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Topic: Agricultural Labourer In Receipt Of Parish Relief (Read 595 times)
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matt94
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 681
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Hello
On 1851 Census, I have an 81 year-old ancestor who was 'Agricultural Labourer In Receipt Of Parish Relief'. What does this mean? Would more info be held in other records?
Matt
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I am researching....
Cutler Family, Bucks
Bennell Family, Bucks
Sellwood Family, Berks
Smith Family, Berks
Hardie Family, Lancs/Scotland
Fish Family, Yorks/Lincs
Banks Family, Worcs/Warwicks
Clements Family, Wilts/London
Briant Family, Berkshire
Knott Family, Berkshire
Darkins Family, Kent
Gadd Family, Lancs
Coffin Family, Lancs/Flint/Cheshire
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Arranroots
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 10921
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Hello Matt
Yes, if they have survived, you should be able to find out more from the workhouse/ guardians of the poor records, which are likely to be held in the record office relevant to the parish in which your chap was living.
Sometimes they are quite detailed and give the reason for providing relief - it might be money and/ or food - and sometimes you will find records of admission to the poorhouse either to provide work and in-relief (as opposed to out-relief, when the recipient lived at home).You might also find admissions for health reasons - workhouses tended to act as hospitals do now.
So, your record office is the next place to try!
Kind regards, Arranroots 
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOM: BIRD, BURT aka BROWN HEF: BAUGH, LATHAM, CARTER, PRITCHARD GLS: WEBB, WORKMAN, LATHAM, MALPUS WIL: WEBB, SALTER RAD: PRITCHARD, WILLIAMS GLA: RYAN, KEARNEY, JONES, HARRY MON: WEBB, MORGAN, WILLIAMS, JONES, BIRD SCOTLAND: HASTINGS, CAMERON, KELSO, BUCHANAN, BETHUNE/ BEATON IRELAND: RYAN (WATERFORD), KEARNEY (DUBLIN), BOYLE(DUNDALK) |
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matt94
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 681
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This is the record:
SELLWOOD, Alexander Head Widower M 81 1770 Agricultural Labourer In Receipt Of Parish Relief, Chieveley, Berkshire (living Cock Land Bradfield Berkshire), so was not in workhouse..
What type of record would they be held in? Overseers papers?
Just checking the Berks FHS records for overseers papers, but they only stretch to 1834.
Vol 5 BRADFIELD UNION Bucklebury, Burghfield, Stanford Dingley, Sulham, Sulhamstead Abbots, Sulhamstead Bannister & Theale.
Matt
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Logged
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I am researching....
Cutler Family, Bucks
Bennell Family, Bucks
Sellwood Family, Berks
Smith Family, Berks
Hardie Family, Lancs/Scotland
Fish Family, Yorks/Lincs
Banks Family, Worcs/Warwicks
Clements Family, Wilts/London
Briant Family, Berkshire
Knott Family, Berkshire
Darkins Family, Kent
Gadd Family, Lancs
Coffin Family, Lancs/Flint/Cheshire
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Arranroots
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 10921
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He might not have been in the workhouse at the time, but he might have applied later, especially given that he was elderly in 1851.
Yes, Overseers records, Guardians' Minute Books and suchlike - they tend to be called different things in different areas.
Contact the Record Office direct if their site doesn't have a name index.
Good luck!
Kind regards, Arranroots
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOM: BIRD, BURT aka BROWN HEF: BAUGH, LATHAM, CARTER, PRITCHARD GLS: WEBB, WORKMAN, LATHAM, MALPUS WIL: WEBB, SALTER RAD: PRITCHARD, WILLIAMS GLA: RYAN, KEARNEY, JONES, HARRY MON: WEBB, MORGAN, WILLIAMS, JONES, BIRD SCOTLAND: HASTINGS, CAMERON, KELSO, BUCHANAN, BETHUNE/ BEATON IRELAND: RYAN (WATERFORD), KEARNEY (DUBLIN), BOYLE(DUNDALK) |
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matt94
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 681
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Thanks alot 
He is not a direct ancestor but I like to hear about all this. Turns out that alot of the Sellwoods in my tree went into the workhouse at some point.
