Desmond King
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198296294
- eISBN:
- 9780191599668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198296290.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Uses historical and contemporary evidence to demonstrate how British government policies toward the unemployed have increasingly come to rest on the notion of duties and obligations arising from a ...
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Uses historical and contemporary evidence to demonstrate how British government policies toward the unemployed have increasingly come to rest on the notion of duties and obligations arising from a commitment to liberal contractualism. King explores 150 years of welfare policy, beginning with the 1834 New Poor Law and ending with modern Labour workfare schemes of the late 1990s. He argues that more contemporary versions of workfare—although sharing affinities with previous programmes—signal a sharp break from the past by establishing conditions and enforcing sanctions on individuals who fail to comply with policy requirements.Less
Uses historical and contemporary evidence to demonstrate how British government policies toward the unemployed have increasingly come to rest on the notion of duties and obligations arising from a commitment to liberal contractualism. King explores 150 years of welfare policy, beginning with the 1834 New Poor Law and ending with modern Labour workfare schemes of the late 1990s. He argues that more contemporary versions of workfare—although sharing affinities with previous programmes—signal a sharp break from the past by establishing conditions and enforcing sanctions on individuals who fail to comply with policy requirements.
Patricia Crawford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199204809
- eISBN:
- 9780191709517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199204809.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
The formulation and implementation of Poor Laws from the late Elizabethan period brought public fatherhood into poor families. ‘Civic fathers’ are men who undertook public roles as fathers of poor ...
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The formulation and implementation of Poor Laws from the late Elizabethan period brought public fatherhood into poor families. ‘Civic fathers’ are men who undertook public roles as fathers of poor children, substituting adequate fathers for inadequate or absent ones. This chapter examines the rhetoric and practices of civic fathers, who, in exercising their paternal authority and granting or withholding relief, reduced all the poor including adults to the state of childhood. Furthermore, the authority of these public fathers was applied not only to the poor in England, but to the indigenous inhabitants of Britain's empire.Less
The formulation and implementation of Poor Laws from the late Elizabethan period brought public fatherhood into poor families. ‘Civic fathers’ are men who undertook public roles as fathers of poor children, substituting adequate fathers for inadequate or absent ones. This chapter examines the rhetoric and practices of civic fathers, who, in exercising their paternal authority and granting or withholding relief, reduced all the poor including adults to the state of childhood. Furthermore, the authority of these public fathers was applied not only to the poor in England, but to the indigenous inhabitants of Britain's empire.
George R. Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178738
- eISBN:
- 9780691183992
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178738.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter traces the roles played by the Poor Law, charity, and self-help from 1834 to 1870. Workers responded to the reduced availability of outdoor relief after 1834 by increasing their saving ...
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This chapter traces the roles played by the Poor Law, charity, and self-help from 1834 to 1870. Workers responded to the reduced availability of outdoor relief after 1834 by increasing their saving and joining friendly societies, but few were able to save more than a small amount, which was exhausted by spells of unemployment or sickness lasting more than a few weeks. As a result, many households continued to apply for poor relief during downturns, and urban Poor Law unions continued to provide outdoor relief to the unemployed despite pressure not to from the central administration. Unions proved unable to cope financially with the sharp increases in demand for relief during crises, and by the 1860s many were convinced that the system required a radical restructuring.Less
This chapter traces the roles played by the Poor Law, charity, and self-help from 1834 to 1870. Workers responded to the reduced availability of outdoor relief after 1834 by increasing their saving and joining friendly societies, but few were able to save more than a small amount, which was exhausted by spells of unemployment or sickness lasting more than a few weeks. As a result, many households continued to apply for poor relief during downturns, and urban Poor Law unions continued to provide outdoor relief to the unemployed despite pressure not to from the central administration. Unions proved unable to cope financially with the sharp increases in demand for relief during crises, and by the 1860s many were convinced that the system required a radical restructuring.
Patricia Crawford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199204809
- eISBN:
- 9780191709517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199204809.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter examines how mothers and fathers coped with the crises and destitution of severe poverty. Whereas the previous chapter discussed how ordinary labouring people brought up their children ...
