England New Poor Law Union Records - International Institute

New Poor Law Unions from 1834
The Boards of Guardians of the 643 new Poor Law Unions (PLUs) of England and Wales were elected by the ratepayers of each union so records of them will be found at the county level. Appointments had to be approved by the Poor Law Commissioners, from 1848 the Poor Law Board, and between 1871 and 1918 the Local Government Board. 8,300 people were employed by the Unions in 1848 and Fowler estimates that this doubled by the end of the century. The 1859 Handy Book of Parish Law by Holdsworth details the applicable laws and the duties of Poor Law Union employees.

Employees hired by the Boards of Guardians included:


 * Assistant matrons
 * Assistants for vagrant wards
 * Baker
 * Chaplain
 * Clerk to School Attendance Committee
 * Clerks to the Union, often solicitors
 * Cook
 * District Medical Officer
 * Inquiry Officers
 * Laundresses
 * Master and Matron of Workhouse, typically a husband and wife, and he often being former a NCO in the army, navy or police. The matron was in charge of female residents and oversaw the domestic arrangements for the house.
 * Medical Officer for the workhouse
 * Porters
 * Relieving Officers who were responsible for examining and admitting paupers.
 * School Attendance Officers
 * Schoolmasters and schoolmistresses
 * Superintendents of male/female insane
 * Superintendent of Outdoor Labour
 * Superintendent nurse and nurses
 * Treasurer to the Union
 * Vaccination Officers
 * Other assistants as necessary

The responsibility for workhouses was taken over by the new county and district councils in 1894 and the whole system replaced after WWII when the Labour Government brought in the National Health Service in 1948. The last workhouses closed in 1949. The same system of Poor Law Unions with elected guardians and workhouses operated in Ireland. The heritors and kirk sessions of each parish in Scotland were responsible for the poor until the 1845 Poor Law Act which established parochial poor relief boards which created more workhouses. The old system was replaced in 1894 in Scotland too, and the parish councils took responsibility until 1929 when they passed it to district councils (Hey). The National Health service of 1948 covered Scotland and Northern Ireland as well.

Records of Poor Law Union Employees
Senior officials of unions were listed in Shaw’s Union Officers’ and Local Board of Health Manual, published between 1846 and 1921 with several years on Google Books, and masters of workhouses will be named in local trade directories and an annual check of these should establish when he arrived and left the district.

The Public Records Office holds records of the national Poor Law Commissioners (see PRO leaflet D71 for details). They contain records of appointments in the 16,741 volumes of correspondence files between the Commissioners, (and their successors), and the unions up to 1900 in MH 12. The indexes to MH 12 in MH 15 are only by subject and do not give names of individuals. These forms give the full name, age and address, details of previous jobs, reasons for appointment to present position and salary to be paid Sometimes name of wife, number of children, religion, testimonial and qualifications are also given. One can also find reference letters and correspondence about dismissals or pay raises in MH 12.

Most of the material after 1900 was lost by fire in WWII, but what remains is in MH 68. MH 12 and MH 68 files are arranged by union so the name of this needs to be ascertained first.; once you know the parish consult Dr. Penelope Christensen’s Parishes and Registration Districts in England and Wales to find which union it was in. It is wise to remember that unions often straddled county boundaries.

Poor Law District schools and asylums were set up in some districts after 1844 and classes for these PRO appointment records are MH 27 and MH 17 respectively. Again, you need to know where a person worked as they are arranged by union. Very little survives outside the London area.

MH 9 contains registers of those employed by unions between 1837 and 1921, containing less detail than the appointments but they may also have the reason for leaving employment and a date of death. A special return of union employees was made in 1848 and published the next year as parliamentary paper HC 1849 [XVIII] 83. Details given include name, age, salary, and period of service; all unions are represented but not everyone is listed. They are arranged alphabetically by unions or London district. Further staff appointments 1834-1850 are in MH 19, and MH 18 contains officers’ diaries concerning vagrants wards, some having death dates for officers and applications for vacant posts 1874-1881.

Decennial censuses naturally list all the occupants of workhouses, the first page usually being devoted to the master, matron and staff. The workhouse buildings could be situated anywhere within the boundaries of the several parishes in the union and some, especially in London, were located several miles away outside the densely population area as a cost saving device.

At the local level, the county archives retain the individual Poor Law Union records and the Minutes of the Boards of Guardians contain much interesting detail about employees. These will be found on the FHLC under POORHOUSES, POOR LAW ETC. for the county or sometimes the town, and Gibson et al’s series of surviving PLU records can be used in conjunction with these. The Poor Law Guardians records are often one of the largest groups of records held by a county archives.

The relevant PRO leaflets are D 103 (Poor and the Poor Laws) and D 71 (Poor Law Records 1834-1871). Mark Herber in Ancestral Trails has an excellent section on Poor Law records. The experience of working as a nurse in a workhouse in their last years was vividly described by M.I. Lowe (I Worked in a Workhouse. Practical Family History #6, page 19). The Shire Album by May entitled The Victorian Workhouse is full of wonderful illustrations of workhouse life, and a section on staff. An example of records gleaned for the career of a workhouse master and relieving officer are given below.

Career of John Thomas Lowing (1818-1902)                                                        Workhouse Officer

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