England Overseers of the Poor and Board of Guardians - International Institute

Poor Law Administration
Perhaps the most fruitful hunting ground for genealogists because of the wealth of relationships and family history to be found in these records, where they still survive.

Overseers and Guardians
The position of administering the Poor Law was undertaken in rotation by worthy men in the parish, anyone refusing to serve being fined. The Overseer of the Poor, at first called the Collector of the Poor and sometimes the Distributor, was chosen annually in the spring by the township or parish vestry from amongst their number, and in larger parishes two would be appointed. The names would then be approved by the Justices of the Peace. It was an often onerous position, but regarded as somewhat of an honour to be chosen, even though it was unpaid and with no recompense for lost wages. Overseers were therefore chosen from amongst the middle-aged yeoman, husbandmen and craftsmen, rather than from younger men or the less well-off cottagers or labourers. The individual was empowered to raise a rate or assessment to cover the needs of the poor, and had to justify his expenses by submitting his account at the end of his term, even being held responsible for costs unauthorized by the vestry.

Overseers of the Poor were first seen during the reign of Elizabeth I and continued until the New Poor Law in 1834 when they were replaced by Boards of Guardians. Upon the overseer fell the responsibility of deciding who needed assistance and balancing this against the ratepayers’ ability and willingness to pay. It was essentially a full time occupation as can be seen from the amount of paperwork generated and the amount of interviews and travel involved.

From 1834 the new Workhouse Guardians administered the system and a similar set of records were kept as had been by the Overseers of the Poor:

Note that the records of parishes which joined the voluntary Gilbert Unions between 1782 and 1834 may well be held with the post-1834 Poor Law Unions rather than with the parish chest material for that parish. It thus behooves the researcher to find out the history of his parish’s union involvement, and to search both groups of records - parish and union - for this middle period.

The Jeremy Gibson Guides Poor Law Union Records #s 1-3 present a summary of the extant Poor Law Union records 1834-1948 arranged by county and union, and giving the present location in England of the records. The list of record types and sketch maps of unions in each county are particularly handy. More detailed lists can be found in the holdings lists published by the county archives themselves. These should both be used in conjunction with the FHLC, so that those records that are extant but not yet filmed can be located. Gibson Guide #4 has been superceded by the author’s Parishes and Registration Districts in England and Wales. It should be noted that only the union records are covered by these Gibson Guides, not the former parish records.

Poor Rates
The Poor Rate was the main tax on the parishioners for the support of the less fortunate in their parish or, after 1834, in their union. In early times there were several small rates to pay for various expenditures, but for efficiency they were later amalgamated into the general Poor Rate. This took place in a number of ways and at different times in different places. Poor Rates continued to be collected by the parish after 1834 but handed over to the new Union Boards of Guardians. In 1862 unions started collecting their own rates, and in 1867 payment of rates within each Poor Law Union was equalized, with London adopting a common fund in 1865.

Poor Rates were levied annually, and sometimes more often. Some records, naming householders and the rate they paid, survive from the Old Poor Law but most extant records are from the New Poor Law period post-1834, when both owners and occupiers are listed. The values of land and property expressed on these lists should not be viewed as accurate, since there was a natural tendency to undervalue for tax purposes. However, the relative value compared with other inhabitants of the parish is probably a better measure of their standing in the community.

An example from a Poor Rate book is shown below.

Poor Rate Book of Wippingham, Isle of Wight, Hampshire 1845 The parishioners of Whippingham paid poor rates quarterly and for the 2nd quarter of 1845 the highest amount paid was £19-5-11 by Queen Victoria for her land and buildings. Others paid from a few shillings to a few pounds. The books are very wide with columns for the owner, occupier, name and type of the property and acreage of land as well as the various calculations.

Overseers Accounts
These record payments made to and for the poor and always make fascinating reading; a selection of interesting items from West Stour, Dorset is found below. After that is one from Ashburton, Devon.

Overseers of the Poor Accounts West Stour, Dorset (from Bricknell)

Notes:


 * Arter daved is phonetic spelling for affidavit (for burial in woollen)
 * Bleding (Bleeding) by using leeches was an old remedy.
 * Hancheff was a handkerchief.
 * Nockleding was an attempt to spell innoculating.
 * Oppoleldock was a herb remedy.
 * Save was ointment or salve.
 * Spening turn was probably a spinning wheel.
 * Stepladder—why this was needed is beyond me!
 * The (King’s) Evil was scrofula, and Widow Burden’s daughter needed to pay for a certificate to allow the King’s touch.
 * Toe was a kind of poultice.
 * Window Money was a tax based on the number of windows in your house.

Overseers Application Books Ashburton, Devon (from Church 2002) Seems to be a combination of minutes and accounts.

The alert family historian will quickly pick up the clues in such records such as payments for medicines, doctors, midwife, doctor and coffins; overseers expenses going to the town where the sessions were held to contest a removal order or ‘father a child’ (not what it appears to be in today’s terminology!); or visiting a former parishioner in another parish. It was not only the truly poor who availed themselves of relief, as even prosperous tradesmen may be seen in the records because of illness, accidents, alcoholism or sheer bad luck; both the responsible and the feckless could be struck. References to a pauper family may be found in their parish of residence but are more likely to be discovered in their parish of legal settlement.

Billing to Parish of Settlement
Overseers, and later guardians, were keen to recoup expenses for any non-settled inhabitant in their parish. Researchers should always consider where an ancestor is legally settled at each stage of his life so that parish chest records of appropriate parishes may be checked. For example, if he dies far away from a former residence is there a record of him being transported back there for burial, or was he buried where he died but at the expense of his parish of settlement?

Halifax Account for Leeds Expenses 1817  Expenses for individuals only included, not totals and receipts.

Halifax Invoice to Leeds for Payment of Pauper’s expenses 1817 This covers the succeeding period to that in the previous chart.

Workhouse Out-Relief Accounts
Extracts from the Overseers Out-Relief Book for Halifax, Yorkshire are given below. Further down is one from the Parish Relief Book for Aldenham, Hertfordshire.

Out-Relief in Halifax 1823 (Extract from Accounts for Regular Poor)

Aldenham, Herts Parish Relief Book 1829-35                         Summaries from a wide book with many columns. LH pages have columns for Cause of Relief, Age, Number of children under 10 years old, Places of residence, Whether field or woodland, Names and some descriptions. RH pages have narrow columns for weekly payments, but years are not specified.

Guardians Accounts and General Ledgers
These records of expenditures are often available and can be quite voluminous.

___________________________________________________________________

Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Poor Law and Parish Chest Records offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.