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I found an old document on my system for one of our training courses (dated 1988) giving some historical background to the benefits system, including such gems as:
"...the act of 1547 which was a savage statute dealing with vagrancy, and imposed slavery as a punishment for vagrancy, also proposed the erection of cottages for the impotent poor. (3. Edward VI c.16)"
"A 1572 Act introduced overseers of the poor and set up collections of a weekly rate for the support of the poor. The definition of vagabonds included all scholars of Oxford and Cambridge not licensed to beg by the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor, although there was much debate with the Lords insisting that minstreless bearwardes etc, should be allowed to perform, albeit with a license, perhaps their banning would have been akin to proposing the abolition of television."
"In 1589 (31 Eliz. c.7) was enacted to try to prevent poor people settling in the country. The act specified that only one family might live in one house, and no house was to be built in the country unless it had four acres of land attached."
"..in The Repression of Vagrancy Act 1597 (39 Eliz. I. C.4) which allowed any JP to order rogues vagabonds and sturdy beggars found begging outside their own parish to be "..stripped naked from the middle upwards and openly whipped until his or her body be bloody , and then passed to his or her birthplace or last residence - and in the case they know neither, they are to be sent to the house of correction for a year, unless someone gives them employment sooner." "
"The Poor Relief Act 1601 (43 Eliz. I. c. 2) (the Poor Law based upon an act of 1597) was intended to be a more humane system than the previous statutes. It was intended to support the deserving poor whilst deterring wandering beggars, vagabonds and incorrigible rogues as they were described. This was the act that formed the basis of social welfare provision in Britain until finally repealed in 1948, almost 350 years later.
The act compelled JPs in parishes to appoint an official, from the farmers and substantial men of the parish who attended the vestry meetings, to give relief to the poor and allowed for a local rate to be raised for this purpose. The Vestry had since medieval times been responsible for the maintenance and repair of the parish church, and continued to be so until the abolition of the compulsory church rate in 1868, but 16th century governments had found it convenient to use this body as a local executive arm for such functions as road repairs.
The act ordered the building of parish-houses, hospitals and alms houses.
The first time a Tudor court compelled a bench in a parish to do the begging for it's beggars?
The vestry meeting, although nominally a church institution, not infrequently met in the more hospitable environs of public houses and minutes of meetings show an interest in relevant administrative matters.
"At a parish meeting held this 30th day of April, We the Church Wardens, Overseer of the Poor, and several other inhabitants of Llandilotalybont do settle and agree that there shall be a Quart of Ale to every inhabitant that shall attend Vestries in each Vestry this present year."
For the next two hundred years this was to form the basis for administration of poor relief, the parish and the parish vestry meeting which settled the rates and policies.
The records demonstrate a discretionary relief which depended upon the intimate knowledge of the overseers with the inhabitants and conditions of the parish. It could seem harsh and uncaring, to us, yet could also be surprisingly generous and caring (eg Llantrisant parish sent a girl pauper in 1782 to Bethelehem hospital in London for a cure and Aberdare sent a young boy to the spa in Llanwrtyd Wells to try for a cure for Scurvy in 1819) and in most cases probably attempted to balance with rough justice the needs against the costs."
(Sorry about the Welsh bias in the examples I used, if anyones interested I can add some extracts from the 19th and 20th centuries which are quite interesting)
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