Poor Law Union

My ancestor John Singleton was returned as a Guardian for the Preesall with Hackensall parish of the Garstang Poor Law Union in Lancashire. The Guardians are elected by owners and occupiers of land that are expected to pay the poor rate, which was a tax on their property used for poor relief. The Guardians were responsible for the poor in their parish.

According to "The Workhouse" website..

"A local Board of Guardians administered each Poor Law Union's activities. There were two classes of Guardian, namely elected and ex officio (before 1894). Elected Guardians had to be rate-payers occupying property worth at least £25 a year. They were elected annually, usually at the start of April, by the rate-payers of each parish that made up the Union. (Suitably qualified women had been eligible from the outset to stand for election, although it not until 1875 in Kensington that the first female Guardian was elected.) Ex officio Guardians were entitled to Board membership by virtue of their office as local magistrates. The powers and duties of the two classes were the same."

The names of the Guardians were usually published in the paper after elections. You can also check for poor law minutes at the local archives.

There are some Poor Law Records at FindMyPast and Ancestry. Keep checking back with a google search, more are being uploaded from time to time.

Related Links

Cork Poor Law 1891

Workhouse Minutes, Killarney

The Kilrush Union Minute Books, Clare Co

Ennistymon Union Minute Books, 1839-1850 Clare Co

Edinburgh list of Poor Law medical officers 1870-1871

Surrey Poor Law Records

Hambledon, Surrey Poor Law Union minute books

Poor Law and Workhouse Administration and Staff Info

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland - adapted to the new poor law 1846 Vol 1

Wexford County Archive - Poor Law Minute Books

Cornwall Poor Law Project

Bedfordshire Poor Law Union

Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England & Wales (incl/ wages)

Basingstoke Poor Law Union Minute Book

Erpingham Poor Law Union

Scotland - St Nicholas Poor House 1779-1788, Index & transcription

Related Post: Poor as a Church Mouse



Poor as a church mouse

Growing up I had heard the expression “You’re going to put me in the poor house!” but I never knew what it meant exactly until I started doing genealogy.  From the records you will see most are women, some old and some with young children.  Perhaps their husband died, or left them, or they didn’t have one to begin with.  Some are men, perhaps old or sick. All of them are there as a last resort! You will see from some of the letters that the conditions were often terrible.  But it wasn’t all bad and the workhouses and poorhouses saved thousands of lives over the years.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union began in the USA in 1873 and within the year spread to Canada and soon to Australia, and other countries. These women believed that alcohol was the root of all evil and they fought for prohibition. Besides alchohol their other issues were women’s sufferage, child labour, and prostitution. You can check at local branches for archived membership books and roll calls. Today they still strive to help people get out of the loop of alchohol and drug abuse.  

pages at McCord Museum website

The McCord Museum in Montreal has a hand written register of over 3000 entries of people who passed through their doors on Dorchester Street in Montreal. The above is a page from their register.



Relevant Links:

Poor Registers of Dundee, Scotland

Links of Poor Law ships of immigrants to Canada at OliveTree

Almshouse and Poorhouse Records US at OliveTree

Rise and Fall of the Workhouse

UK Poor Law Records

1881 Census: Residents of Alcester union Workhouse, Warwick

Workhouses - UK

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Australia, Register

Women's Christian Temperance Union info at McCord Museum Mtl

Prisoners of Poverty. Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives, Boston 1887