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This chapter examines how mothers and fathers coped with the crises and destitution of severe poverty. Whereas the previous chapter discussed how ordinary labouring people brought up their children in a state of chronic poverty, this focuses on parents' strategies for managing long-term economic change, as well as immediate crises such as poor harvests and fires, and problems caused by personal misfortunes, including sickness and deaths. It first discusses how parents were affected by the local administration of the Poor Laws. It then considers the resources of poor parents, and whether they had a ‘family’ economy to help tide them over tough times.Less
This chapter examines how mothers and fathers coped with the crises and destitution of severe poverty. Whereas the previous chapter discussed how ordinary labouring people brought up their children in a state of chronic poverty, this focuses on parents' strategies for managing long-term economic change, as well as immediate crises such as poor harvests and fires, and problems caused by personal misfortunes, including sickness and deaths. It first discusses how parents were affected by the local administration of the Poor Laws. It then considers the resources of poor parents, and whether they had a ‘family’ economy to help tide them over tough times.
David Albert Jones
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199213009
- eISBN:
- 9780191707179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213009.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter examines the role of the clergy in pastoral care in their parishes. It considers the expectations of the Church's Canons and the bishops. It considers the evidence for parochial ...
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This chapter examines the role of the clergy in pastoral care in their parishes. It considers the expectations of the Church's Canons and the bishops. It considers the evidence for parochial visiting, care for the sick and the dying, including drawing up people's wills, and the administration of charity. It also explores their role as chair of the parish vestry, and in the administration and reform of the Poor Law. It investigates their role in the moral oversight of the residents of their parish; the part religious societies played in improving the spiritual and moral lives of parishioners, and their role as a reconciler in their parish; the significance of the appointment of many clergy as justices of the peace in the later 18th century; and the impact of this on their role.Less
This chapter examines the role of the clergy in pastoral care in their parishes. It considers the expectations of the Church's Canons and the bishops. It considers the evidence for parochial visiting, care for the sick and the dying, including drawing up people's wills, and the administration of charity. It also explores their role as chair of the parish vestry, and in the administration and reform of the Poor Law. It investigates their role in the moral oversight of the residents of their parish; the part religious societies played in improving the spiritual and moral lives of parishioners, and their role as a reconciler in their parish; the significance of the appointment of many clergy as justices of the peace in the later 18th century; and the impact of this on their role.
Carl J. Griffin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526145628
- eISBN:
- 9781526152022
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526145635.00012
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Notoriously, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 moved beyond monetary relief to establish precise dietaries for the poor ‘relieved’ in union workhouses, out relief now something only to be given in ...
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Notoriously, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 moved beyond monetary relief to establish precise dietaries for the poor ‘relieved’ in union workhouses, out relief now something only to be given in absolute emergencies. By dictating what the poor ate, as opposed to what they might eat, workhouse dietaries established an absolute biological minimum for bodily survival decided by individual poor law unions within perimeters set by the central state through the Poor Law Commission. While the implications of workhouse dietaries have been subject to careful study, this chapter takes a broader perspective. It examines the makings of the idea of the dietary, analysing debates and discussion concerning both the physiological and practical science of pauper diet, as well as earlier examining antecedent, before going on to explore the implementation of workhouse dietaries in the new centrally-controlled but still locally operated system What emerges is a highly uneven system, patterned by varying ideological, practical, economic and political imperatives. The chapter also analyses the critiques of the system, exploring both the centrality of critiques to the politicking of radical politicians and to the rise of a particular type of humanitarianism, a concern with the bodily welfare of the poor.Less
Notoriously, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 moved beyond monetary relief to establish precise dietaries for the poor ‘relieved’ in union workhouses, out relief now something only to be given in absolute emergencies. By dictating what the poor ate, as opposed to what they might eat, workhouse dietaries established an absolute biological minimum for bodily survival decided by individual poor law unions within perimeters set by the central state through the Poor Law Commission. While the implications of workhouse dietaries have been subject to careful study, this chapter takes a broader perspective. It examines the makings of the idea of the dietary, analysing debates and discussion concerning both the physiological and practical science of pauper diet, as well as earlier examining antecedent, before going on to explore the implementation of workhouse dietaries in the new centrally-controlled but still locally operated system What emerges is a highly uneven system, patterned by varying ideological, practical, economic and political imperatives. The chapter also analyses the critiques of the system, exploring both the centrality of critiques to the politicking of radical politicians and to the rise of a particular type of humanitarianism, a concern with the bodily welfare of the poor.
