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The Poor Law Board August Order, 1859: A Case Study of Protestant-Catholic Conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

J.M. Feheney
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Extract

The August Order was issued by the Poor Law Board on 23 August 1859 and made the provision of Religious Instruction for Catholic orphan pauper children obligatory on the Masters of all Workhouses. It was a significant concession to Roman Catholic, who had been demanding something like it for more than two decades. At the same time, its mandatory nature greatly offended and angered those Guardians who had ultra-Protestant sympathies and connections. The vigour and persistence of the ensuing agitation to have it repealed is almost without parallel in the history of nineteenth-century Protestant-Catholic relations in England and is worth examining in some detail.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 1984 , pp. 84 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1984

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References

Notes

1 P.P. 1860, 37, 12th Annual Report, P.L.B., Appx 1.

2 The Weekly Register, 17 September 1859, 1.

3 P.P. 1861, 9, Cd. 474, S.C. on Poor Relief.

4 Hansard, Third Series 25, 719, 913, 926, 1,226.

5 P.P. 1847–8, 33 (96C), 14th Annual Report, P.L.C., 1847–8, Appx. A, No. 1, Consolidated General Order, Art. 122; also P.P. 1861, 9, Cd. 474, S.C. on Poor Relief, Evidence, Q. 9, 553.

6 Archives of the Archdiocese of Westminster (hereinafter A.A.W.) W2/3/71, Poor Law Board to Chepstow Guardians, 29 February 1848; also Catholic Poor School Committee, Report, 1849, 29. Hansard, Third Series 129, 1563–71, 11 July 1853.

7 P.P. 1854, 55, Cd. 381, 461–89.

8 The Tablet, 17 July 1847, 457.

9 Ibid., 17 July 1858, 453.

10 Ibid., 25 February 1859, 137.

11 The Weekly Register, 12 March 1859, 6; also The Rambler 1(iii), September 1859, 346.

12 The Weekly Register, 26 March 1859, 4: Ibid., 19 March 1859, 4; 16 April 1859,1, 4; Ibid., 23 April 1859, 7, 9.

13 Hoppen, k. T., ‘Tories, Catholics and the General Election of 1859’ Historical Journal, 13 (1970), 50 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also P.R.O., M.H. 25/13, Langdale to P.L.B., 4 August 1859, and encl.

14 The Tablet, 2 April 1859, 209; Ibid., 10 July 1847; Ibid., 2 April 1859, 209. The Rambler, 1(i), May 1859, 253; The Bulwark, 1 June 1859, 324; Hansard, Third Series 87, 24 June 1846, 937; Ibid., 99, 28 June 1848, 1,304.

15 Russell, C., The Catholic in the Workhouse (London, 1859)Google Scholar, passim; The Catholic Register, 11 June 1859, 3–5; The Times, 9 June 1859, 11a; ibid., 11 June 1859, l1a; P.R.O., M.H. 25/13, Langdale to P.L.B., 4 August 1859 and encl.

16 P.R.O., M.H. 25/13, No. 31904A/59, P.L.B, to Langdale, 13 August 1859.

17 P.P. 1860, 37, 12th Annual Report, P.L.B. Appx., 1.

18 P.P. 1861, 9, Cd. 474, S.C. on Poor Relief, Evidence Qs. 4683–4, 4698–9, 9952, 10,108, 10,118–x22.

19 P.R.O., M.H. 25/13, No. 48204/59 and 50470C/59.

20 Ibid., No. 36264/59, Ryley to P.L.B., 14 September 1859.

21 Weekly Register, 17 September 1859, 1; ibid., 24 September 1859, 4.

22 P.R.O., M.H. 25/13, No. 44280/59, Notes on meeting 19 November 1859.

23 P.P. 1861, 9, Cd. 474, S.C. on Poor Relief, Evidence, Qs. 4698–9, 4704, 4715–16.

24 P.R.O., M.H. 25/14, Potter to P.L.S., 16 February 1860; ibid., P.L.B, to Potter, 20 February 1860.

25 Ibid., M.H. 25/13, Memo. 9 November 1859, initialled D.P.F. (?) possibly Danby Palmer Fry, an assistant secretary at the P.L.B.

26 P.P. 1860, 37, 12th Annual Report, P.L.B., Appx 2, 34.

27 P.R.O., M.H. 25/14, Potter to P.L.B., 28 February 1860; ibid., P.L.B, to Potter, 2 March 1860.

28 The Record, 7 March 1860, 3.

29 Ibid.

30 P.R.O., M.H. 25/14, No. 8259/60,9 March 1860.

31 Anon., Workhouse Papers iii, July 1860, 21.

32 A.A.W. W3/36, 94, Morris to Wiseman, 24 May 1860.

33 P.R.O., M.H. 25/13, No. 35526/59, Minute of Lord Courtenay, 2 February 1859; also ibid., No. 4882/59 by W. G. Lumley; also No. 8172/59, Minute dated 16 March 1859, marked ‘Approved M’.

34 Saturday Review, 12 September 1868, 345.

35 Vide e.g. the small number of votes mustered by the ultra-Protestant lobby during the passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1868 in Hansard, Third Series 193, 1880, 27 July 1868; ibid., 1908, 28 July 1868.