Born on St Patrick's Day: Happy 115th Mary

They say that its good luck to be Irish, and that the luckiest of all are those who are born on St Patrick's Day. No doubt this is what was said the day that my great grandmother was born. However, her life was not necessarily filled with the good luck that the superstition had predicted. As much as she had a hard life, her life was also an "ordinary" one of a young British immigrant to Canada. Despite that, the simple life she led in youth was filled with fun. She embrace the changing times, new found freedoms, and innovations. Its the heirlooms from that chapter of her life that fascinate me the most because they show aside to her that none of my relatives knew - a woman who was happy. So today, I am going to share the side of her that one of those heirlooms tells. I have a small black autograph book that was hers.  At almost 100 years old, the book binding has all but disintegrated yet the leather cover is in near pristine condition and the partially bound pages are al
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How to read Poor Law Records


They say that 1 in 10 people with British ancestry can trace their family back to the workhouse. For my family this statement is true. The process of filing for relief from the Board of Guardians was long and required the individual to provide detailed information about themselves. 

In two of my previous posts I spoke of a woman named Bessie. After her father died in 1889, her mother mad no choice but to turn to the workhouse. She had six children between the ages of one month and 15 to support. The Poor Law records I found on this family contained a wealth of information - much of which I had never seen before. 

Settlement Examination  

The process began by with a settlement examination. The main purpose of this record was to determine what Poor Law Union was responsible for the pauper's upkeep (otherwise known as residency). The head of the family would be asked to provide the following information:

  1. where each member of the family was born
  2. if they are married and if so where and when the marriage occurred
  3. every residence they lived in for a set window of time
  4. which of those residences had a rent above E10 and were paying the poor rate
  5. had they ever been on relief before and if so where and when
Lets take a look at the orders of removal and settlement that were produced for the Sword family.
 

The above document provides the information in the same order as the bullet points which explain how residency is established. The first paragraph names each person in the family, their age, and place of birth. The head of household does not have their birth listed here, instead it is the families current address at the time they were seeking relief. When reviewing this type of document it is important to remember that not every detail is accurate. In this post, I determined that Bessie was born in Southwark and not Bow. This information was provided to someone from the Board of Guardians and they were the one that actually wrote it down. More than likely this would not have been a comfortably conversation for them to have therefore they may have made mistakes. Additionally, they may have been trying to give falsified information in order to be placed in a workhouse within their current parish.

Next paragraph describes where and when the marriage occurred. It also mentions some details about Bessie's deceased father. He is described as being a Scotchman. 

The third paragraph covers points 3 through 5. Notice that she provides varying levels of detail about the addresses. Some are exact right down to the house number where as others are just a street, and some are just a borough within London or town. 

The last two paragraphs focus on the head of the family. The fourth paragraph describes where Mary was born and who her parents are. The last paragraph provides the address for their nearest relative that is not currently on relief. 

After this information was reviewed, the Board of Guardians decided that Sword family was the responsibility of the Wandsworth and Clapham Union. They were not able to be transported right away to the workhouse, instead they were placed on out relief for nearly a year. 

Orders of Removal 

The first page of the settlement orders stated where the pauper(s) had legal settlement. The most important paragraph are the last few where the Guardian was able to fill in the name of the current parish they were filing for relief in and the name of the parish where they had a legal right to settlement. 

The Sword family was filing for relief in the Poplar Union at St George in the East Workhouse but they had a legal right to settlement in Battersea which fell under the Wandsworth and Clapham Union. 

Orders of Settlement

This document was produced when the pauper(s) reached the workhouse in their rightful parish of settlement. 

The entire process of obtaining relief was quite lengthy if it was not filed within someone's rightful parish. Notice that for the Sword family it took an entire two month from the orders of removal for the orders of settlement to be produced. On the center panel of the settlement order we see the names of the parishes they were being transferred between. 

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