Early Poor Laws The Elizabethan Poor Law of

Early Poor Laws The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601

• The Poor Law of 1601 was a codification of the preceding poor relief legislation. • The law distinguished three classes of the poor: (1) The able-bodied poor (2) The impotent poor (3) Dependent children

• The able-bodied poor were called “sturdy beggars” and were forced to work in the house of correction or workhouse. Citizens were forbidden to give them alms, and paupers who arrive from other parishes were returned to the place where they had dwelt for a year.

• The impotent poor were people unable to work -the sick, the old, the blind, the deaf-mute, the lame, the demented, and mothers with young children. They were to be placed in the almshouse where they were to help within the limits of their capacities.

• Dependent children were orphans, foundlings, and children who had been deserted by their parents or whose parents were so poor that they could not support them. These children were to be placed out to any citizen who was willing to take them without a charge.

• The overseers of the poor administered the poor law in the parish. • They were appointed by the justices of the peace or the magistrates. • The overseers decided whether applicants and their families should be placed in the workhouse or almshouse, should be “sold out, ” or should receive aid in their home. • The overseers had to collect the poor tax assessed on land, houses, and tithes of all inhabitants, and to register assessment and payments. • The poor tax was the main source for the financing of poor relief.

• The Poor Law of 1601 set the pattern of public relief in Great Britain for 300 years. • It established the principle that the local community has to organize and finance poor relief for its residents • And provide sustenance to the unemployable and children and work to the able-bodied.