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  • Poor relief

    Excuse me if I'm telling you all something you already know, but I have just found something out today which was of great interest to me.

    I've recently been transcribing records for the parishes of Lanlivery & Lanivet in Cornwall, and found an annotation on several records of the letter "P". Reading an article in Your Family Tree magazine, it would appear that this denotes people who were in receipt of poor relief from the parish. For burials, there is likely to be a corresponding entry in the Overseers of the Poor Accounts detailing the cost of a coffin and funeral expenses.

    Hope that may be of help to somebody
    Pauline
    xx
    OPC Lanlivery, Lanivet & Newquay
    www.mumsiep.tribalpages.com







  • #2
    Also I think that paupers did not have to pay the various taxes which, from time to time, were imposed on burials. In some parishes there are a suspiciously large number of paupers - I suspect the vicar was being philanthropic (or perhaps giving the government of the day one in the eye!)

    Anne

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    • #3
      Yes, one of my families that has 'pauper' next to the burial of a child is also the village sexton. Probably our politicans aren't the first to massage the expenses...

      The surviving Outdoor Relief records for this area are very patchy - just a few months of entire decades' of records, actually survived. But I have also found references in things like Churchwardens' Accounts re. the expense of removal, or bringing someone back from a hospital/workhouse in another parish, etc. It's fascinating reading.

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      • #4
        I agree - if you see a page of pauper burials in a register, be suspicious! The clergy hated the burial tax and viewed themselves as unpaid tax collectors.

        My 4 x GGF had a pauper burial, according to the register. He was churchwarden for most of his life and also paid part of the Vicar's stipend. He owned about 3,000 acres of land and his will is not the will of a pauper!

        OC

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