The English Interregnum lasted from 1649, when Charles I was executed for high treason, until 1660, when Charles II was put on the throne. A lasting affect of the Interregnum was the flourishing of religious dissenters such as Diggers, Ranters, and Quakers. Oliver Cromwell was a very religious man, but he made room for dissenters within England (as long as they weren’t Catholic. He had a particular hatred of Catholics). Some of the legislation passed during the Interregnum had clear religious overtones, such as the Adultery Act, an act that imposed the death penalty for adultery. However, Cromwell’s commitment to liberty of conscience stood in the way of his attempt to form a godly nation. During the Interregnum, the Toleration Act was also passed. This act abolished compulsory church attendance. Also during the Interregnum, Cromwell did not withdraw England from the world stage. Instead he went on the offensive, and conquered Scotland and Ireland. Ireland was dealt with very harshly, Scotland not so much because the Scotland was Protestant. A republic was established during the interregnum, but it did not last. The republic struggled from its early days, however, In fact, in 1657 Cromwell was offered the kingship, which he declined after three months. Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, and without him the republic did not last very long. After a decade of governmental changes, the monarchy was brought back.

In 1662 Parliament passed the Poor Relief Act 1662, otherwise known at the Settlement Acts, to deal with the question of where someone was considered “settled.” If a poor person was settled in a parish, that parish (defined as an area with its own priest, each parish collected taxes) was obligated to provide “Poor Relief.”

Here is a list from The Victorian Web which legally made people “settled”:

• be born into a parish where the parents had a settlement
• up to 1662, live in a parish for more than three years; after 1662 a person could be removed within 40 days of arrival…
• be hired continually by a settled resident for more than a year and a day…
• hold parish office
• rent property worth more than £10 p.a. OR pay taxes on a property worth more than £10 p.a.
• have married into the parish
• previously have received poor relief in that parish
• have served a full seven-year apprenticeship to a settled resident

After the Settlement Acts, folks only had to live somewhere for 40 days, but during that period they could be removed if any local complained. This encouraged poor folks to move to the areas with the best poor relief. The Poor Relief Act also stated that people could travel to another parish if they had a certificate from the minister of the parish. If they had this certificate and needed poor relief the home parish would pay for their return and poor relief. This Act encouraged poor folks to move, but limited the ability to do so.

Sources:

Bloy, Marjie. “The 1662 Settlement Act.” The Victorian Web. The Victorian Web, 12 Nov. 2002. Web. 11 Jan. 2016 <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/settle.html>.

‘Charles II, 1662: An Act for the better Releife of the Poore of this Kingdom.’ Statutes of the Realm: Volume 5, 1628-80. Ed. John Raithby. s.l: Great Britain Record Commission, 1819. 401-405. British History Online. Web. 11 January 2016. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol5/pp401-405.

“Poor Relief Act 1662.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

An amendment to England’s poor laws was made in 1723 with the passage of Knatchbulls Workhouse Test Act. Knatchbull’s Act mandated that all able-bodied people requesting poor relief were required to enter a workhouse and perform a set amount of work. This piece of legislation was a reaction to a number of concerns surrounding the country’s impoverished population. From the monetary angle, this was seen as a solution to stop parishes from claiming inflated poor rates and to discourage people from requesting poor relief. Additionally, people believed that forcing the poor to work for aid and reside in controlled communities would help instill work ethics, better manners and renewed religious sentiments in them.

At first, the workhouses were received in a relatively positive light, but not everyone continued to support this system. The principal landowner within each parish was responsible for funding the workhouses through the mandatory “Parish Burden” poor relief tax. Although in theory the workhouses were supposed to be self-sustainable and even capable of making a profit, in reality this was not the case. Workhouses proved to be surprisingly expensive due to the high cost of feeding, clothing, and providing shelter for all of the workers, as well as because of the mismanagement and pilfering of funds by those in charge of the institutions. The landowner’s displeasure with these high costs eventually lead to modifications of this system through a new act in 1782, which dictated that the workhouses did not have to house the able-bodied.

Boulton, Jeremy. “Indoors or Outdoors?: Welfare Priorities and Pauper Choices in the Metropolis Under the Old Poor Law, 1718–1824”. Population, Welfare and Economic Change in Britain, 1290-1834. Ed. Chris Briggs, P. M. Kitson, and S. J. Thompson. NED – New edition. Boydell & Brewer, 2014. 153–188. Web.

Maudlin, Daniel. “Habitations of the Labourer: Improvement, Reform and the Neoclassical Cottage in Eighteenth-century Britain”. Journal of Design History 23.1 (2010): 7–20. Web.

“The Foul Disease and the Poor Law: Workhouse Medicine in the Eighteenth Centry.” Venereal Disease, Hospitals and the Urban Poor: London’s “Foul Wards,” 1600-1800. Boydell and Brewer, 2004. 135-80. Web.

