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PARISH ECONOMIES OF WELFARE, 1650–1834

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1999

JOHN BROAD
Affiliation:
University of North London

Abstract

This article argues for a more holistic approach to understanding the Old Poor Law. Using three detailed case studies from southern England, it focuses on the dynamics of differing social groups within the parish. It also looks at the role of the law, looking beyond the statutes to the parts played by King's Bench, Quarter Sessions and individual justices and petty sessions in creating a diversity of experiences for the poor. However, it also stresses the differential access to charitable funds, common rights, and poor relief in individual communities, and the ways in which parish elites attempted to put the total available resources to what they saw as the best uses. From 1650 to 1780 these combined resources allowed a generally humane approach to the treatment of poverty and misfortune, and maintained the independence of the cottager and labourer in southern England. Only after 1780 when population rose sharply and rural employment shrank did the flexibility of combined charitable and rate-based relief founder and more drastic devices were employed to cope with basic needs. In this process the independence of the labourer and cottager was undermined, charitable sources were marginalized, and the seeds were sown for the acceptance of the New Poor Law.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Earlier versions of this article were read at the ‘Long eighteenth-century’ seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, and at the University of Wolverhampton. My thanks are due for comments made by seminar members there, and more recently by Penelope Corfield, Steve Hindle, and Tim Hitchcock.