Report from His Majesty's commissioners for inquiring into the administration and practical operation of the Poor Laws. Published by authority.

  • Great Britain. Poor Law Commissioners.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from His Majesty's commissioners for inquiring into the administration and practical operation of the Poor Laws. Published by authority. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/510 (page 21)
    2. Allowance. II. ALLOWANCE. By the parish allowing to labourers, who are employed by in- dividuals, relief in aid of their wages. The word allowance is sometimes used as comprehending all parochial relief afforded to those who are emploj^ed by indivi- duals at the average wages of the district. But sometimes this term is confined to the relief which a person so employed obtains on account of his children, any relief which he may obtain on his own account being termed “ Payment of Wages out of Rates.” In the following Report we shall use the word “ allowance” in its former or more comprehensive sense. In some places allowance is given only occasionally, or to meet occasional wants; to buy, for instance, a coat or a pair of shoes, or to pay the rent of a cottage or an apartment. In others it is considered that a certain weekly sum, or more frequently the value of a certain quantity of flour or bread, is to be received by each member of a family. The latter practice has sometimes been matured into a system, forming the law of a whole district, sanctioned and enforced by the magistrates, and promulgated in the form of local statutes, under the name of Scales. The following are copies of some of the scales :— “ County op Cambridge.* “ The Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor are requested to regulate the incomes of such persons as may apply to them for relief or employment, according to the price of bread ; namely, “ A single woman, the price of . 3 quartern loaves per week. “ A single man .... 4 ditto. “ A man and his wife 7 . ditto. “ Ditto . ditto and one child 8 ditto. “ Ditto . ditto and two children 9 , ditto. “ Ditto . ditto and three ditto . 11 ditto. “ Man, wife, four children and upwards, at the price of two quartern loaves per head per week. “ It will be necessary to add to the above income in all cases of sick- ness or other kind of distress, and particularly of such persons or families who deserve encouragement by their good behaviour, whom parish officers should mark both by commendation and reward. “ By order of the Magistrates assembled at the Shire Hall, Cambridge, December 151h, 1821, “ Robert Gee, “ Clerk to the Magistrates.” * Mr. Cowell, Extracts, p. 374,