What was the new poor law and what was a workhouse?
What was the new poor law and what was a workhouse?
The new Poor Law ensured that the poor were housed in workhouses, clothed and fed. Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling. In return for this care, all workhouse paupers would have to work for several hours each day.
What did the poor law do what was life like in the workhouses?
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, ensured that no able-bodied person could get poor relief unless they went to live in special workhouses. The idea was that the poor were helped to support themselves. They had to work for their food and accommodation. They earned their keep by doing jobs in the workhouse.
What are the poor laws and workhouses?
The Poor Law (Amendment) Act of 1834, otherwise known as the ‘New’ Poor Law, established the workhouse system. Instead of providing a refuge for the elderly, sick and poor, and instead of providing food or clothing in exchange for work in times of high unemployment, workhouses were to become a sort of prison system.
Which English official introduced the Irish poor law?
Virginia Crossman
The Poor Law in Ireland, 1838-1948 by Virginia Crossman (Oxford Brookes University)
What were the three categories of the poor?
The poor were divided into three groups by the government. The first were called Helpless Poor. These would include the old, the sick, the disabled and children. The elderly and the disabled received a sum of money and possibly some food each week.
Why was the new Poor Law unsuccessful?
The Poor Law system fell into decline at the beginning of the 20th century owing to factors such as the introduction of the Liberal welfare reforms and the availability of other sources of assistance from friendly societies and trade unions, as well as piecemeal reforms which bypassed the Poor Law system.
What happened to babies born in workhouses?
Children in the workhouse who survived the first years of infancy may have been sent out to schools run by the Poor Law Union, and apprenticeships were often arranged for teenage boys so they could learn a trade and become less of a burden to the rate payers.
What was Poor Law removal?
Because responsibility for indigent residents fell to the parish, authorities kept close tabs on who had a right to claim the parish as a legal place of settlement. People who could not legally claim the right of settlement could be sent back, or “removed,” to their last legal parish of settlement.
Why does Scrooge ask about the Poor Law?
In Stave I Scrooge is asked to make a donation for the ‘Poor and destitute’ of society. “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge. Scrooge’s refusal represents the selfishness of the richer elements of Victorian society.
What is poor law union in Ireland?
A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Poor law unions were later used as a basis for the delivery of registration from 1837, and sanitation outside urban areas from 1875.
What were Irish workhouses?
The workhouse was an institution which operated in Ireland for a period of some 80 years, from the early 1840s to the early 1920s. There were 163 workhouses in total. People had to stay and live in the workhouse and so the system was known as indoor relief. The whole family had to enter together.
Why was the workhouse system introduced to Ireland?
Vandeleur was known for his widespread evictions in the Kilrush Union. The English workhouse system was introduced to Ireland in 1838 as part of the Irish Poor Law created, in theory, to help relieve the suffering of the poor.
What was the Poor Law system in Ireland?
One of the main criticisms of the poor law system in Ireland was that it failed to discriminate adequately between the respectable and the non-respectable since all destitute people were eligible for relief within the workhouse.
Who are the Guardians of the workhouses in Ireland?
Each PLU had its own workhouse and each union was named after the town in which the workhouse was located. “Guardians” were elected by ratepayers to oversee the administration of the PLU. Generally, they were local magistrates (landlords and their agents/middlemen) wealthier tenant farmers and merchants.
Where can I find Poor Law Records in Ireland?
Many of the minutes and registers are deposited in county libraries and national archives in Ireland. The repositories of poor law records in Ireland are identified in chapter six of the following book: Nolan, William. Tracing the Past: Sources for Local Studies in the Republic of Ireland.
