Staffordshire 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. Staffordshire had many poor law unions within its boundaries.

Staffordshire Poor Law Unions

 * Alstonfield Gilbert Poor Law Union (later Alstonfield Union), Staffordshire
 * Burton upon Trent Poor Law Union,Staffordshire
 * Cannock from 1877 replaced Penkridge Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Cheadle Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Dudley Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Leek Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Lichfield Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Newcastle under Lyme Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Penkridge Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Seisdon Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Stafford Poor Law Union
 * Stoke Upon Trent Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Stone Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Tamworth Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Uttoxeter Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Walsall Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * West Bromwich Poor Law Union,Staffordshire
 * Wigmore Schools, Walsall and West Bromwich, Staffordshire
 * Wolstanton and Burslem Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * Wolverhampton Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

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

Wigmore Schools, Walsall and West Bromwich, Staffordshire
Encouraged by the Poor Law Commission where possible to establish schools for pauper children a district school was erected at Wigmore, a convenient situation for both the contributing Unions, and was opened on May 1st 1872.

Children from:

For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's website: The Workhouse and West Bromwich Workhouse
 * Walsall Poor Law Union, Staffordshire
 * West Bromwich Poor Law Union,Staffordshire
 * Walsall and West Bromwich School District

Records at The FamilySearch Library
To determine records availability for each poor law, search the FamilySearch Catalog under the name of the county (Staffordshire), and then under the name of the poorlaw union, i.e. Stoke on Trent, then under the term[s] "poor law" or "poorhouses".

Online Transcriptions of Records Relating to Poor Law
1) Lichfield - poor law records for this Union - online

2) For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's web site: www.workhouses.org.uk, a 'gateway' website with some information on Staffordshire's poor

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