Warwickshire Poor Law

An Act of Parliament in the year 1834 took the responsibility of administering to the poor from the local parish church to the doorstep of civil government. The government grouped each civil parish into a union of parishes. There were nearly 600 such unions throughout England, each one comprising close to 20 or more parishes, and were specifically setup to meet the demands of the poor among their local populations, with a workhouse on the premises. The responsibility was transferred from local parishes to a Board of Guardians in each union. These groupings or unions were known as poor-law unions. Warwickshire had the following poorlaw unions within its boundaries:

Online Resources

 * 1845-1943 Warwickshire, Coventry Workhouse Deaths at Findmypast — index ($)

The Poor Law Unions

 * Alcester
 * Aston Poor Law Union, Warwickshire
 * Atherstone
 * Birmingham
 * Coventry
 * Foleshill
 * Meriden
 * Nuneaton
 * Rugby
 * Shipston on Stour
 * Solihull Poor Law Union, Warwickshire
 * Southam
 * Stratford on Avon
 * Warwick

The Records
Records from the poorlaw unions, which were created from this time forward include the following:


 * 1) Guardianship
 * 2) Creed Registers
 * 3) Rate books
 * 4) Workhouse Lists of Inmates
 * 5) Register of Apprentices
 * 6) Register of Births
 * 7) Register of Deaths
 * 8) Vestry Rate Books
 * 9) Admission and Discharge Registers
 * 10) Board of Guardians' Records

To determine records availability for each poorlaw, search the FamilySearch Catalog under the name of the county (Warwickshire), and then under the name of the poorlaw union, i.e. Meriden; then search under the term[s] "poorlaw" or "poorhouses".

Ancestry has created a browse collection of Warwickshire poor law records 1546-1904

Online Transcriptions Relating to Poorlaw Records
1) For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's website: http://workhouses.org.uk/, a 'gateway' website with some information on Warwickshire's poor

2) Here is a website with approximately 10 percent of the county's poor