• Was an attempt by the government and ruling class to return the laborers to servile conditions because after the plague, many workers saw the opportunity to become freedmen.[11]
• Additional laws passed to supplement enforcement included:[12]
  • If any man ran away from his place of employment and was recovered by his employer, he could be branded with an “F” (for “falsity”) on his forehead. (34 Edward III c. 10 (1360))
  • Decreed that children who were employed in agriculture before the age of 12 could not be put to any trade and that craftsmen may be compulsorily conscripted to help bring in the harvest. (12 Richard II c. 3 (1388))

• Historically, England relied upon churches and individual charity to provide poor relief. In many cases, the Church provided the charity, both as a result of individual obligations to provide Christian charity and the Church’s obligation to provide relief for the poor of their community.[13] Thus began the designation of the parish as the unit of obligation for poor laws, which lasted throughout the Old Poor Laws.[14] This began as early as Pope Gregory IX’s papal decree for the faithful to seek salvation “with works of great mercy.”[15]
• In the first half of the 16th Century, many Christian countries, both Catholic and Protestants began forming institutional poor relief, probably inspired by the humanist movements of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Juan Luis Vives which professed Christian charity and moral reform.[16]
• In 1538 and 1547, Protestant Reformation abolished monasteries and other religious institutions, as well as crippled gilds and fraternities, which had formerly provided poor relief.[17] Furthermore, the Reformation marked a national shifting of viewpoints through which philanthropy became increasingly secular, rather than meted out through the Church.[18]

• Under Henry VIII, harsh treatment of vagabonds was continued with the 1531 “Act how aged, poor and impotent Persons, compelled to live by Alms, shall be ordered; and how Vagabonds and Beggars shall be punished” (22 Henry VIII c. 12). Under this act, vagabonds could be whipped in addition to being placed in stocks, although impotent vagabonds could be granted a license to beg legally.[19] However, these licenses to beg were mostly limited to the sick, disabled, and elderly.
  • This act is recognized as the first English statute actually aimed at providing relief, rather than punishing vagrancy because it made the local Justices of the Peace responsible for licensing the poor within their district.[20]
• In 1536, more structure was provided to the 1531 act in the 1536 Act For Punishment of Sturdy Vagabonds and Beggars (27 Henry VIII c. 25). The 1536 act provided that “sturdy” vagabonds should be set to work after being punished.[21] It also provided that local mayors, bailiffs, constables, and other officers were responsible for ensuring that the poor in their parish were cared for such that they need not beg.[22] Although they could not use municipal funds not levy a compulsory tax on the parish to raise this money, they organized collections in a common box.[23] In addition, voluntary contributions to the poor other than through the common box were made illegal; the goal of this latter provision was to control discriminatory giving.[24]
  • Although this act lapsed later in 1536, its designation of the parish as the administrator of charitable giving lasted into future poor law reforms.[25]

• In London, there was a great massing of the poor, and the Reformation threatened to eliminate some of the infrastructure used to provide for the poor. As a result, King Henry VIII consented to re-endow St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1544 and St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1552 on the condition that the citizens of London pay for their maintenance.[26] However, the city was unable to raise enough revenue from voluntary contributions, so it instituted the first definite compulsory Poor Rate in 1547 which replaced Sunday collections in Church with a mandatory collection for the poor.[27]
  • In 1555, London became increasingly concerned with the number of poor who could work, but yet could not find work, so it established the first “House of Correction” was established in the King’s Palace at Bridewell where poor could receive shelter and work at cap-making, feather-bed making, and wire drawing.[28]

• From 1547 to 1555, additional laws were passed providing further regulation and infrastructure:[29]

• Even before her famous reforms in 1598 and 1601, Elizabeth passed more structured, but also more humanitarian, poor laws from 1563 to 1576.[30] The 1563 Act For the Relief of the Poor (5 Eliz. I c. 3) essentially required all parish residents to contribute to poor collections (provided they had ability to pay). Those who “of his or their forward willful mind shall obstinately refuse to give weekly to the relief of the poor according to his or their abilities” could be bound over to justices of the peace and fined £10.[31]
• The 1572 Act For the Punishment of Vagabonds and for Relief of the Poor and Impotent (14 Eliz. I c. 5) provided comprehensive reform to the treatment of the poor. Firstly, Justices of the Peace were to survey and register “aged, decayed and impotent poor” who had resided within the parish for at least 3 years and decide how much money was required for their relief, then assess parish residents weekly for the appropriate amount.[32] Those refusing to contribute could be imprisoned. Vagabonds could be whipped and burned through the ear and then set to work. It also provided that if there were too many poor to be relieved through weekly collections, beggars could be licensed.
• It further provided that any surplus funds could be used to “place and settle to work the rogues and vagabonds.”[33]
  • Building on the 1572 Act, the 1576 Act For Setting of the Poor on Work, and For the Avoiding of Idleness (18 Eliz. I c. 3) required towns to create “a competent stock of wool, hemp, flax, iron and other stuff” for the poor to work on and houses of correction for those who refused to work where recalcitrant or careless workers could be forced to work and punished accordingly.[34]

