In the 16th C there was no formalised practice for relief of the poor but the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 began a long process of setting up a legal requirement for helping the needy of each and every Parish in England and Wales. One of the first principles established was that the Parish was responsible for relieving the poor of its own people. The money required was raised through a Poor Rate which was levied on property owners or in most cases occupiers including tenants – this was the forerunner of the current Council Tax. To collect the money, and administer it to the poor, required the appointment of an Overseer of the Poor. This appointment was made by the Parish Vestry which was itself made up of the said rate payers and therefore had a vested interest in keeping the Poor Rate low.
The 1597 law was quickly followed by the Poor Relief Act 1601 which had four main points: –
- The impotent poor (people who can’t work) were to be cared for in an almshouse or a poorhouse. These were often the old, blind or lame
- The able-bodied poor were to be set to work for the benefit of the Parish
- The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a house of correction or prison
- Pauper children would become apprentices
Arguments over which Parish was responsible for a pauper’s relief and extensive migration due to seasonal work etc., led to yet another piece of legislation – the Settlement Act 1662. This allowed Parishes to provide relief only to people who could prove that they were ‘settled’ in the Parish – mainly through birth, marriage, apprenticeship or from a certain level of property requirement. A child’s settlement was largely derived from the settlement of his or her father. If a pauper could not prove settlement they were physically taken either to ‘their’ Parish or to the next Parish nearer to ‘their’ Parish
These requirements led to a considerable bureaucracy and all the paperwork was stored in the Parish Chest, often made from oak, and by law secured with three padlocks. Apart from the storage of baptisms, marriages and burials and matters to do with the church, the chest was also used for storage of documents related to poor relief. These included
- Settlement examinations
- Settlement certificates
- Removal orders
- Apprenticeship indentures
- Bastardy bonds
- Filiation orders
- Overseers accounts
For the Parish of Armitage-with-Handsacre some of these survive, (and are stored in Stafford Record Office), largely from the mid-1700s onwards. Taken together they begin to paint a picture of what happened to the needy in the Parish and what follows is a very small sample.
Poor relief came in two forms – outdoor relief i.e., outside a workhouse and indoor relief where the person(s) were housed in a workhouse. Outdoor relief meant that people stayed in their homes and were helped out financially. In 1763 the Overseer of the Poor was ‘Widdow Harvey’ and she paid 5/- (five shillings) to Samuel Mills and Ann Greatrix. For a few years from 1765 England suffered from severe drought in the summer and difficult winters and certainly this appears to have been reflected in an increase in payments to the poor in the Parish. In 1764 the Overseer was Thomas Jackson and he
- paid Samuel Mills £1 and later in the year another 5/-
- paid Joseph Pewson 5/-
- paid for ‘a pair of shews, a pair of breeches and a hatt’ for James Wood which costs 7s 10d followed by a cloth shirt at 2s 6d.
- gave Hannah Greatrex 2/- and 1/-
- paid Alis Brown 7/-
- paid rent for Hannah Hall (2/-), Ann Gratrix (5/-) and Sam Mills (£1)
- bought five loads of ‘coales’ for the poor – £1 17s 6d
- paid for the board and looking after of Mary Ferney (6/-)
- paid for a coffin (7s 6d)
1768 saw Thomas Pooler as Overseer and, amongst his many payments to relieve the poor, in January he paid Sam Mills 2s 6d, and 15/- for clothing for his children. According to Armitage baptisms he and his wife, Mary, only had one child baptised there – Sarah, in 1776 – but there were nine children baptised in Hamstall Ridware between 1755 and 1773 and all would have taken their father’s place of settlement i.e. Armitage.
The Parish was also responsible for the roads in their Parish if they weren’t turnpiked and an official was appointed to look after them – the Surveyor of the Highway. No records for the Parish survive before 1797 but the Highway Surveyor accounts show that they would use those whoever would otherwise need poor relief to keep the roads in shape.