The Poor Law Bill was proposed by William Pitt the Younger to parliament in 1796. The law was put forth in order to ostensibly aid the plight of the poor citizenry while also quelling concerns of proletariat uprising. The revolution in France worried many, but others were concerned about the effect that the law would have on inflation. The law was based in large part on the Speenhamland System that was being practiced locally across the nation.  The law failed to pass parliament and while the Speenhamland system would persist in certain areas for decades, this failure at a national level would delay other poor law changes until 1834. The proposal also included allowing children to work at the age of five years old with long hours which was controversial at the time leading to the failure of the bill as well.

 

Sources:

Deane, Phyllis, The First Industrial Revolution (Cambridge Press, Cambridge; 1965)

Nicholls and Mackay, A History of the English Poor Law (1899)

 

1782 saw the passage of The Poor Relief Act of 1782; it is widely known as Gilbert’s Act after Thomas Gilbert (1720-1798), a political figure who championed its passage. Gilbert’s Act was a reaction to an increase of poor and unemployed paupers, increased food costs, and low wages in England. The legislation was created to enable a parish- township formed through its affiliation with a local parish church- to operate workhouses; multiple parishes can form unions in order to share the financial cost of operating a workhouse. These workhouses were restricted to those who are not able-bodied, such as children, the elderly, and the sick. Able-bodied paupers were not allowed to enter the workhouse and were forced to find employment; nonetheless, they were able to receive outdoor relief if they could not able to find a job or found a job with inadequate income. Parishes gave employers employing the able-bodied paupers allowances in order to provide a subsistence wage and decrease poverty. Gilbert’s Act changed also how workhouses were managed: a member from each parish was elected to be on the Board of Guardians and regulated by the Visitor, an official elected my the magistrate.

This Act became significant regarding outdoor relief and participation of the gentry in poor relief politics. The Act reflected changing opinions towards outdoor relief held by both the government and people, which was motivated by the belief that it is more humane and less expensive than indoor relief. Local gentry were allowed to be members of the Board of Guardians of the workhouse, which made them influential in workhouse managements and regulations.

Sources:

Bloy, Marjie. “Gilbert’s Act (1782.)” Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/gilbert.html.

Boyer, George. “English Poor Laws.” Accessed January 10, 2016. https://eh.net/encyclopedia/english-poor-laws/.

Higginbotham, Peter. “The 1782 Poor Relief Act (Gilbert’s Act.)” Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/1782intro.shtml.

Higginbotham, Peter. “The History of Poor Law Unions.” Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/unions/index.shtml.

Higginbotham, Peter. “The Old Poor Law.” Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/oldpoorlaw.shtml#Gilbert.

Queen Mary I, despite the controversial reigns of Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey, has long been lauded as the first queen regnant of England. However, being England’s first queen may be the only aspect of her monarchy that she is praised for; following her accession to the throne in October of 1553, Queen Mary began repealing Protestant reforms promoted by her predecessor King Edward VI. Supported by the Heresy Acts, Queen Mary earned her nickname ‘Bloody Mary’ through the execution and immolation of over 250 Protestants on the stake in the span of four years.¹ Despite strong discontent from her advisors, and even husband, she continued with the practice until her death in 1558.

During Queen Mary’s time in power, she did little to promote the livelihoods of the vagrants and poor people she ruled. Over her 5 year reign, she produced two poor relief laws: one aimed to provide assistance to the deserving and the other to add structure to poor relief. The first provision required beggars to be licensed if they wanted to beg outside of their parish’s jurisdiction; beggars who could not produce their badge upon request were beaten or lashed. The second provision mandated wealthy parishes to donate to the funds of their less affluent counterparts at a rate ‘according to their ability’. Compared to her predecessors, Queen Mary’s impact on social welfare matters was negligible. Given her deathly strong Catholic convictions, it is surprising that Queen Mary I did little to embrace her religious role as patron to the poor.

 

¹ The Heresy Acts outline how to respond to the presence of different, provocative theories that challenge ones own religious beliefs. The original act called for the arrests of heretic preachers.

Sources:

Fideler, Paul A. Social Welfare in Pre-industrial England: The Old Poor Law Tradition. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

“Mary I (r.1553-1558)”. The Official Website of the British Monarchy. British Government, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

“Mary I: Queen of England.” Tudor History. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

Modelled after the London Corporation of the Poor of the Interregnum, a welfare experiment begun in 1647, the later Corporations of the Poor in Exeter, Bristol, and Norwich among others were projects between 1698 and 1712 that worked to centralize the systems of poor relief under the direction of parliament. The corporations were entrusted with the responsibility of creating and managing workhouses for the poor as well as hospitals. They involved many men forming committees to make decisions about how to allocate the money from taxes, building centralized workhouses designed to house many people and put them to work. These workhouses kept meticulous records and employed paid officials to administer the workhouses in an effort to curb discretionary charity.

The previous system of welfare in place before the corporations was the parish and the churchwardens. These parishes collected taxes from locals and redistributed them to the poor at the discretion of the churchwardens by means of face-to-face charity, unlike the corporations which distanced the people in power from the ones receiving aid. The taxes collected by the parishes had been rising and one effort of parliament was to set a ceiling on the parish tax rates. Members of parliament created the corporations as an experiment to make poor people productive members of society, minimizing the costs of their welfare. Many of the churchwardens were opposed to this new system of welfare and worked to bring down the corporations.

