Migration, Poor Relief and Local Autonomy: Settlement Policies in England and the Southern Low Countries in the Eighteenth Century

• Published in: Past & present 2013-02, Vol.218 (1), p.91-126
• Main Authors: Winter, Anne, Lambrecht, Thijs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 18th century; Communities; Criteria; Eighteenth Century; England; European history; Historians; Law; Legislation; Management; Migrants; Migration; Poverty; Poverty alleviation; Public policy; Settlement patterns; Social services; United Kingdom; Values; Wales; Welfare
• ISSN: 0031-2746; 1477-464X
• DOI: 10.1093/pastj/gts021

Many historians have argued that settlement legislation was a cornerstone of poor relief administration in early modern and early industrial England and Wales. The Settlement Act of 1662 and later additions codified the criteria of local belonging inherent in the parochial system of poor relief established by the Elizabethan Poor Laws. By laying out a national scheme for parochial poor relief, financed by a compulsory tax on rateable value and administered by local overseers of the poor, the Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601 instilled a sense of communal responsibility towards the maintenance of the local poor. By defining criteria of belonging, settlement legislation in turn ensured that in principle every pauper belonged to a local community -- that is, his or her settlement, which was responsible for his or her maintenance in times of need. In many cases this was the place of birth or one's father's place of settlement, but transfers of settlement could be provided for under certain conditions. Yet, as much as settlement legislation enforced relief entitlements for those considered part of a community's 'own poor', it excluded those who did not legally belong there. Sojourners, that is, migrants residing in a place which was not their settlement, could be swiftly removed when they became chargeable, or -- at least until 1795 -- when they were merely 'likely to become chargeable'. The history of settlement and poor relief is therefore one not only of assistance and entitlement, but also of exclusion and removal. Adapted from the source document.