RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Shropshire => Topic started by: dtlroots on Wednesday 27 January 21 15:12 GMT (UK)
-
I have a (presumed) ancestor whose burial record in Ellesmere for 1810 shows the 'House of Industry' as place of residence. I assume that this would be the Workhouse erected at Swan Hill (Haughton), which my googling endeavours lead me to believe was erected in 1791/1792 and was opened as a 'House of Industry' in January 1795. So far so good. However, someone of the same name (who I believe to be the same person, but you know how it is!) gave birth to an illegitimate child in 1776, and the baptism record (Ellesmere) shows the mother's place of residence as 'Workhouse'. Does anyone know where this would have been?
-
There's a little bit about the pre 1834 poor law in Ellesmere here:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ellesmere/
It's not very clear about the pre-1791 situation.
-
Thanks Gadget. This is the article from which I got the information on the opening of the House of Industry, but it doesn't seem to give any clue where a workhouse in 1776 would have been - which of course even precedes the 'Shrewsbury Incorporation' (1784) to which the article refers.
-
I'm trying to do some searches but it's very vague. It would come under the Old Poor Law which would mean a parish responsibility. I wonder if it's worth e-mailing the Shropshire archives to see if they have anything.
-
It will almost certainly have been an ordinary house in the parish, taken over by the vestry to house the poor.
See here (pp. 39-40) ...
https://shropshirearchaeologyhistory.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/shropshire-transactions-vol.-82_sm.pdf
Early poor law records for Ellesmere are at Shropshire Archives.
-
There's some refs here:
https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/blog/finding-old-poor-law-records/
-
It does look as if they are still answering e-mail queries:
https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/blog/lockdown-again/
-
Thanks for the responses both of you. Some interesting things to look at.
Lockdowns aside, I live quite far away from Shropshire, so emailing Shropshire archives probably isn't a bad idea. I had looked on the website around poor law provision, and while I could not find what I wanted online I did actually see a much more recent reference to someone else definitely in my tree. The National archives site has been letting users download stuff available digitally free during the lockdowns. Didn't see anything suggesting Shropshire archives are doing the same unfortunately.
-
When I've dealt with them, both from the Highlands and now from the North East, they have been very helpful.
Hope you get what you need :)
-
This may be a bit of a long shot - but have you tried contacting The Ellesmere Society?