 

Carey, John. An account of the proceedings of the corporation of Bristol, in execution of the act of Parliament for the better employing and maintaining the poor of that city. F. Collins in the Old Bailey, 1700.

Slack, Paul. The English Poor Law, 1531-1782. London: MacMillan Education LTD, 1990.

Some considerations offer’d to the citizens of Bristol: relating to the Corporation for the Poor in the said city. Bristol, 1711.

The commission’s principal proposal, which was included almost verbatim in the law, was that “all relief whatever to able-bodied persons or to their families, otherwise than in well-regulated workhouses…shall be declared unlawful.” This reflected the efforts to centralize and streamline management of the poor. As part of the establishment of workhouses, the so-called workhouse test was unofficially implemented: any person willing to accept relief in the workhouse was assumed to lack the willpower to survive outside of the system, as well as to completely lack the means to retain personal autonomy (i.e. children, the elderly and disabled); in many cases this belief simply confirmed pre-existing biases and assumptions about the general lack of industriousness among the poor.

In some respects the New Poor Law resembles the suggestions made by Locke in his An Essay on Poor Law. Under the newly passed legislation, children were treated as dependents of their parents until the age of sixteen, as opposed to Locke’s suggested fourteen. The law also grouped parishes into Poor Law Unions (which resemble Locke’s hundreds and corporations), each run by two commissioners, which oversaw the administration of workhouses. Additionally, the law proscribed residents of the workhouses (they are referred to as inmates in one particular clause) from engaging in normal everyday activities, and they were always under the watchful eyes of the managers.

Sources:

Higginbotham, Peter. “New Poor Law.” Accessed January 9, 2016. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/newpoorlaw.shtml
Higginbotham, Peter. “1834 Poor Law Amendment Act (full text).” Accessed January 9, 2016. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/1834act.shtml
Locke, John, and Mark Goldie. 1997. Locke: Political Essays. Cambridge University Press.

The English civil wars, which spanned from 1642-1649, stemmed from a conflict between King Charles I and Parliament. Since neither Charles I nor Parliament could agree on how to handle their political and religious differences, war was seen as the only viable solution to settle the disagreement. Thus England was divided into two armed camps: the Royalists and the Parliamentarians.

Charles the I, however, was not very popular as a king due to his views on religious conformity, which poorly served the needs of  many.  Social change during this time period included a decline in the influence of the aristocracy alongside the rise of the wealth and influence of the middle class of gentry and merchants. The middle class desired to do away with financial and commercial restrictions and to have a say in religious matters. This meant that parliament found allies in the middle class.

After beheading King Charles, the Commonwealth was created. The Commonwealth was a government administration that claimed legitimacy from the consent of the people, and allowed much more religious diversity. Parliament was able to gain a tremendous amount of political influence during this time period with the expansion of trade, industry, shipping, etc. This republican government lasted until 1653 where it was taken over by Cromwell’s protectorate, another type of government rule that lasted until 1659. The eventual settlement of the dispute between the king and parliament would be further resolved during the Great Revolution in 1688.

Works Cited

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia®. S.v. “English Civil War.” Retrieved February 3 2016 from http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/English+Civil+War.

Kreis, Steven. “The English Civil War.” History Guide. 2002. Accessed February 2, 2016. http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture7c.html.

Onnekink, David. Ideology and Foreign Policy in Early Modern Europe: (1650 – 1750). Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2011.

The Glorious Revolution was a revolution that happened between 1688 and 1689 in which King James II was overthrown from power William of Orange ascended to the throne of England. The Glorious Revolution is important because it produced the Bill of Rights of 1698, which made the Parliament the permanent ruling power of England and significantly reduced the monarchy’s power to interfere with and affect laws.

James II was disliked by many Parliamentarians and Protestants for being an overt Roman Catholic. James II issued a Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended laws that punished individuals for leaving the Church of England and granted religious freedom to different denominations of Christianity. This led Bishop Crompton along with other politicians to invite William of Orange to come to England and help address James II actions. William came with an army and, after James II fled to France for his safety, called for a Convention Parliament that determined that, by fleeing to France, James II had abdicated to the throne. In January 22, 1689, the Convention Parliament passed the Bill of Rights of 1689, which made William the King, and established Parliament as the permanent ruling power.

The Bill gives Parliament the power to suspend and execute laws, it makes the raising of an army without consent of Parliament illegal, it gives freedom of speech and debate within parliament and outlaws cruel and unusual punishment, and it also states that “[the] election of Parliament members ought to be free.”

 

Sources:

Eveline Cruickshanks, British History in Perspective: The Glorious Revolution (New York: St. Martin’s Press, INC, 2000).

“Glorious Revolution” Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Last Accessed: January 10, 2016.          http://www.britannica.com/event/Glorious-Revolution.

“English Bill of Rights 1698” The Avalon Project. Last Accessed: January 10, 2016.         http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/england.asp.