Poor Law That Was Enacted 1845 - Essay Example

Poor Law (enacted 1845) divisions and stratification in terms of social economic groupings has been a culture that dates back to the civilization of human beings. In Scotland therefore, the existence of such classes dates far back to the era before the nineteenth century. The legislations and legal frameworks that addressed the poor within the society dates back to the sixteenth century and even earlier. However, significant influence in the legislations that were formulated concerning the poor in Scotland is notable from the poor law legislation that was enacted in 1845. However, there had been previous laws, which concerned the relief of the poor within the country before the enactment of the 1845 act. Nevertheless, this particular act is particularly important to the history of the Scottish local family in that it was wholly intended to empower the individual parishes to enumerate own poor. Moreover, besides just enumeration of the poor, the enactment of the law empowered the state to enquire more into the poverty status of the people.Through the enquiry, the state would understand the circumstances around the poverty, understand whether the ‘poor’ would be in a position to work and establish whether there existed other family members who would be depended on by the family for survival. A characteristic feature that existed in the Scottish law previously had been a poor rate or levy, which had been imposed within the state in order to assist the poor. However, therefore was the need to evaluate the effectiveness of the legislations as they were prior to the 1845 enactment of the legislation, which saw the amendments, which led to the 1845-act formulation. The act of 1845 had main provisions, which revolved around the establishment of a supervisory board whose mandate was to effect poor law system regulation. It also provided for retaining the already existing ‘parish based systems’ via Parochial boards (The National Archives of Scotland, para 3). The boards had also powers to regulate taxes. Outdoor relief services for the poor were meant to remain with an attention to building more poor houses for the sick. Moreover, the act empowered the inspector of the poor to legitimize the applications of relief to the poor. The effects of the enactment of the legislation saw the able-bodied poor segment of the population miss an automatic entitlement to the poor relief, as was the case previously in England. However, under the legislation, the poor had the capacity to engage legal procedures to appeal for poor relief denied on them. Nevertheless, in spite of such a promising legislation as it were, it suffered a major drawback on the fact that it lacked a framework to address outdoor relief mismanagement, which was very prevalent. The nineteenth century legislations had great impacts on the records to the Scottish local family and as such, anyone interested in Scottish family and Scottish local history should be aware of these changes in legislation. This paper therefore intends to discuss the specific changes brought about by the legislation and the impact brought about to the records. The previous regimes of legislation ware more open and inclusive where the disabled as well as the poor were entitled to assistance with the blind, orphans, the sick as well as the old having the priority over the assistance though the able bodied had special provision to the relief under special occasions (Milner, 2). Under such instances, the able bodied were included in the provision of the ‘occasional’ poor during hard times. It was the responsibility of the Kirk sessions and the landowners to oversee dispensation of the relief within the rural areas whereas the town councils as well as magistrates over saw the process within the urban areas (Milner, 1; General Register office for Scotland, 1).1 Each parish took care of its own poor through church collections, voluntary donations as well as through fines inflicted on the convicted sinners (Mitchison, 109; Clark, 1107-1108). The heritors on the other hand played a critical role in adding to what the collections were in instances of shortage (“Scotland Poorhouses, Poor Law, Etc”, para 1-3). Nevertheless, despite the admirable traits that characterized the Scottish legislation, urban growth and industrialization imposed strain in the procedure of poor relief, which necessitated some form of reforms. The rising burden in attending to increased populations with the relief aid that was the result of urbanization and industrialization led to diminished assistance, which according to an investigative committee that was set up in 1843 to investigate the issue and provide recommendations was very little. This led to the formulation and enactment of the 1845 legislation, which had an overall focus on ensuring enough relief offered to the poor though on discriminatory based on the nature of the need as established. Record keeping was therefore necessary in order to track the records of beneficiaries to such programs was necessary to aid in identification and follow up.2 Among notable strengths that came because of the formulation of the legislation was the empowerment of the poor who had previously no power to undertake a judicial procedure to revisit the consideration to award them the aid whenever denied. The previous regime only empower the paupers to seek the intervention of a local sheriff who equally had no power to enforce a rule accord the poor the relief. Thus records have it that it is through the enactment of this legislation that a central board to oversee the rightful interpretation of the law regarding the according of relief to the poor without prejudice and discrimination was formulated. This was therefore one of the main feature characteristic to this act (“Scottish poor law after 1845”, 1-3).3 However, overdependence on the relief on family support especially in bringing up of children was notably a great challenge that was faced in administration of the enacted legislation. The new law therefore had to face the shortcoming and therefore opted to devise and enforce parental obligation through which, prosecution of negligent