Peter M. Solar and Richard M. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263471
- eISBN:
- 9780191734786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263471.003.0017
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter focuses on welfare and pension benefits in the European Union. It describes how tensions between labour mobility and social solidarity affect the harmonization of social welfare regimes ...
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This chapter focuses on welfare and pension benefits in the European Union. It describes how tensions between labour mobility and social solidarity affect the harmonization of social welfare regimes across the Union. An analogous situation existed at the time when a national Poor Law policy was first established. Research on how the Old Poor Law operated suggests that a number of features may be transposed to Europe in the twenty-first century. This research has itself benefitted from looking at the Old Poor Law in the broader context of the European experience with poor relief during these centuries.Less
This chapter focuses on welfare and pension benefits in the European Union. It describes how tensions between labour mobility and social solidarity affect the harmonization of social welfare regimes across the Union. An analogous situation existed at the time when a national Poor Law policy was first established. Research on how the Old Poor Law operated suggests that a number of features may be transposed to Europe in the twenty-first century. This research has itself benefitted from looking at the Old Poor Law in the broader context of the European experience with poor relief during these centuries.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In Victorian England, the Old Poor Law did not function as a unitary system: its implementation varied according to the problems, priorities, and wealth of each of more than 10,000 parishes. However, ...
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In Victorian England, the Old Poor Law did not function as a unitary system: its implementation varied according to the problems, priorities, and wealth of each of more than 10,000 parishes. However, by the end of the 18th century certain patterns of parochial care and accommodation were beginning to emerge as officials dealt more frequently with those suffering from mental disability: idiots or imbeciles. By retaining individuals in workhouses, the Poor Law Guardians were saving enormously on the costs of formal institutional confinement. A confluence of cultural, medical, and charitable forces by the early Victorian period left idiot children as a constituency without a home. County lunatic asylums were concentrating their limited resources on violent and incurable adult lunatics, and were being increasingly seen as an inappropriate locus of care for idiot children. Meanwhile, the cultural status of children's charities was on the rise. Orphan asylums had been established in the early decades of the 19th century, and childhood was becoming identified as central to new bourgeois configurations of family.Less
In Victorian England, the Old Poor Law did not function as a unitary system: its implementation varied according to the problems, priorities, and wealth of each of more than 10,000 parishes. However, by the end of the 18th century certain patterns of parochial care and accommodation were beginning to emerge as officials dealt more frequently with those suffering from mental disability: idiots or imbeciles. By retaining individuals in workhouses, the Poor Law Guardians were saving enormously on the costs of formal institutional confinement. A confluence of cultural, medical, and charitable forces by the early Victorian period left idiot children as a constituency without a home. County lunatic asylums were concentrating their limited resources on violent and incurable adult lunatics, and were being increasingly seen as an inappropriate locus of care for idiot children. Meanwhile, the cultural status of children's charities was on the rise. Orphan asylums had been established in the early decades of the 19th century, and childhood was becoming identified as central to new bourgeois configurations of family.
George R. Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178738
- eISBN:
- 9780691183992
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178738.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter demonstrates how the aged coped economically and the extent of their reliance on the Poor Law from the 1860s to 1908. The share of working-class persons 65 and older receiving poor ...
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This chapter demonstrates how the aged coped economically and the extent of their reliance on the Poor Law from the 1860s to 1908. The share of working-class persons 65 and older receiving poor relief within a year ranged from about one-half in the 1860s to about one-third in 1908. A large part of this decline in old age pauperism resulted from policy changes brought about by the Crusade Against Outrelief. Workers found it difficult to save enough to provide for their old age. Those who were physically able continued to work, albeit at reduced pay, and many received assistance from their children. However, the ability of older workers to support themselves declined with age, and married children with families often were unable to assist aged parents. The combination of little saving, declining earnings, and lack of family support forced many of the aged to turn to the Poor Law.Less
This chapter demonstrates how the aged coped economically and the extent of their reliance on the Poor Law from the 1860s to 1908. The share of working-class persons 65 and older receiving poor relief within a year ranged from about one-half in the 1860s to about one-third in 1908. A large part of this decline in old age pauperism resulted from policy changes brought about by the Crusade Against Outrelief. Workers found it difficult to save enough to provide for their old age. Those who were physically able continued to work, albeit at reduced pay, and many received assistance from their children. However, the ability of older workers to support themselves declined with age, and married children with families often were unable to assist aged parents. The combination of little saving, declining earnings, and lack of family support forced many of the aged to turn to the Poor Law.