Macadamised roads were not introduced until the 1820’s (and tarmacadamed roads were not invented until 1902) so the roads were much less compact and prone to wear than one would imagine. Roads were made with layers of large stones, other road material – like lower quality bricks known as roughs, and gravel. Even with the low volume of traffic at the time the gravel was continually being displaced and in drier weather the smaller material was prone to being blown about.
The records show that gravel had to be applied quite regularly and most of it came from a gravel pit but occasionally it was taken straight from the river. The 1797 Surveyor accounts states that Samuel Shaw (Surveyor of Highways) paid ‘old Sam Mills’ 10d per day for working on the roads. No work on the roads appears to have been done in November that year but for the rest of the year ‘old Sam’ worked on the roads between ten and twenty-seven days per month. Occasionally another name cropped up during that and subsequent years e.g. Edward Greatrix, William Lunn and John Derry, but most of the actual road work seems to have been done by Sam. Details of the work done are occasionally given e.g. wetting of the surface, cutting weeds on the verges or scraping the road. (In 1805 Elizabeth Waltho was paid for two days work for picking stones on the road but she was only paid 8d per day!). The 1797 account also has the following:- 13th October 1798 Paid Mr Woolley a bill for Ale etc being two years account £2 6s 6d – thirsty work.
James Brittain was presumably a local doctor, or possibly apothecary, because his bill for the late 1790s shows that the Overseer also paid for medicine for the poor. Some of the terms used are totally indecipherable partly because of the handwriting but also because the words (or brands?) no longer have a meaning – what is meant by Cools Powder, for instance? Here though are some examples from his bill.
- Rochell’s daughter attendance in labor 10s 6d
- William Lunn box pills 1s 6d
- William Lunn chamomile and ginger 6d
- Elizabeth Walthew a lotion 1s 0d
- Wm Mills wife sea water 1s 6d
- Wm Mills wife salts 4d
- Wm Mills wife precipitate 4d
- Bickley’s son – visit 2s 6d
- Bickley’s son – Bottle drops 1s 0d
- Bickley’s son – Embrocation for knees 1s 0d
- Moor’s child’s worm powder 1s 6d
In 1782 a new act of Parliament amended the Poor Law acts and allowed parishes to combine together to support the impotent poor – generally the old, blind or lame – and Barton under Needwood took advantage of this. In 1784 they erected a purpose-built workhouse in what is now called Wales Lane and offered the use of it to other parishes for a suitable fee. Armitage accepted the offer in May 1791 and agreed that
- up to ten persons could be sent to Barton each year at a cost of 2s per person per week (an 1802 amendment increased this to 2s 6d per week)
- any labour from the poor would go to Barton
- they would provide sufficient wearing apparel, sheets, blankets and coverlets
- they would pay for any necessary apothecary fees and medicine costs
- they would pay all funeral expenses
- they can inspect the premises and produce a report at any time
- Barton will provide good, sufficient and wholesome maintenance, washing and lodging
Records show that Armitage paid the two guineas for a number of years but the only person who can definitely be said to be lodged there is a Sarah Wetton.
The Overseers were required to reduce the costs to the payers of the Poor Rate where possible and one of the options they had was to make pauper children take apprenticeships.
James Conway was born in Handsacre in 1822 to James and Ann (nee Carrol) and when he was baptised his name was recorded as Connoway. Although Ann was from Rugeley they had married in Armitage in 1812. Growing up James had two older sisters and three younger brothers – his parents first born child had died before James had been born. His grandfather was a blacksmith and also ran the Red Lion whilst his father worked as a labourer. Early in 1832 his father died and the family lost their main bread winner – his sisters would have been working by this time being nineteen and sixteen years old but they would not have been contributing much and by the spring the Overseers decided that they needed to act. They had the right to make pauper children into apprentices and that’s just what they did with James who was ten years old.
