the previous Tudor legislation.

In historical English law, a sturdy beggar was a person who was fit and able to work, but begged or wandered for a living instead. The Statute of Cambridge 1388 was an early law which differentiated between sturdy beggars and the infirm poor. The Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 listed restrictions and punishments.

The Act for the Provision and Relief of the Poor was a statute passed by the Parliament of England during the reign of King Edward VI. It is a part of the Tudor Poor Laws and reaffirms previous poor laws enacted in 1536, 1547, and 1549 which focused primarily on the punishment of vagabonds. The Poor Act 1551 designated a new position, "collector of alms," in each parish. Local authorities and residents elected two alms collectors to request, record, and distribute charitable donations for poor relief. It further provided that each parish would keep a register of all its “impotent, aged, and needy persons” and the aid they received. Parish authorities were directed to “gently exhort” any person that could contribute but would not, referring them to the Bishop of the Diocese if they continued to refuse. Punishment for neglecting poor relief obligations was adopted in 1563 and reliance on charity was replaced by a system of taxation in 1597. Under the assumption that all poor would be cared for, begging openly was now forbidden. Licensed begging would be reinstated by the Marian Parliament of 1555 with the requirement that legal beggars wear badges.

The Scottish poorhouse, occasionally referred to as a workhouse, provided accommodation for the destitute and poor in Scotland. The term poorhouse was almost invariably used to describe the institutions in that country, as unlike the regime in their workhouse counterparts in neighbouring England and Wales, residents were not usually required to labour in return for their upkeep.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rathbone, Mark (2005). "Vagabond!". History Review. History Today: 8–13.
↑ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 7 May 2024.
↑ Slack, Paul (1988). Poverty and Policy in Tudor and Stuart England. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-48965-2.
↑ Rushton, N. S.; Sigle-Rushton, W. (2001). "Monastic Poor Relief in Sixteenth-Century England". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 32 (2): 193–216. doi:10.1162/002219501750442378. PMID 19035026. S2CID 7272220.
↑ Williams, Penry (1998): The Later Tudors: England 1547–1603. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-288044-6. p. 48
1 2 3 4 5 Slack, Paul. 1984. "Poverty in Elizabethan England". History Today 34, no. 10: 5. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 1 August 2010).
1 2 McIntosh, M. K. (2005). "Poverty, Charity, and Coercion in Elizabethan England". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 35 (3): 457–479. doi:10.1162/0022195052564234. S2CID 144864528.
1 2 3 Anne Winter. 2008. "Caught between Law and Practice: Migrants and Settlement Legislation in the Southern Low Countries in a Comparative Perspective, c. 1700–1900". Rural History 19, no. 2: 137–162. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed August 1, 2010).
↑ "British social policy, 1601-1948". An introduction to Social Policy. Robert Gordon University. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007.
1 2 3 Honeyman, K. (2007). "The Poor Law, the Parish Apprentice, and the Textile Industries in the North of England, 1780–1830". Northern History. 44 (2): 115–140. doi:10.1179/174587007X208263. S2CID 159489267.
↑ Milton D. Speizman, "Speenhamland: an experiment in guaranteed income." Social Service Review 40.1 (1966): 44-55.
↑ Thomas E. Hachey, Joseph M. Hermon, Jr. and Lawrence J McCaffery. The Irish Experience: A Concise History; (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996) 92–93 ^{[ ISBN missing ]}

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[Vagabond-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rathbone, Mark (2005). "Vagabond!". History Review. History Today: 8–13.

[inflation-UK-2] UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 7 May 2024.

[Poverty-3] Slack, Paul (1988). Poverty and Policy in Tudor and Stuart England. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-48965-2.

[Monastic-4] Rushton, N. S.; Sigle-Rushton, W. (2001). "Monastic Poor Relief in Sixteenth-Century England". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 32 (2): 193–216. doi:10.1162/002219501750442378. PMID 19035026. S2CID 7272220.

[5] Williams, Penry (1998): The Later Tudors: England 1547–1603. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-288044-6. p. 48

[Slack-6] 1 2 3 4 5 Slack, Paul. 1984. "Poverty in Elizabethan England". History Today 34, no. 10: 5. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 1 August 2010).

[Marjorie-7] 1 2 McIntosh, M. K. (2005). "Poverty, Charity, and Coercion in Elizabethan England". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 35 (3): 457–479. doi:10.1162/0022195052564234. S2CID 144864528.

[AnneWinter-8] 1 2 3 Anne Winter. 2008. "Caught between Law and Practice: Migrants and Settlement Legislation in the Southern Low Countries in a Comparative Perspective, c. 1700–1900". Rural History 19, no. 2: 137–162. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed August 1, 2010).

[9] "British social policy, 1601-1948". An introduction to Social Policy. Robert Gordon University. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007.

[Katrina-10] 1 2 3 Honeyman, K. (2007). "The Poor Law, the Parish Apprentice, and the Textile Industries in the North of England, 1780–1830". Northern History. 44 (2): 115–140. doi:10.1179/174587007X208263. S2CID 159489267.

[11] Milton D. Speizman, "Speenhamland: an experiment in guaranteed income." Social Service Review 40.1 (1966): 44-55.

[12] Thomas E. Hachey, Joseph M. Hermon, Jr. and Lawrence J McCaffery. The Irish Experience: A Concise History; (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996) 92–93 ^{[ ISBN missing ]}

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v t e Poor laws of the British Isles
Poor laws by territory	England and Wales Scotland Ireland Isle of Man	Nantwich workhouse
Old Poor Law	Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 Tudor poor laws Poor Relief Act 1597 Poor Relief Act 1601 Poor Relief Act 1662 Relief of the Poor Act 1696 Poor Relief Act 1722 Relief of the Poor Act 1782 House of correction Overseer of the poor Poor rate Poor relief Buttock mail
Relief systems	Outdoor relief Speenhamland Labour Rate Roundsman Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
New Poor Law	Royal commission (1832) Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 Less eligibility Workhouse Workhouse test Board of guardians Outdoor Labour Test Order Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order Poor law unions Opposition Book of Murder Scottish poorhouse
Changes after 1834	Poor Law Commission Poor Law Board Local Government Board Andover workhouse scandal Huddersfield workhouse scandal Union Chargeability Act
Decline and abolition	Liberal welfare reforms Royal Commission (1905–09) Majority Report Minority Report Interwar poverty National Assistance Act 1948
Other	Christmas Day in the Workhouse Historiography of the Poor Laws Timeline of the English Poor Law system Poor Relief Act List of poor law unions in England List of poor law unions in Wales List of Irish poor law unions