Peter Mandler
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198217817
- eISBN:
- 9780191678288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198217817.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In England, the first government of the Age of Reform was not a Whig, nor even a Whig party government, but a coalition of Whigs, liberals, moderates, and liberal Tories, united only by their ...
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In England, the first government of the Age of Reform was not a Whig, nor even a Whig party government, but a coalition of Whigs, liberals, moderates, and liberal Tories, united only by their agreement on a measure of Parliamentary Reform. Their understanding of that Reform and their hopes for its consequences varied wildly. Even after Reform's enactment, the character of the new political era did not immediately become clear. Moderates wished to continue the line of rational reforms begun by Robert Peel and William Huskisson, and were pleased to find in the reform of the Poor Laws a project upon which they could combine with liberals. Foxite Whigs had other ideas, including the satisfaction of popular demands, such as a restriction upon the hours of factory labour, to which moderates and liberals were adamantly opposed. These were years of experimentation, in which Whigs and liberals could pursue different lines in parallel, and indeed in which those lines still often crossed, as liberals only gradually lost their enthusiasm for constitutional reform.Less
In England, the first government of the Age of Reform was not a Whig, nor even a Whig party government, but a coalition of Whigs, liberals, moderates, and liberal Tories, united only by their agreement on a measure of Parliamentary Reform. Their understanding of that Reform and their hopes for its consequences varied wildly. Even after Reform's enactment, the character of the new political era did not immediately become clear. Moderates wished to continue the line of rational reforms begun by Robert Peel and William Huskisson, and were pleased to find in the reform of the Poor Laws a project upon which they could combine with liberals. Foxite Whigs had other ideas, including the satisfaction of popular demands, such as a restriction upon the hours of factory labour, to which moderates and liberals were adamantly opposed. These were years of experimentation, in which Whigs and liberals could pursue different lines in parallel, and indeed in which those lines still often crossed, as liberals only gradually lost their enthusiasm for constitutional reform.
S. A. Skinner
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199273232
- eISBN:
- 9780191706394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273232.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Aside from commercialism, another major theme within tractarian commentary was the distinct conviction that social ills in England at the time were, ultimately, unamenable to purely legislative ...
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Aside from commercialism, another major theme within tractarian commentary was the distinct conviction that social ills in England at the time were, ultimately, unamenable to purely legislative remedies. This was reinforced by a wider rejection of the state's usurpation of duties and capacities which were supposedly hitherto the province of the church. Tractarians bitterly assailed political economy — the ‘philosophy of Antichrist’ — and the workings of its spawn, the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. They criticised the removal of charity from an individual and parochial to a civic and statist basis, and debated reforms to the administration of parish relief with a precision which confounds traditional representations of the movement's disengagement from contemporary social debate. Clarity came from the periodical broadsides of Thomas Mozley and Samuel Bosanquet against the intellectual premises of political economy and the new poor law. Tractarian commentators proposed a simple alternative: a reassertion of the duties as well as the rights bestowed by property, and the relocation of charity from a national to a parochial basis.Less
Aside from commercialism, another major theme within tractarian commentary was the distinct conviction that social ills in England at the time were, ultimately, unamenable to purely legislative remedies. This was reinforced by a wider rejection of the state's usurpation of duties and capacities which were supposedly hitherto the province of the church. Tractarians bitterly assailed political economy — the ‘philosophy of Antichrist’ — and the workings of its spawn, the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. They criticised the removal of charity from an individual and parochial to a civic and statist basis, and debated reforms to the administration of parish relief with a precision which confounds traditional representations of the movement's disengagement from contemporary social debate. Clarity came from the periodical broadsides of Thomas Mozley and Samuel Bosanquet against the intellectual premises of political economy and the new poor law. Tractarian commentators proposed a simple alternative: a reassertion of the duties as well as the rights bestowed by property, and the relocation of charity from a national to a parochial basis.
G. R. Searle
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206989
- eISBN:
- 9780191677410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206989.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses the implementation of the market principles of capitalism to address the issues concerning poverty and pauperism in Victorian Britain. It examines the impact of the passage of ...