parents was effectuated. Deserted and orphaned children formed the biggest group, which received the relief as provided for by the 1843 enactment. However, parents and families who qualified for the relief equally benefited. The enactment of the law also affected the record keeping in that it introduced boarding programs. The programs were informed by the contemporary ideologies where children were most affected by the pauperism within the environment they were brought up in. Good physical and moral development of the children required such services and relief aid that were provided for under the system of boarding programs. On the other hand, the act carried down some notable traits from the previous legislations where just as the old law, qualifications to the relief aid and other considerations as poor revolved around disabilities as well as destitution (Macdonald, 197-198). These records mattered in content and applications based on the purpose for which they were prepared.4 For instance, there were hospital records, which were used to keep track of the poor who visited the hospital, the poor houses records, which identified the beneficiaries to particular poorhouses services, as well as records for children homes and industrial schools, which were not restricted to particular parishes (“Records of the Scottish Poor”, 1). The records were very instrumental in overseeing the running of the parishes as well as for administrative purposes. The enactment of the act had therefore to invoke some influence to these records and as such, proper understanding of the records as they exists requires that a person has a good understanding of these legislations. There was therefore a notable influence on the authenticity and reliability of the systems adopted for record keeping. The 1845 poor law that was enacted therefore influenced the quality and usefulness of the records kept. The different records that were kept after the enactment of the poor law are strategic in use by any person that traces back the family history or ancestral lineage for the Scottish families. However, understanding of such amendments and enactments that accompanied such a law as this is critical. This discussion therefore reveals that the evolution of the legislations as they related to the poor and the needy within the society in Scotland had great significance in record keeping. With the system of supporting the poor within the country with relief aid dating back to the sixteenth century, the height was realized at the enactment of the 1845 poor law, which was necessitated by the increasing poverty levels because of industrialization as well as urbanization. Efficiency was the main concern that brought about the formulation and enactment of the law to enhance relief assistance to the poor within the country. Civil Registration (enacted 1855) Wales and England passed acts, which oversaw the registration of births, marriages as well as deaths in 1836, which formed the precedent to the Scottish act of 1855 (Devonshire, para 5). This great paradox has never been explained since then, as Scotland was a great support to the registration act that governed England and Wales over years before the country formulated or adopted its own. However, notable successive failures were notable over eight bills that were proposed concerning civil legislation in the country until the enactment of the 1855 bill. The church formed the basic impendent to the passing of the bills as proposed by the parliament citing certain shortcomings to the different bills which included specific clauses which concerned nominations as well as payment of registrars, fees postulated for registrations as well as accompanying fines to non-registration and the creation of administration facilities. These formed the basis of disapproval of many of these bills by the municipal authorities as well as the church. Most specifically, some four bills received a great disapproval due to the nature of the bills, which proposed reformation to the marriage law. Therefore, in 1854, the bill by Lord Elcho altered these contentious clauses and it was unanimously accepted and hence adopted. It is through the many efforts that were put before the enactment of this bill in 1855 that saw a thorough scrutiny of the legislation, which proved to be more effective in securing compulsory death and birth registration besides being more detailed in record keeping. The bill was therefore enacted and adopted with effect from 1 January 1855. Among other notable strengths to the bill was the compulsory registration of deaths as well as deaths and the requirement for registration of regular marriages. The act had an observable influence in record keeping in Scotland where the records that followed the enactment of the bill were more detailed than the initial ones.5 Individual birth records, death records as well as marriage records were highly detailed though a constraint in accessing certain information was experienced. For instance, the records for birth necessitated the registrars to note on the birth place as well as the ages of both parents (child’s mother and father), number of siblings and whether deceased or living which was seen as much work to the registrars. Moreover, inspection of the records by the sheriffs as required by law proved burdensome to the already overworked sheriffs (Cameron, 11). It is worth noting that prior to enactment of the law in 1855, the role of record keeping rested on Scotland clerks as well as the church who failed to capture the information on deaths (“1855 and earlier”, para 1-5). Moreover, the nineteenth century had the greatest number of Scotland natives who were not affiliated to church and hence this implied that little or no information to such persons would be found within the church registers and records (The highland council, para 1-2). For instance, the church had special attention on recording the baptism details, marriage banns as well as burials (Cameron, 11). Nevertheless, the records kept as well as the quality preserved varied greatly and often suffered compromise under the hands of the church registrars. Some registers only showed some sporadic records