Record revealed
Letter from a ‘destitute’ man to the Poor Law Commission
In this letter, Thomas Henshaw of Derbyshire complained of his treatment by local officials who denied him welfare, despite his ‘most distressing’ situation. It is one of many thousands of similar appeals from poor people in England and Wales during the Victorian period.
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Transcript
Ilkeston February 5 1842
Gentlemen,
I beg leave most humbly to submit my case to you for your consideration and pray that you will afford me that redress in my most distressing case – I am a poor Man by trade A Frame worknitter and have been for A length of time nearly out of employment and now entirely so, - I have A wife and 3 children and we have been completely destitute of food since February the 1st to the present time – I applied on the 3rd to the relieving officer, Mr Stotten for relief or an order to the union workhouse and he refused to do either – I then aplied to Mr Bennett assistant overseer and he refused likewise. I then aplied to Mr Radford A Magistrate at Smalley who sent A positive order to Mr Bennett to see to my case as I was destitute, according to the 54 claus in the poor law amendment Bill, but still he refuses to allow me anything so that we may live and die in A land of plenty – tho I saw A circular sometime ago from Mr Chadwick clark to the poor law commissioners stating you would hold officers responsible for any bad consequence arising out of such neglect – Gentlemen I submit my case to you and hope you will aford me that asistance as Speedy as possible my case needs wich will oblige your Humble Servant.
Thomas Henshaw
Why this record matters
- Date
- 5 February 1842
- Catalogue reference
- MH 12/9232/46
In 1834 the government passed the Poor Law Amendment Act (England and Wales) and created new administrative arrangements for welfare, which came to be known as the ‘New Poor Law’. Central rules and regulations were set down but individual cases were still decided locally to a large degree. As a result, poor individuals often sought to challenge local decisions by making their complaints to the central authorities.
Thomas Henshaw, writing from Ilkestone, Derbyshire (part of the Basford Poor Law Union), was just one of the thousands of English and Welsh paupers who wrote complaining of their treatment by local officials. Here we see Henshaw, a framework knitter, explaining that his family have had no food for the last five days and that they have made several applications for relief but that these have been refused.
More pertinently, Henshaw demonstrates that he knows what the law is: he alludes to the family’s destitution (a necessary criteria for relief), states that he has made the necessary requests for relief to the right people, and cites the relevant section of the 1834 Poor Law Act. Finally he references the system of circulars through which the central poor law authority communicate advice and regulations.
In his letter he used his knowledge of the Poor Law and its various rules to demonstrate how he had followed them – and how local officials had not. By citing the law and central rules back to the Poor Law Commission, he placed the responsibility for ensuring local authorities followed the law very squarely on the shoulders of the central authority.
The Poor Law Commission received, collated and bound letters like this in with the volumes of official correspondence written by poor law union officers and officials. Being bound into these volumes undoubtedly saved those pauper letters from later weeding and destruction.
For many years historians were unaware of the scale of letter writing such as Thomas’, but it is now clear that poor people and their advocates wrote to the authorities in huge numbers, articulating specific and generalised complaints about the nature and amount of welfare on offer to them. They are preserved in the poor law union correspondence within the Ministry of Health collection at The National Archives.
Since poor people did not leave ‘an archive’ as such behind them, this collection of letters is perhaps the largest and most intimate collection about 19th-century working peoples’ lives in existence.