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PAUPER INVENTORIES, SOCIAL RELATIONS, AND THE NATURE OF POOR RELIEF UNDER THE OLD POOR LAW, ENGLAND, c. 1601–1834

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2018

JOSEPH HARLEY
JOSEPH HARLEY*
Affiliation:
University of Derby
*
University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, de22 1gbj.harley@derby.ac.uk
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Abstract

During the old poor law, many paupers had their possessions inventoried and later taken by authorities as part of the process of obtaining poor relief. Historians have known about this for decades, yet little research has been conducted to establish how widespread the system was, what types of parishioners had their belongings inventoried and why, what the legal status of the practice was, and how it affected social relations in the parish. Using nearly 450 pauper inventories, this article examines these historiographical lacunae. It is argued that the policy had no legal basis and came from local practices and policies. The system is found to be more common in the south and east of England than in the north, and it is argued that the practice gradually became less common from the late eighteenth century. The inventorying of paupers’ goods often formed one of the many creative ways in which parishes helped the poor before 1770, as it guaranteed many paupers assistance until death. However, by the late eighteenth century the appraising of paupers’ goods was closely tied to a negative shift in the attitudes of larger ratepayers and officials, who increasingly wanted to dissuade people from applying for assistance and reduce expenditure.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 375 - 398
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The research was kindly funded by the AHRC (ah/k503101/1) and the Economic History Society (EHS-AppRFGS07/2013/0028; EHS-AppRFGS/1477901217899016; and Postan fellowship 2016–17). I am especially grateful to the anonymous reviewers and Tim Hitchcock, Pete King, Keith Snell, Jon Stobart, Roey Sweet, and Emily Whewell for their advice and detailed feedback on earlier drafts or versions of this research. The findings were presented at two conferences (‘Before the Welfare State’, 2016, University of Leicester and ‘Ordering the Margins of Society’, 2017, SAS, University of London). I would like to thank members of the audience who commented on the work and made recommendations.

References

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12 King, ‘Pauper inventories’, pp. 182–3.

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16 This is discussed further below.

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18 Of the 434 pauper inventories used here, only 72 record valuations of some or all the goods listed, and 89 list the possessions by rooms or mention one of them in passing. The sample of pauper inventories from Norfolk will be published in Joseph Harley, Norfolk pauper inventories, c. 1690–1834 (forthcoming).

19 The earliest reference to the policy is from Great Staughton, Cambridgeshire, in Kent and King, ‘Changing’, p. 137.

20 On workhouse-related inventories, see Harley, ‘Material lives of the poor and their strategic use of the workhouse’, pp. 71–103; Tomkins, Urban poverty, pp. 36–78; Ottaway, Susannah R., The decline of life: old age in eighteenth-century England (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 247–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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22 Essex Record Office (ERO) D/P 54/18/1.

23 See for instance the goods-taken inventory of John Hansford, Hingham, NRO PD 575/12.

24 For further information on these numerous types of inventories, see Harley, ‘Material lives of the English poor: a regional perspective’, esp. pp. 68–72; and idem, ‘Material lives of the poor and their strategic use of the workhouse’, pp. 71–103.

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29 On discretionary local application of the law, see: King, Peter, Crime, justice and discretion in England, 1740–1820 (Oxford, 2000)Google Scholar; idem, ‘The summary courts and social relations in eighteenth-century England’, Past and Present, 183 (2004), pp. 125–72; idem, Crime and law in England, 1750–1840: remaking justice from the margins (Cambridge, 2006); Hindle, On the parish?; Sugarman, David and Rubin, G. R., ‘Towards a new history of the law and material society in England, 1750–1914’, in Rubin, G. R. and Sugarman, David, eds., Law, economy and society, 1750–1914: essays in the history of English law (Abingdon, 1984), pp. 47–52Google Scholar; Shave, Samantha A., Pauper policies: poor law practice in England, 1780–1850 (Manchester, 2017)Google Scholar.

30 NRO PD 358/41.

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32 NRO PD 499/79.

33 KHLC De/JQs1.

34 See King, Peter, ‘The rights of the poor and the role of the law: the impact of pauper appeals to the summary courts, 1750–1834’, in Jones, Peter and King, Steven, eds., Obligation, entitlement and dispute under the English poor laws, 1600–1900 (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 252–3Google Scholar, 257, 260–1; King, Poverty and Welfare, pp. 31–2; Dunkley, Peter, ‘Paternalism, the magistracy and poor relief in England, 1795–1834’, International Review of Social History, 24 (1979), pp. 371–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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38 Unfortunately, this inventory does not appear to have survived.