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This chapter discusses the implementation of the market principles of capitalism to address the issues concerning poverty and pauperism in Victorian Britain. It examines the impact of the passage of the New Poor Law in 1834 on the condition of the poor people in Britain. It concludes that though the legislation was designed to deal with a rather different sort of problem, the New Poor Law did more or less work. It stigmatized the receipt of public assistance and it was able to contain the burden of local taxation.Less
This chapter discusses the implementation of the market principles of capitalism to address the issues concerning poverty and pauperism in Victorian Britain. It examines the impact of the passage of the New Poor Law in 1834 on the condition of the poor people in Britain. It concludes that though the legislation was designed to deal with a rather different sort of problem, the New Poor Law did more or less work. It stigmatized the receipt of public assistance and it was able to contain the burden of local taxation.
George R. Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178738
- eISBN:
- 9780691183992
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178738.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter discusses the Crusade Against Outrelief and its effects on working-class behavior. The increased use of the workhouse caused a sharp decline in the share of the population receiving poor ...
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This chapter discusses the Crusade Against Outrelief and its effects on working-class behavior. The increased use of the workhouse caused a sharp decline in the share of the population receiving poor relief. The crusade ended the use of the Poor Law to assist those temporarily in need during economic dislocations—after 1870 there is no hint of the trade cycle in aggregate statistics on numbers receiving relief, as there should have been in a modern social insurance regime with its “automatic stabilizers.” As such, working-class self-help increased greatly after 1870, so that by the beginning of the twentieth century most skilled workers had some protection against negative income shocks. However, the situation was different for the low-skilled, most of whom had little savings and remained quite vulnerable to unexpected income loss.Less
This chapter discusses the Crusade Against Outrelief and its effects on working-class behavior. The increased use of the workhouse caused a sharp decline in the share of the population receiving poor relief. The crusade ended the use of the Poor Law to assist those temporarily in need during economic dislocations—after 1870 there is no hint of the trade cycle in aggregate statistics on numbers receiving relief, as there should have been in a modern social insurance regime with its “automatic stabilizers.” As such, working-class self-help increased greatly after 1870, so that by the beginning of the twentieth century most skilled workers had some protection against negative income shocks. However, the situation was different for the low-skilled, most of whom had little savings and remained quite vulnerable to unexpected income loss.
Simon Szreter
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265314
- eISBN:
- 9780191760402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265314.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
From 1538 the new Protestant church of Henry VIII provided a system of registration of baptisms, marriages, and burials in all parishes of England and Wales. This chapter re-examines the original ...
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From 1538 the new Protestant church of Henry VIII provided a system of registration of baptisms, marriages, and burials in all parishes of England and Wales. This chapter re-examines the original motives behind the creation of this system, and explores the reasons for its effectiveness and persistence over the ensuing three centuries in Britain by surveying the comparative history of identity registration systems among the British overseas in the early modern period. A review of the variety of measures for registration set up in the North American and Caribbean colonies during the course of the seventeenth century confirms the importance of the security of property-holding in an increasingly commercial world as a motive for creating such systems. However, this review also indicates the importance of whether or not effective social security systems, giving entitlements to relief, accompanied these early identity registration schemes.Less
From 1538 the new Protestant church of Henry VIII provided a system of registration of baptisms, marriages, and burials in all parishes of England and Wales. This chapter re-examines the original motives behind the creation of this system, and explores the reasons for its effectiveness and persistence over the ensuing three centuries in Britain by surveying the comparative history of identity registration systems among the British overseas in the early modern period. A review of the variety of measures for registration set up in the North American and Caribbean colonies during the course of the seventeenth century confirms the importance of the security of property-holding in an increasingly commercial world as a motive for creating such systems. However, this review also indicates the importance of whether or not effective social security systems, giving entitlements to relief, accompanied these early identity registration schemes.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
By the late 1860s, county pauper lunatic asylums, many of which had been constructed immediately following the 1845 Asylums and Lunatics Acts, were experiencing severe overcrowding. Medical ...
