Poor Relief.....

[Pat Bostock]

Hi,

I wonder whether I can find a description of how the Poor Relief worked, was it the Established Presbyterian Church which organised everything? I was asked a question about this subject, and realised that I didn't know enough to answer it correctly.

Kind regards,
Pat Bostock.

[DavidWW]

Hmmmm....... we need a FAQ on this, - who's gonna write it, then?

In short .................

From 1845 onwards with the new legislation, poor relief was the responsibility of parochial boards, who each had an inspector who interviewed those applying for relief.

Most parochial boards got together to build a "combination" poor house.

Most relief was "out relief", - payment in money and/or kind, as opposed to "in relief" - a place in the poor house.

See http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/ ... tland.html for a listing of poorhouses and other background info.

Prior to 1845 the responsibility fell on the presbyterian church.

David
JJ

[Pat Bostock]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have obtained some very useful information using the Poor Relief. When you say the Parishes banded together to build the Hospitals, Asylums, etc. does that mean that there are only a few places to check for family names?

Is there a list of sites where I can look at the names of people admitted throughout Scotland? Or do I have to look individually, e.g. Glasgow, Ayr, etc.

Kind regards,
Pat Bostock.

[Pat Bostock]

Hi,

I have found out that Paisley has Poor Relief information for Renfrewshire.

The Library in Kirkintilloch has Poor Relief information for Dumbarton.

For Glasgow - the Poor Relief information is in the City Archives.

For Ayrshire, you can actually view the names for Poor Relief on their website at AyrshireRoots & then you can order on line.

I found the Ayrshire site excellent.

Are all these sites able to be searched via the Internet?

Kind regards,
Pat Bostock.

[DavidWW]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have obtained some very useful information using the Poor Relief. When you say the Parishes banded together to build the Hospitals, Asylums, etc. does that mean that there are only a few places to check for family names?

There are some centrally held poorhouse records, but these tend to be minutes of Board Meetings and the like.

The records of interest to us, the inspectors' reorts, tend to be held at the parish level, and it's very much pot luck if they have survived.......

Is there a list of sites where I can look at the names of people admitted throughout Scotland? Or do I have to look individually, e.g. Glasgow, Ayr, etc.

Kind regards,
Pat Bostock.

If only !

Best starting place is the local library/archives, e.g. The Mitchell in Glasgow, Ayrshire Archives at Craigie outside Ayr., etc.

The only ones that I'm aware of on-line are in Adrossan and somewhere in Moray.

But be aware that many records, e.g. all ofEdinburgh and Aberdeen cities haven't survived, with only a few records for Dundee, these latter not being the inspectors' reports.

David