The Early History of English Poor Relief

by of Girton College E. M. Leonard

6 a. History of legislation in Scotland before 1597.

In Scotland as in England before 1535 there are a series of vagabond acts[672], and in 1535 a statute was passed bearing a strong resemblance to those passed in England under Henry VIII. The punishments of whipping awarded to vagrants under the older Acts were continued, and no beggar was to be allowed to beg in any parish except that of his birth. New regulations were introduced with regard to funds as in the contemporary English statute; the head men of each parish were to "make takings" and to distribute to the beggars belonging to the parish and to them only[673]. Thus, as in the England of 1536, parochial responsibility was recognised, and the funds were to be raised within the parish, but without compulsion.

The next important change in Scotch legislation was made in 1574, and the provisions then made were continued and amplified in 1579. In this later statute the resemblance to the English Act of 1572 seems more than accidental. Both the Scotch and the English statutes begin with decreeing sharp punishments for vagrants, although those of the Scotch law are the more severe. But the later clauses of both statutes deal with relief, and in the Scottish enactment these are introduced almost in the words of the English regulations, "And since charity would, that the poor, aged and impotent persons should be as necessarilie provided for, as the vagabonds and strong beggars repressed, and that the aged and impotent poor people should have lodging and abyding places throughout the realm to settle themselves into," it is ordained that the provost and bailies in the towns and the justice in every landward parish shall inquire into the names and condition of the poor and impotent people born in the parish, or who have lived there seven years, and shall make a register book containing their names and surnames. And in order that every parish may know its own poor, all poor people are ordered to return to the parish where they belonged within eleven days. The provost and bailies and justices are then to provide for the sustenance and lodging of those that must live by alms; in order to meet the cost they are "to tax and stent the whole inhabitants within the parish according to the estimation of their substance, without exception of persons, to such weekly charge and contribution as shall be thought expedient and sufficient to sustain the said poor people." Overseers and collectors were to be chosen in every town and parish, and any person who refused to contribute or discouraged others from so doing was, if convicted, to remain in prison until he obeyed the order of the parish. Badged beggars were allowed in some parishes, prisoners were to be relieved and children were to be apprenticed[674].

Compulsory taxation, parochial responsibility, the authority of justices or municipal rulers, the appointment of overseers and the provision made for the impotent poor and children are like those of the English Act. But there is no regulation concerning the employment of the able-bodied poor and the clauses concerning apprentices are far more severe than those in the contemporary English statute[675].

There are other vagabond Acts in 1592 and 1593, and the Act of 1592 ordains that the Act of 1579 shall be as well executed in all parts of the realm as it has been in Edinburgh[676]. This seems to show that in Scotland as in England the statutes of this time were badly executed, but were not altogether a dead letter[677].

6 b. History of legislation in Scotland from 1597 to 1680.

But in 1597 the next important change occurs. It begins by a clause which approximates the poor relief system still more to that in force in England. "Strong beggars and their bairns" are to "be employed in common work during their life times." But it concludes with a clause that separates the likeness hitherto existing between the regulations of the two countries. The execution of the law in landward parishes is placed in the hands of the kirk session[678].

Henceforward the history of poor relief in Scotland is different from that of England. In England the law of 1597, as re-enacted in 1601, remained the chief enactment for dealing with the poor throughout the century, but in Scotland, on the contrary, many alterations in the law were made; sometimes the kirk session was declared responsible for relieving the poor, at other times the justices, sometimes the heritors of the parish, were to assist the sessions, at other times the presbytery; sometimes the impotent were to be better relieved, at other times the able-bodied were to be employed in Houses of Correction[679]: statute succeeded statute in the seventeenth century as in the sixteenth, and for the most part with as little result.

Still, in spite of these many alterations, the Scotch poor law always resembled that of England in insisting on the duty of each parish to support three classes of people, (1) the aged poor, (2) the lame and blind, &c., and (3) orphans and destitute children. But the able-bodied poor of Scotland, unlike those of England, were not entitled to either work or relief. No legal provision was made for them except in Houses of Correction[680].