The document below is the letter referred to in the catalogue entry. The entry is the item of study.
After a series of letters back and forth about the matter of vagrants in Mansfield, Robert Weale, the Assistant Poor Law Commissioner visited the union and met with the guardians to address the problem. The following is the catalogue entry concerning their meeting:
Archive reference: MH12/9361/231
Date of Letter: 2 March 1846
Poor Law Union: Truro Poor Law Union
Report from Robert Weale, [Assistant Poor Law Commissioner], to the Poor Law Commission. Today he attended a meeting of the Guardians of the Mansfield Poor Law Union to suggest a remedy to complaints made by Major Coke [E T Coke, Magistrate], concerning admission of vagrants to the workhouse. The master believed that he was to refuse all able bodied male vagrants in good health, but now accepts that this was a misunderstanding. The order was originally made because vagrants had attempted to set fire to the building in which they were housed. The guardians have agreed to rescind the order and vagrants will be admitted as previously, after a strict examination. It was suggested that the guardians should visit the vagrant wards of Derby Poor Law Union and Nottingham Poor Law Union Workhouses where the accommodation is much better than in most unions. ‘Bad and depraved as persons of this class are usually found to be, they certainly seem capable of appreciating acts of kindness & consideration shewn them’. One of the overseers was present and so that he was aware of his duties, Weale read out a letter the Commission recently addressed to the Clerk of the Southwell Poor Law Union, 11 March 1846