Matt
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I am researching....
Cutler Family, Bucks
Bennell Family, Bucks
Sellwood Family, Berks
Smith Family, Berks
Hardie Family, Lancs/Scotland
Fish Family, Yorks/Lincs
Banks Family, Worcs/Warwicks
Clements Family, Wilts/London
Briant Family, Berkshire
Knott Family, Berkshire
Darkins Family, Kent
Gadd Family, Lancs
Coffin Family, Lancs/Flint/Cheshire
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Arranroots
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 10921
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Remember that there was no alternative for most people.
There was no pension credit or child support and no paid leave when you fell ill. Doctors were expensive in the days before the National Health Service but the workhouse might have been able to help.
I found fascinating records of my own relatives and the loaves and shillings they received when they fell on hard times. Also a relative who obviously couldn't take care of himself and died of malnutrition in the workhouse, as an elderly widower ... 
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOM: BIRD, BURT aka BROWN HEF: BAUGH, LATHAM, CARTER, PRITCHARD GLS: WEBB, WORKMAN, LATHAM, MALPUS WIL: WEBB, SALTER RAD: PRITCHARD, WILLIAMS GLA: RYAN, KEARNEY, JONES, HARRY MON: WEBB, MORGAN, WILLIAMS, JONES, BIRD SCOTLAND: HASTINGS, CAMERON, KELSO, BUCHANAN, BETHUNE/ BEATON IRELAND: RYAN (WATERFORD), KEARNEY (DUBLIN), BOYLE(DUNDALK) |
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matt94
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 681
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The oldest person I can see in Workhouse Burials in Bradfield is Thomas Arlott aged 92. An undignified but sad end, I must say. I have only found two relatives at Bradfield Workhouse but I know there were more who married out etc.
Matt
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I am researching....
Cutler Family, Bucks
Bennell Family, Bucks
Sellwood Family, Berks
Smith Family, Berks
Hardie Family, Lancs/Scotland
Fish Family, Yorks/Lincs
Banks Family, Worcs/Warwicks
Clements Family, Wilts/London
Briant Family, Berkshire
Knott Family, Berkshire
Darkins Family, Kent
Gadd Family, Lancs
Coffin Family, Lancs/Flint/Cheshire
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greensleeves
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 346
Greensleeves
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It seems to me that if you had a family who would - or could - look after you, then you might escape the workhouse by living with them and, with luck, also claiming parish relief. In addition if your employer was benevolent, presumably people who had rendered good service over the years might be allowed to retain their cottages until they died.
I have just noticed one of my chaps, aged 75, was in a workhouse, but listed as Ag Lab. However, many more of them in workhouses were listed as 'Pauper'. I wonder how the differentiation was made as to whether you retained your original occupation, or were reduced to pauper status.
I was also shocked to find that one of the Suffolk farmers in my tree subsequently ended up listed as Pauper in the local workhouse, whilst his two sons were in the farm and shown as Farmers.
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Suffolk: Pearl(e) & variations - Brettenham, Hitcham,Rattlesden; Waddilove - Rattlesden and possibly Norfolk. Garnham - Belstead, Ipswich & area.
Durham/Yorkshire: Sedgwick - West Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Merrington.
Shadforth - Hartlepool/Stockton
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Arranroots
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 10921
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Hi Greensleeves
I believe some of those housed in the workhouse worked "out" and so presumably retained their occupational description. Others had employment within the workhouse but they tended to be might unpleasant - things like picking oakum - deliberately so, to prevent people from taking an easy option.
I suppose in some cases, it might just have been the whim of the enumerator or other record keeper though!
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOM: BIRD, BURT aka BROWN HEF: BAUGH, LATHAM, CARTER, PRITCHARD GLS: WEBB, WORKMAN, LATHAM, MALPUS WIL: WEBB, SALTER RAD: PRITCHARD, WILLIAMS GLA: RYAN, KEARNEY, JONES, HARRY MON: WEBB, MORGAN, WILLIAMS, JONES, BIRD SCOTLAND: HASTINGS, CAMERON, KELSO, BUCHANAN, BETHUNE/ BEATON IRELAND: RYAN (WATERFORD), KEARNEY (DUBLIN), BOYLE(DUNDALK) |
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newburychap
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 753
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Yes, Overseers records, Guardians' Minute Books and suchlike - they tend to be called different things in different areas.