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By the late 1860s, county pauper lunatic asylums, many of which had been constructed immediately following the 1845 Asylums and Lunatics Acts, were experiencing severe overcrowding. Medical superintendents of lunatic asylums blamed overcrowding, in part, on the large number of ‘incurable’ patients conveyed from workhouses. In the sixty years of Victoria's reign in England, the climate of opinion had shifted dramatically, from an optimistic environment espousing the training of idiot children so that they could take up their positions as full members of society, to a pessimistic, restrictive ideology of controlling the movement, and later the fertility, of the ‘feeble-minded’ to prevent them sewing the seeds of future social failure. Yet, despite the transformation in the intellectual climate, many of the older social realities recognised after the establishment of the New Poor Law in 1834 persisted into the Edwardian era. The cooperation of superintendents of idiot asylums and Local School board committees facilitated the rise of mental testing, first in the metropolis and then in the provinces.Less
By the late 1860s, county pauper lunatic asylums, many of which had been constructed immediately following the 1845 Asylums and Lunatics Acts, were experiencing severe overcrowding. Medical superintendents of lunatic asylums blamed overcrowding, in part, on the large number of ‘incurable’ patients conveyed from workhouses. In the sixty years of Victoria's reign in England, the climate of opinion had shifted dramatically, from an optimistic environment espousing the training of idiot children so that they could take up their positions as full members of society, to a pessimistic, restrictive ideology of controlling the movement, and later the fertility, of the ‘feeble-minded’ to prevent them sewing the seeds of future social failure. Yet, despite the transformation in the intellectual climate, many of the older social realities recognised after the establishment of the New Poor Law in 1834 persisted into the Edwardian era. The cooperation of superintendents of idiot asylums and Local School board committees facilitated the rise of mental testing, first in the metropolis and then in the provinces.
Marguerite W. Dupree
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204008
- eISBN:
- 9780191676079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204008.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses some of the alternative networks and institutions in the Potteries. The survey presented shows that there is a rich variety of networks and institutions in the Potteries from ...
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This chapter discusses some of the alternative networks and institutions in the Potteries. The survey presented shows that there is a rich variety of networks and institutions in the Potteries from 1840 to 1880, aside from the Poor Law. The Poor Law provided assistance for a substantial number of people at different times, for a variety of problems. There were also institutions and pervasive ideas that encouraged one to maintain relationships with family and kin.Less
This chapter discusses some of the alternative networks and institutions in the Potteries. The survey presented shows that there is a rich variety of networks and institutions in the Potteries from 1840 to 1880, aside from the Poor Law. The Poor Law provided assistance for a substantial number of people at different times, for a variety of problems. There were also institutions and pervasive ideas that encouraged one to maintain relationships with family and kin.
George R. Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178738
- eISBN:
- 9780691183992
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178738.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This concluding chapter summarizes the book's major findings. The road to the welfare state of the 1940s was not a wide and straight thoroughfare through Victorian and Edwardian Britain. As the ...
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This concluding chapter summarizes the book's major findings. The road to the welfare state of the 1940s was not a wide and straight thoroughfare through Victorian and Edwardian Britain. As the previous chapters have made clear, the story of British social policy from 1830 to 1950 is really two separate stories joined together in the years immediately before the Great War. The first is a tale of increasing stinginess toward the poor by the central and local governments, while the second is the story of the construction of a national safety net, culminating in the Beveridge Report and Labour's social policies of 1946–48. The prototype for the welfare reforms of the twentieth century cannot be found in the Victorian Poor Law. The chapter then offers some thoughts regarding the reasons for the shifts in social welfare policy from the 1830s to the 1940s.Less
This concluding chapter summarizes the book's major findings. The road to the welfare state of the 1940s was not a wide and straight thoroughfare through Victorian and Edwardian Britain. As the previous chapters have made clear, the story of British social policy from 1830 to 1950 is really two separate stories joined together in the years immediately before the Great War. The first is a tale of increasing stinginess toward the poor by the central and local governments, while the second is the story of the construction of a national safety net, culminating in the Beveridge Report and Labour's social policies of 1946–48. The prototype for the welfare reforms of the twentieth century cannot be found in the Victorian Poor Law. The chapter then offers some thoughts regarding the reasons for the shifts in social welfare policy from the 1830s to the 1940s.
