Individual, Illegal, and Unjust Purposes`: Overseers, Incentives, and the Old Poor Law in Bolton, 1820-1837

Robert Dryburgh

No _050, Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: Overseers’ vested interests played an important role in shaping local poor relief provision under the Old Poor Law. In the industrial town of Bolton the Relief Order books for the 1820s reveal an unusual emphasis upon the payment of paupers’ rent by the parish. This policy was partly a result of self-interest. Many members of the Relief Committee owned substantial quantities of residential property. Such rent payments ensured that these landlords received a subsidy from other ratepayers. A desire to preserve this type of relief, frowned upon by the 1834 Report, may be a contributory factor in the Board of Guardian’s later resistance to the Poor Law Amendment Act.

Date: 2003-03-01
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