Their first task was to find a suitable type of job for him and they settled on looking at anything that involved metalwork, no doubt knowing that James had some knowledge of it, (or at least was not afraid of it), from being around his grandfather and Uncle William who was also a blacksmith. Having identified the field of work they then looked for specific individuals who would be interested in taking on an apprentice and they settled on James Pearson, a key filer, who lived in Willenhall. They seem to have been quite thorough and concerned about their role as this letter shows
Willenhall 3rd June 1832
We the undersigned being inhabitants of the Township of Willenhall in the County of Stafford, do hereby certify that James Pearson of this said Township, key filer, is a person of good fame and reputation and of sober life and conversation and a fit and proper person to take and instruct an apprentice in his trade. Signed by Jas Whitehouse, (Chapel Warden), Henry Hartell, (Overseer), James Walker, (Overseer), Jas Carpenter, William Emmery
Pearson was paid an apprentice fee of £5 and the following certificate was registered at Telford.
This indenture made the fourth day of June in the second year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord William the Fourth by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, king, defender of the faith, and in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty two, Witnesseth, that George Harvey and Thomas Pipe Churchwardens of the parish of Armitage in the county of Stafford and John Alldritt and Richard Turner Overseers of the Poor of the said parish by and with the consent of William Dyott Esquire and the Revd. Robert Taylor, Clerk, two of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the said County of Stafford whose names are hereunto subscribed, and by virtue and in pursuance of an order in writing made by and under the hands and seals of the said William Dyott Esquire and The Revd. Robert Taylor, Clerk, Justices of the Peace in and for the said county of Stafford in pursuance of the statute in that case made and provided and bearing date the fourth day of June instant have put and placed, and by these presents do put and place James Conway aged ten years, or thereabouts, a poor child of the said parish of Armitage apprentice to James Pearson of the Township of Willenhall in the county of Stafford key filer with him to dwell and serve from the day of the date of these presents, until the said apprentice shall accomplish his full age of twenty one years according to the statutes in that case made and provided. During all which term, the said apprentice his said master faithfully shall serve, in all lawful business, according to his power, wit, and ability, and honestly, orderly, and obediently, in all things demean and behave himself towards his said master, and all his, during the said term. And the said James Pearson for himself, his executors, and administrators, doth covenant and grant, to and with said Churchwardens and Overseers, and every of them, their and every of their executors and administrators, and their and every of their successors for the time being, by these presents, that he the said James Pearson the said apprentice, in the art, trade or mystery of a key filer shall and will teach and instruct, or cause to be taught and instructed in the best way and manner that he can during the said term, for and in consideration of the sum of five pounds to him in hand paid by the said Churchwardens and Overseers.
And shall and will, during all the term aforesaid, find, provide, and allow the said apprentice, meet, competent, and sufficient meat, drink, apparel, lodging, washing, and all other things necessary, and fit for an apprentice: provided always, that the said last-mentioned covenant, on the part of the said James Pearson his executors and administrators, to be done and performed, shall continue and be in force for no longer time than for three calendar months next after the death of the said James Pearson in case he the said James Pearson shall happen to die during the continuance of such apprenticeship, according to the provisions of an Act passed in the thirty-second year of the reign of King George the Third, intituled, “An Act for the further regulation of Parish Apprentices.” And also of another Act passed in the fifty-sixth year of the reign of King George the Third, intituled ,”An Act to regulate the binding of Parish Apprentices,”) And also shall and will so provide for the said Apprentice, that he be not any way a charge to the said parish of Armitage or parishioners of the same: but of and from all charge, shall and will save the said parish and parishioners, harmless and indemnified, during the said term.
In Witness whereof the parties abovesaid to these present indentures interchangeably have set their hands and seals, the day and year first above written.
Whether James could read or write or whether he understood what was going on or not is impossible to say but the ten-year old boy was sent off to Willenhall. James Pearson kept to his word and, nine years later, the 1841 census shows him and his family, together with James Conway (as Connoway) and another apprentice, living in Stafford Street, Willenhall. Also in 1841, James’ mother Ann was living with her son-in-law, James Shipley, and James’ brother, George, aged 10 in Hamstall Ridware.