• The laws passed in 1598 and 1601 were meant to retain the effects of the 1576 Act while improving its administrability.[35] It is believed that they were passed in response to a large dearth of crops from 1594 to 1598 resulting from continuous cold and rain for many years.[36]
  • The 1598 Act for the Relief of the Poor (39 Eliz. 1 c. 3) and the 1598 Act For the Punishment of Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars (39 Eliz. I c. 4) (“The Vagrancy Act”) limited the role of the Justices of the Peace to make administration of the poor laws less procedurally burdensome.[37] Notably, they placed the burden of setting poor to work and assessing parish collections in the hands of churchwardens and collections overseers and allowed the churchwardens and overseers to garnish property from those refusing to contribute. However, justices of the peace could assess other parishes within the same hundred to aid parishes unable to gather sufficient collections (a “rate in aid”).[38] The Vagrancy Act also allowed parish officers, in addition to Justices of the Peace, to punish vagabonds, thus giving the Justices of the Peace a more supervisory role.[39] The 1601 Act For the Relief of the Poor (43 Eliz. I c. 2) reiterated these provisions.[40]

• Despite the passage of these laws, it is believed that by 1601, most large towns, but only few rural parishes actually implemented the assessment of rates on residents for poor relief.[41] However, a survey in 1696 revealed that nearly every parish assessed a tax for the poor.[42] Although the money was put to many purposes, most of it was given out as a cash dole to the poor, either as long-term pensions or short-term aid.[43]
  • In conjunction with these laws, the Privy Council took a more active role in ensuring that each parish had enough food, that stock was available for the poor to work on, and that all the poor were provided for, especially by increasing its own supervision over justices of the peace.[44]
  • Specifically, the Privy Council established itself into a Poor Law Commission and in 1631 released a Book of Orders outlining how justices of the peace were to supervise collections overseers, constables, and churchwardens within their parishes and hundreds.[45] Based on parish records, the pressure from above to provide relief for the poor had a great effect on increasing collections and relief.[46]

Reform After Elizabeth I (up to 1782)

• 1647 An Ordinance for the Relief and Payment of the Poor, and the Punishment of Vagrants and Other Disorderly Persons was an ordinance of Parliament creating a Corporation of the Poor in London.[47] It created work-houses for the poor, where both adults and children could either reside or visit daily for work.[48] However, under the Restoration of 1660, Charles II took back the properties from the Corporation.

• 1662 Act For the Better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom (13 & 14 Car. II c. 12) (“Act of Settlement”) restored the Corporation of the Poor in London and created new corporations in other places, including Westminster, Middlesex, and Surrey.[49]
• The Act of Settlement also codified the concept of “settlement,” which essentially means that every person had a parish to which he “belonged” and could be returned to. Under the Act of Settlement, newcomers to a parish could be removed unless they rented a house for £10 or more per year.[50] The relation of this to the poor laws is that its motivation was to prevent an influx of poor into a parish, since it was the parish members who were responsible for providing poor relief.[51]
• Under the 1692 Act For Supplying the Defects of the Former Laws for the Settlement of the Poor (3 William & Mary c. 11), in addition to earning settlement in a parish by renting a house worth at least £10 per year, poorer migrants could earn settlement by paying local taxes for a year or by serving as an apprentice or servant for a year.[52]

• • A flaw of the Act of Settlement was that it encouraged neighboring parishes to fight over who had responsibility for certain poor people, which created a large administrative burden and highlighted the need for a larger unit that the parish for poor relief.[53]
  • The 1697 Act also attempted to address the deficiency of work for the poor by requiring workmen to take on pauper apprentices. Recognizing that there was simply not enough money to supplement all of the poor, it also attempted shame parishes into giving more money by requiring those receiving pensions from the parish to wear outward badges.[54]