THE DEVELOPMENT OF POOR RELIEF IN LANCASHIRE, c. 1598–1680

The development of the poor law has formed a key element of recent discussions of ‘state formation’ in early modern England. There are, however, still few local studies of how formal poor relief, stipulated in the great Tudor statutes, was implemented on the ground. This article offers such a study,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Historical journal 2010-09, Vol.53 (3), p.551-572
Main Author: HEALEY, JONATHAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administrative law
County governments
Early modern history
England
European history
Government policy
Judges & magistrates
Legal evidence
Legislation
Parishes
Politics
Poverty
Poverty alleviation
Privy councils
Public policy
Regional history
Social change
Social services
Social support
State formation
Statutory law
Towns
United Kingdom
Welfare
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The development of the poor law has formed a key element of recent discussions of ‘state formation’ in early modern England. There are, however, still few local studies of how formal poor relief, stipulated in the great Tudor statutes, was implemented on the ground. This article offers such a study, focusing on Lancashire, an economically marginal county, far from Westminster. It argues that the poor law developed in Lancashire surprisingly quickly in the early seventeenth century, despite the fact that there is almost no evidence of implementation of statutory relief before 1598, and formal relief mechanisms were essentially in place before the Civil War even if the numbers on relief remained small. After a brief hiatus during the conflict, the poor law was quickly revived in the 1650s. The role of the magistracy is emphasized as a crucial driving force, not just in the enforcement of the statutes, but also in setting relief policy. The thousands of petitions to JPs by paupers, parishes, and townships that survive in the county archives suggests that magistrates were crucial players in the ‘politics of the parish’.
ISSN:0018-246X
1469-5103
DOI:10.1017/S0018246X10000191