39 Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library U3/269/16/1.

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43 Most people on regular relief also received some sort of casual relief, such as clothing and rent.

44 It is important to note that if there were any doubts over whether the person in the inventory was on relief the source was omitted.

45 On the lifecycles of poverty, see for example Rowntree, B. S., Poverty: a study of town life (3rd edn, London, 1902)Google Scholar; Wales, Tim, ‘Poverty, poor relief and life-cycle: some evidence from seventeenth-century Norfolk’, in Smith, Richard M., ed., Land, kinship and life-cycle (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 351–404Google Scholar; Stapleton, Barry, ‘Inherited poverty and the life-cycle poverty: Odiham, Hampshire, 1650–1850’, Social History, 18 (1993), pp. 339–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shave, Samantha A., ‘The dependent poor? (Re)constructing the lives of individuals “on the parish” in rural Dorset, 1800–1832’, Rural History, 20 (2009), pp. 67–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Williams, Poverty, gender, pp. 101–30.

46 Seven of these pauper inventories are from Essex. These ages were found through analysis of a small number of parish registers and poor law records which mention ages.

47 The 2 per cent of married women only had pauper inventories made in their own names because their husbands were living away from home in a poorhouse or lunatic asylum. Usually relief to married couples was in the husband's name.

48 Children are defined as fifteen years old or younger.

49 Snell, Annals, pp. 15–66.

50 For example, in 1820 the overseer of Little Walsingham (Norfolk), William Groom, had his goods distrained by justices of the peace for overspending £87 7s 12d of parish funds, NRO PD 582/108. Also see Newman, ‘Old poor law’, p. 134; Botelho, Old age, p. 68.

51 Williams, Poverty, gender, pp. 91–100; King, ‘Rights of the poor’, pp. 235–62; Dunkley, ‘Paternalism’, pp. 371–97.

52 Hindle, On the parish?, pp. 365–78; Williams, Poverty, gender, pp. 69–100.

53 KHLC P347/18/10.

54 Ibid.

55 Dorset History Centre (DHC) PE-SW/OV/1/5.

56 DHC PE-POW/OV/1/2.

57 ERO D/P 35/8/1.

58 Already on relief is defined as receiving relief for two months or more before the pauper inventory was made. Most people in this category, however, had been on some sort of relief for years. Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine exactly when paupers started receiving relief in around one third of the inventories.

59 Hindle, On the parish?, p. 281; Hindle, Steve, ‘Power, poor relief, and social relations in Holland Fen, c. 1600–1800’, Historical Journal, 41 (1998), pp. 67–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 94.

60 Hindle, On the parish?, p. 281; Emmison, Relief of the poor, pp. 33–4.

61 DHC PE-BBK/OV/1/1.

62 See for instance the example of Edward Mills and Wingham parish above.

63 There are, of course, exceptions. In Redenhall with Harleston and Wortwell in Norfolk, for example, pauper inventories can be found from 1708 to 1828.

64 Snell, Annals, pp. 105–7; Blaug, Mark, ‘The poor law report reexamined’, Journal of Economic History, 24 (1964), pp. 229–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 229.

65 This is further discussed above.

66 Tim Hitchcock, Peter King, and Pamela Sharpe, ‘Introduction: chronicling poverty – the voices and strategies of the English poor, 1640–1840’, in Hitchcock, King, and Sharpe, eds., Chronicling, p. 10; Williams, Poverty, gender, pp. 69–100, 125–9.

67 British Parliamentary Papers (BPP), 1834, xxix.1, Report from his majesty's commissioners for inquiring into the administration and practical operation of the poor laws. Appendix A: Reports of assistant commissioners, part II, p. 195a.

68 Hindle, Steve, ‘Dependency, shame and belonging: badging the deserving poor, c. 1550–1750’, Cultural and Social History, 1 (2004), pp. 6–35Google Scholar; Hindle, On the parish?, pp. 433–45.

69 Lancashire Record Office MBRA/acc9017/11.

70 NRO PD 219/114.

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73 See above.

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77 Green, ‘Heartless’, p. 81.

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79 Smith, ‘Ageing and well-being’, pp. 76, 84.

80 Hanly, ‘Economy of makeshifts’, pp. 79–80.

81 Lemire, Business, pp. 82–109; Tebbutt, Making ends meet; Shepard, Accounting for oneself; Tomkins, Urban Poverty, pp. 204–34.