Ancestry's latest Poor Law Records make sad reading

[Just Gillian]

My grandfather and six of his brothers all migrated from their small Wiltshire village to London, probably to find work, during the second half of the 19th century. I was going through the Westminster Poor Law records last night to see if I could discover the fates of the children of two of the brothers. I found that there were so many admissions and discharges for one of the family groups that I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track.

Brother Joseph's children Alice, Edith and Joseph entered the Ashford School for Paupers, Middlesex, for the first time in 1888 when they were 10, 8 and 3 respectively. Their father was in the Workhouse. Over the course of the next six years, when that register ended, Joseph had been in and out of the school 11 times. He had spent a total of twelve and a half months with his mother, the longest period being for 7 months and the shortest for 1 day.

I've only had a quick look so far at the 1894 to 1900 register but can see the pages dotted with Joseph's name again. In 1901, he was sent into service from the Ashford School to a grocer in Kingston on Thames. As yet, I've been unable to discover what happened to his parents.

In the meantime, in 1890, their cousin Phyllis, daughter of brother John, entered the school when she was 4 for 14 months. Her father was in the Workhouse and later transferred to Leavesden Asylum. I've not been able to discover what happened to Phyllis, nor to her older sister who was on the 1881 census with her parents.

I'm left wondering whether brothers Joseph and John would actually have been any worse off if they had stayed in Wiltshire.

[kylejustin]

gillian that is so sad. i hope there lives got better.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Yes, it is sad, and even sadder when you realise this was the fate of thousands.

You might be interested to read Fred Whitlock's "A Victorian Village". This is a study of several small Wiltshire villages (Pitton, etc) near Salisbury.

He explains that pre-1800, life in the villages, whilst not exactly idyllic, had sustained itself very well for a thousand years. Food and work for all, a rough and ready system of parish relief, a steady population.

He states that two things changed that. One was the Enclosures Act which basically took away the rights of villagers to graze and use common land, an important part of their agricultural economy.

The other was the passing of the Union Workhouse Act, which required that paupers live in a workhouse, having given up everything they owned. It was well-nigh impossible for a family to get back on its feet from this position.

Pitton went from a village which occasionally gave out-relief to a man who had broken his leg, say, or to a widow with a few children, to a village which had to send its paupers to the Salisbury Workhouse.

He gives other reasons for the sudden downfall in village life but basically it was dire poverty which had been thrust upon them by the Enclosures Act and the hated Union Workhouse system. I think many families would have headed for the towns and cities rather than enter the workhouse.

OC

[Just Gillian]

kylejustin - I shall live in hope that I'll come across descendants of these children one day and be told they led wonderful, happy lives!

OC- thank you. I'll see if I can get hold of that book. From what you say, 5 of the 7 brothers making a reasonably comfortable living in London is probably better than might have been expected in Wiltshire.

[kylejustin]

kylejustin - I shall live in hope that I'll come across descendants of these children one day and be told they led wonderful, happy lives!

hah, i hope so!! life was very hard in the past, as long as they seemed happy for a while, i hope they enjoyed it.

[~~Lesley~~]

that's sad Gill. I hope they had a happier ending.

[Just Gillian]

Their story gets worse the further I look into the records! I've started working through the Creed Register and Removal Orders for the Westminster area.

Joseph and his wife had another son, born in the Workhouse 12 Dec 1888, died in the Workhouse 15 Dec 1888.

There were two removal orders for brother John from Chelsea to St George. In September 1890 he was removed with two daughters, Phyllis, mentioned above, and one year old Sylvia. In November 1890 he and Phyllis were again removed from Chelsea to St George. By that time Sylvia was dead. Strangely, I've found his wife and eldest daughter Florence, both mistranscribed, living at a private address in 1891 whilst John and Phyllis were both in the Workhouse.

I'll never know if my grandfather's parents, and uncles and aunts, agonised over the fact that their little nieces and nephews were in the Workhouse and they were unable to assist them, or whether the siblings all lost touch with each other once they got to London.

Coincidentally, there were two baptisms at mass this morning, a baby boy and a six-monthish girl. Both were healthy looking, chubby and lively and they and their families were dressed in their best. They were taking photos afterwards with their digital cameras and mobile phones. I couldn't help thinking of the Poor Law Records, especially the pathetic lists of belongings of those admitted to Workhouses - e.g a wedding band, half a pair of earrings and a pawn ticket!

[Olde Crone Holden]

Taking a woman's wedding ring off her must be the ultimate degradation, as if going to the Workhouse wasn't bad enough.

You can see why the shadow of the workhouse is still in the mind of elderly people alive today. It truly was to be feared and was the worst fate that could befall a family.

Where I live, they turned the old workhouse into council flats for the elderly at huge expense. There was no take up, and the mystified council sent out a questionnaire asking why no one wanted to go there.

An elderly man wrote to the paper and said "I was five years old when my mother and I went through those workhouse gates and I never saw her again"

They have now turned them into penthouse suites for the young and rich, who have no memory of the workhouse.

OC

[Just Gillian]

OC - I feel exactly the same about the wedding rings.

The more I learn about the Workhouse (and I still know very little) the more I pity those who had to enter. And, as if being forced into an institution wasn't bad enough, splitting husbands from wives and children from parents seems positively inhuman from a modern perspective. I've had occasion to visit several B & Bs for homeless families and, whilst they are not all good, at least family groups can face their problems together.

[Olde Crone Holden]

The 1834 Union Workhouse Act laid out the following principle:

"The Workhouse should be a place of hardship, of coarse fare, of degradation and humiliation; it should be administered with strictness and with severity. it should be as repulsive as is consistent with humanity"

Didn't they do well!

And if you REALLY want to cry, read about the Andover Workhouse, where starving inmates ate the rotting flesh off the bones of animals they were supposed to be crushing.

The old parish poor law was perfection compared to the Union Law. It may have been a bit haphazard, but it was usually administered with common sense and a bit of dignity for the recipients.

OC

[Just Gillian]

The 1834 Union Workhouse Act laid out the following principle:

"The Workhouse should be a place of hardship, of coarse fare, of degradation and humiliation; it should be administered with strictness and with severity. it should be as repulsive as is consistent with humanity"

Didn't they do well!

OC

And no doubt there were many in happier circumstances who called them "scroungers" way back then too!

I had read about the Andover one - heartbreaking!

I think what has surprised me most, now that I have access to the LMA stuff and can see details of dates instead of just the 10 year census snapshot, has been the yoyo life for so many children. A few days/months/years in followed by a few days/months/years out, repeated in many cases right up until they were apprenticed, sent into service or died.

[Little Nell]

There is so much in our history that makes me feel really ashamed. The treatment of the poor as criminals is one of them. And how a purportedly Christian country could allow the putting asunder of wives and husbands in such grim institutions I don't know.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I agree, Nell and it makes me boil with fury, especially the practice of separating mothers from their newborns, because a nursing mother would not be able to do a full day's work in the workhouse, or wherever the workhouse sent her to work.

OC