while other parishes failed to keep the records at all. Moreover, and the inability to afford the registry fee required by some of the parishes posed a challenge to the proper documentation and record keeping within the country. This thus showed that while trying to access such information, accuracy was compromised as parents would fail to have adequate documentation of their parentage while the registry (the medical as well as the government) would fail to have accurate information to the local deaths, births or even marriages (Cameron, 173). This therefore confirms that enactment of the act had therefore to invoke some influence to these record keeping practices and as such, proper understanding of the records as they exists requires that a person has a good understanding of these legislations. The registration of persons as effectuated through the enactment of the 1855 legislation has brought about great revolution in record keeping within Scotland where the likelihood of accessing the records is higher than it was before the legislation.6 This discussion reveals that the previous dispensation showed partial or no record keeping at all which implies that anyone interested in accessing family records prior to the legislation of 1855 suffers the limitation of failing to acquire the required information. The errors notable in the system of recording previously used brings on board the concern of authenticity of the information that would be gotten from such records as compared to the recording system that was adopted after the enactment of the civil registration bill in 1855.7 The system adopted after 1855 proves to be more reliable in providing trustworthy information on deaths, births as well as on marriages in the country. The compulsory registration of persons as necessitated by this law ensured that proper records would be kept and which implies that the records are more authentic than the records previously kept. It is therefore easier to access the information of ancestors or family background, which lived after the enactment of the law in Scotland than would in accessing information recorded before the law was enacted. Moreover, modern day retrieval of the records has been made easier through digitization of these records, which is equally necessitated by the availability of this information from the records kept after the legislation (Powell, para 3-6; “Statutory Registration-Death (Scotland)”, para 1). In conclusion, the January 1 of 1855 forms a critical date and period in matters relating to information of the family lineages and ancestral information in Scotland (Routes to your North East roots, para 1). This is because, the date forms the basis of modern data collection and civil recording which would be instrumental in tracing back family records. After the enactment of the civil registration in Scotland, it was compulsory to all to register deaths, births as well as the marriage. Through the legal provisions, much information would be recorded regarding the families as well as individuals, which would be necessary while one traces back the ancestor lineage as well as any other traditional family information. The shortcoming in the system that was used before the enactment of the law was that the records were shallow and as such, critical information would not be captures. Moreover, while the responsibility was left on the hands of the church, some parishes kept sporadic registers or failed to keep the registers at all which translated to the un reliability of these records in tracing the history of families or individuals before the compulsory act was enacted. However, the legislation had specific shortcomings in that unlike the previous regimes, more information was required to be capture, which meant that it was burdensome for the registrars to note on the information. Besides routine inspection by the administrative sheriffs proved tedious because of the bulk of information to be recorded and inspected after the enactment of the legislation. However, the completeness of such information as was recorded stands to justify the relevance of the civil registration bill enacted in 1855. Works cited Cameron Anne. “The Fate of the Old Parish Registers Under the Registration Act of 1854”Scottish Archives, (2008), 14: 1-12 Cameron A. “Medicine, meteorology and vital statistics: the influence of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh upon Scottish civil registration, c.1840–1855”J R Coll Physicians Edinb (2007); 37:173–180 Cameron Anne. “The establishment of civil registration in Scotland” Hist J. (2007)50(2): 377–395. Clark Anna. “The Old Poor Law in Scotland: The Experience of Poverty, 1574-1845 (review)” Journal of Social History (2003) 36.4: 1107-1108 “Civil registration and general register office (GRO) index references England and Wales”. 12 August. 2013. print Devonshire Kay Ronald. “Dates Affecting Scottish Research” Web. 12 August. 2013. General Register office for Scotland. “ list of main records held by the General Register office for Scotland”. 12 August. 2013. print “1855 and earlier”.“How to break the 1855 barrier” Web. 12 August. 2013. Macdonald Helen J. “Boarding-Out and the Scottish Poor Law, 1845-1914” The Scottish Historical Review, (1996), LXXV(2): 197-220 MitchisonRosalind. “The old poor law in Scotland: the experience of poverty 1574-1845” Web. 12 August. 2013. Milner Paul. “Scottish Kirk Session and Poor Relief Records” Web. 12 August. 2013. Powell Kimberly. “Researching Scottish Ancestors” Web. 12 August. 2013. “Records of the Scottish Poor” Web. 12 August. 2013 Routes to your North East roots. “Birth, Death and Marriage Records After 1855” Web. 12 August. 2013. “Statutory Registration-Death (Scotland)”. “Providing family historians and genealogists with information on UK and Irish genealogical sources, topics, finding aids and contacts relevant to family history”. Web. 12 August. 2013. “Scotland Poorhouses, Poor Law, Etc”. “Scotland” Web. 12 August. 2013. “Scottish poor law after 1845” Web. 12 August. 2013. The highland council. “Ancestry Research” Web. 12 August. 2013. The National Archives of Scotland. “Records of the poor” Web. 12 August. 2013. Read More