Death in the workhouse

[Jillie42]

Does anyone know much about workhouse rules?

I've just read this as there is a chance one of my relatives died in the workhouse

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?StSaviour/StSaviour.shtml. Follow the link on the left entitled "workhouse life" and click on the section "death"

It seems to imply that an inmate wasn't always admitted to a workhouse in his/her own parish. I aways assumed that anyone unable to live by their own means could only be admitted to a workhouse in the parish in which they lived?

[colinjohn]

Is this the part you refer to?

If this did not happen, which was often the case because of the expense, the Guardians arranged a burial in a local cemetery or burial ground — this was originally required to be in the parish where the workhouse stood, but later rules allowed it to be the deceased's own parish if they or their relatives had expressed such a wish.

You don't mention the date but I suspect that this refers to the situation after the 1834 Poor Law act which enabled individual parishes to merge into Poor Law Unions; new, much larger, workhouses were then built serving a number of parishes so the workhouse would not necessarily be in the parish from which the individual came.

Colin

[Jillie42]

yes,

it would be around 1897

[LizzieW]

Sorry a bit late in the day but I am new to Rootschat and only just seen your thread.

I have an ancestor (would have been a great aunt) who died in Hull Workhouse in 1903.  She and her siblings were orphaned in 1901 and I had been trying to find them (one was my grandfather so I'd got him from 1908 onwards).  I wasn't having any luck until I thought I'd look for marriages and then deaths.  I don't know if that means that all the siblings went to the workhouse or only the younger ones.  There are still 2 to trace, the eldest who was 21 when orphaned and the youngest who was about 8.

Liz

ps.  My great aunt died aged 13 from Cardiac Dropsy whatever that is.

[Bill749]

My great aunt died aged 13 from Cardiac Dropsy whatever that is.

Oedema due to heart failure.

Regards, Bill

[LizzieW]

Thanks for that Bill, poor thing.  I don't know if she lived in the workhouse, or just died in the workhouse infirmary.

Liz