Overseers papers tend to refer to poor relief pre-1834 - because every parish appointed one or more 'overseers of the poor' to manage their statutory requirement to look after the poor of their parish.
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 changed the system. Groups of parishes were formed into Unions and a Board of Guardians was set up in each union to handle poor relief for all the parishes in the Union. So Parish Overseers had a lot less to do post-1834.
This is why the Berks FHS CD of Overseers Papers ends at 1834. It includes a calendar (ie a precis) of all known overseers papers that survive in Berkshire (in practice this means all such records held in the BRO - some more may still exist at a few churches). In reality there are a few that were missed - I have seen some entries in the Newbury Borough Quarter Sessions records that should really have been added. That said the book of Newbury settlement examinations is one of the best bits of the CD!
Anyone who is receiving parish relief at home in 1851 is probably not able bodied (or they would be in the Workhouse). Workhouses did take the infirm if there was no family to look after them but their main intake were the able-bodied poor, who were given such a miserable time that they would be desperate to find work and escape the workhouse (which was exactly the idea as working folk were not a drain on the parish rate). Looking after the infirm in the workhouse cost money and had no secondary effect as they were not expected to rush off and find a job - so out-relief could be a cheaper alternative.
Over the years workhouses did metamorphise into hospitals, but 1851 is too early for that to have happened to any great extent. In 1929 most surviving workhouses were formally converted into hospitals (eg Battle Hospital in Reading & Sandleford Hospital in Newbury). Bradfield Workhouse was out in the sticks but even that became Waylands Hospital.
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Currently researching: Newbury pubs & inns - the buildings, breweries and publican families. Member of Newbury District Field Club - www.ndfc.org.uk |
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Vicwinann
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 658
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This is the record:
SELLWOOD, Alexander Head Widower M 81 1770 Agricultural Labourer In Receipt Of Parish Relief, Chieveley, Berkshire (living Cock Land Bradfield Berkshire), so was not in workhouse..
What type of record would they be held in? Overseers papers?
Just checking the Berks FHS records for overseers papers, but they only stretch to 1834.
Vol 5 BRADFIELD UNION Bucklebury, Burghfield, Stanford Dingley, Sulham, Sulhamstead Abbots, Sulhamstead Bannister & Theale.
Matt
Hi Matt,
Alexander (my 3rd great grandfather) was living with his daughter and son-in-law in 1851. I have never found any record of exactly what out relief he was receiving from Bradfield Union, but it was obviously cheaper to pay out relief rather than house him in the Workhouse. Additionally, none of my direct family ever entered the Workhouse. Like many other families, when parents/grandparents got too old to work, someone, usually (in my family's case) the eldest son or youngest daughter, took over the responsibility of caring for and housing them. This happened right up until the late 1940's when my grandparents lived with us. My father was actually the youngest of 2 sons, and is the main reason why he fell out with his older brother (who had been brought up by his uncle) and never spoke to him again. Not that is, until I lost my temper at my grandmother's funeral and threatened to bang their heads together. I was all of 15.
Yours
Vicwinann
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Sellwood Berkshire Oxon Lancs Wilts; Cassell Berkshire and Guildford; Leighs Guildford and London; Saunders Portsea, Greenwich and Deptford ; Austin Cookham; Osgood Berkshire; Dack Norfolk; Darling Berkshire and Mapledurham; Wilkins Englefield Berks; Havenhand Derbys; Whileman Derbys; Reedman Derbys, Notts, Australia, Africa; Rottenberry Deptford and Devon;
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Orpheus
RootsChat Member
Posts: 124
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Hello Matt
You may find reference to your ancestor in the Relief Lists (1845-1921) and/or the Relief Order Books (1835 and 1848-1930) for Bradfield Union held at the Berkshire Record Office in Reading. If he was eventually admitted to the Workhouse he should appear in the Admission and Discharge Registers (1835-1862) for the same Union.
Orpheus
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