George R. Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178738
- eISBN:
- 9780691183992
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178738.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This introductory chapter provides an overview of economic insecurity. Economic insecurity can be defined as “the risk of economic loss faced by workers and households as they encounter the ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of economic insecurity. Economic insecurity can be defined as “the risk of economic loss faced by workers and households as they encounter the unpredictable events of life.” Insecurity is associated with income loss caused by “adverse events” such as unemployment and poor health; the negative impact of these shocks on households depends “on the surrounding institutions that regulate risk.” Indeed, the extent to which workers suffered financial distress from income shocks depended in large part on the social safety net—the existing institutions of public and private assistance. For nineteenth-century England and Wales, the main social welfare institution was the Poor Law, a system of public relief administered and financed at the local level. The Old Poor Law of 1795–1834 was “a welfare state in miniature,” relieving the elderly, widows, children, the sick, the disabled, and the unemployed and underemployed.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of economic insecurity. Economic insecurity can be defined as “the risk of economic loss faced by workers and households as they encounter the unpredictable events of life.” Insecurity is associated with income loss caused by “adverse events” such as unemployment and poor health; the negative impact of these shocks on households depends “on the surrounding institutions that regulate risk.” Indeed, the extent to which workers suffered financial distress from income shocks depended in large part on the social safety net—the existing institutions of public and private assistance. For nineteenth-century England and Wales, the main social welfare institution was the Poor Law, a system of public relief administered and financed at the local level. The Old Poor Law of 1795–1834 was “a welfare state in miniature,” relieving the elderly, widows, children, the sick, the disabled, and the unemployed and underemployed.
George R. Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178738
- eISBN:
- 9780691183992
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178738.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter describes the interwar expansion of social welfare policies and their role in alleviating economic insecurity in an era of unprecedented unemployment. The social security system ...
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This chapter describes the interwar expansion of social welfare policies and their role in alleviating economic insecurity in an era of unprecedented unemployment. The social security system established before the war and extended in the 1920s consisted of several independently administered programs—unemployment insurance, sickness and disability insurance, old age pensions, widows' and orphans' insurance, and the Poor Law. This safety net of many colors proved to be quite successful in alleviating poverty and maintaining the well-being of working-class households. The important role played by the safety net is clearly shown in the social surveys undertaken in the 1930s—between one-third and one-half of all working-class families surveyed received social income of some form. While the condition of the working class would have been considerably worse without the safety net, it contained many holes, which led to calls for a restructuring of social policy.Less
This chapter describes the interwar expansion of social welfare policies and their role in alleviating economic insecurity in an era of unprecedented unemployment. The social security system established before the war and extended in the 1920s consisted of several independently administered programs—unemployment insurance, sickness and disability insurance, old age pensions, widows' and orphans' insurance, and the Poor Law. This safety net of many colors proved to be quite successful in alleviating poverty and maintaining the well-being of working-class households. The important role played by the safety net is clearly shown in the social surveys undertaken in the 1930s—between one-third and one-half of all working-class families surveyed received social income of some form. While the condition of the working class would have been considerably worse without the safety net, it contained many holes, which led to calls for a restructuring of social policy.
Kathryn Gleadle
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264492
- eISBN:
- 9780191734274
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264492.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter considers how, as ratepayers, householders, electors, parliamentary constituents, petitioners, welfare providers, and policy experts, women in Britain were commonly treated as political ...
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This chapter considers how, as ratepayers, householders, electors, parliamentary constituents, petitioners, welfare providers, and policy experts, women in Britain were commonly treated as political subjects. Women were ‘borderline citizens’ whose status hovered permanently in the interstices of the political nation: their involvement could be evoked and sanctioned as quickly as it could be dismissed and undermined. This chapter focuses on the structural qualities of the political process and the ways in which they variously facilitated or limited female participation. It was in the parish that women enjoyed the most expansive opportunities, yet parochial authority was increasingly eroded in this period thanks to reforms such as the Poor Law Amendment Act and the Municipal Corporations Act. This chapter also discusses the involvement of women in parliamentary elections, local elections, and petitioning.Less
This chapter considers how, as ratepayers, householders, electors, parliamentary constituents, petitioners, welfare providers, and policy experts, women in Britain were commonly treated as political subjects. Women were ‘borderline citizens’ whose status hovered permanently in the interstices of the political nation: their involvement could be evoked and sanctioned as quickly as it could be dismissed and undermined. This chapter focuses on the structural qualities of the political process and the ways in which they variously facilitated or limited female participation. It was in the parish that women enjoyed the most expansive opportunities, yet parochial authority was increasingly eroded in this period thanks to reforms such as the Poor Law Amendment Act and the Municipal Corporations Act. This chapter also discusses the involvement of women in parliamentary elections, local elections, and petitioning.
