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Definition: poor law from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 English history a law providing for the relief or support of the poor from public, esp parish, funds

poor law

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
English system for relief for the poor, established by the Poor Relief Act of 1601. Each parish was responsible for its own poor, paid for by a parish tax. The care of the poor was transferred to the Ministry of Health in 1919, but the poor law remained in force until 1929. Elizabethan poor law Before the reign of Elizabeth I the approach to poverty in England was punitive. In 1494 a law had ordered beggars to be put in the stocks. In 1547 beggars and vagrants had been ordered to be branded with a ‘V’ and made a slave for two years. A law of 1572 continued this approach, declaring that beggars should be whipped and, for a third offence, executed. The only help for poor people was private charity. However, steady inflation and rural economic problems, caused by enclosure and the move from tillage to sheep farming, were worsened in the 1570s and the 1590s by a series of poor harvests. The government was worried that the growing numbers of beggars and vagrants might lead to social…
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Full text Article Poor Law

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
In British history, a body of laws undertaking to provide relief for the poor, developed in 16th-century England and maintained, with various changes, until after World War II. The original laws provided relief, including care for the elderly, sick, and infant poor as well as work for the…
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Full text Article POOR LAW

From Poverty: An International Glossary
The English Poor Law was the first national system for poor relief, introduced in 1598 and consolidated in 1601. It dominated social policy in Britain and exercised a considerable influence in all English-speaking countries. The Old Poor Law (1601–1834) organized a national system of poor relief, …
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Full text Article POOR LAW, The

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
The growing population and the severe inflation of the later 16th century gave rise to a perception that there was a dangerous increase in the numbers of ‘sturdy beggars’ - wanderers capable of work but who apparently preferred to survive by begging and petty crime. The perception led to acts in…
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Full text Article poor laws

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
The ‘old poor law’, created by the Poor Relief Act 1601, charged the relief of the poor to every parish, which had to provide work and to tax all residents in order to provide both the work and the relief that was earned by it. Parishes began to combine into poor law unions so as to administer this…
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An 1830s poster protesting England's poor laws....
Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated , a multivolume work written and published by Harriet Martineau between 1833 and 1834, illustrates the ways in which the Poor Laws, the major form of welfare in England at the time, led to economic disaster and moral depravity. Each volume is based on a different…
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Full text Article Poor Laws

From Routledge Dictionary of Economics
The succession of English statutes beginning with those of 1597 and 1601 which aimed to relieve poverty by providing welfare benefits or work within workhouses. This welfare programme was financed by levying a ‘poor rate’ on the landowners of each parish. The poor were confined to the parish of…
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Full text Article poor law

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in English history, legislation relating to public assistance for the poor. Early measures to relieve pauperism were usually designed to suppress vagrancy and begging. In 1601, England passed the Elizabethan poor-relief act, which recognized the state's obligation to the needy; it provided for…
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Full text Article poor law

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
English system for relief for the poor, established by the Poor Relief Act of 1601. Each parish was responsible for its own poor, paid for by a parish tax. The care of the poor was transferred to the Ministry of Health in 1919, but the poor law remained in force until 1929. Elizabethan poor law…
| 825 words
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Full text Article POOR LAW UNIONS

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
In accordance with the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parishes of Wales and its border land were grouped into 48 (later 50) poor law unions. Each union was obliged to build a workhouse. They were administered by boards of guardians answerable to commissioners at London ’s Somerset House, a system…
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The civil parish of Bedwellty extended over a wide swathe of western Monmouthshire . Abolished in 1974, it was replaced by the community of Blackwood and much of the communities of Argoed and Penmaen . From 1894 to 1974, Bedwellty was an urban district . In 1918, it became one of the four…
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