The primary function of Knottingley Select Vestry from its establishment until 1865 was the administration of the statutory Poor Law.

The origins of the Poor Law lay in the socio-economic factors which occurred in the late Middle Ages, arising from the effect of the Black Death which took place in the period 1348-49. (1)

Shortage of labour occasioned by plague deaths resulted in a rise in wages and therefore prices which ended the economic stability of the manorial organisation and led to the collapse of the feudal system as social mobility increased in response to the demand for labourers. Economic instability was exacerbated from the sixteenth century by the influx of silver from the New World, which led to debasement of the coinage and high level inflation.

Landowners denuded of necessary labour converted arable land to pasture for sheep-keeping, seeking to profit from the prevailing economic conditions by meeting a rising demand for wool. The measure had the effect of driving peasants from the land and thus swelling the ranks of labourers in search of work by the addition of itinerant paupers and verifying the dictum of Sir Thomas Moore that "sheep are eating up men."

Problems arising from social upheaval became particularly acute following the dissolution of the monasteries from 1538 which not only removed the sources of alms and hospitality hitherto doled out to the poor by the Church through its associated hospitals and religious houses but actually increased the number of indigent poor by the addition of dispossessed members of such establishments. As a result a growing increase in the number of vagrants, beggars and thieves threatened the social and political stability of the Kingdom by undermining law and order and the authority of the government.

The effect to which the threat of social disorder affected the stability of daily life at Knottingley at this time is largely unrecorded but something of the effect of the transition to pastoral farming and dispossession of the peasantry is known with regard to the nearby Cridling Park Estate. (2) Furthermore, as an increasingly significant river port with its agricultural and maritime community lying adjacent to major arterial routes within the land it is not improbable that Knottingley attracted a substantial number of rogues, sturdy beggars, sick and infirm paupers.

Following the settlement of the Wars of the Roses in 1485, the Tudors sought to impose order on the land by a policy of no tolerance to vagrants. However, repressive and largely ineffectual measures such as the statute of 1495 which stipulated the punishment of beggars and enforced return to their parish of origin gradually gave way to more constructive legislation. Through a series of statutes introduced between 1531 and 1591 a viable system was formulated, codified and consolidated. The piecemeal legislation was encapsulated in the famous statute of 1601, generally referred to as the 43rd Elizabeth, which recognised poor relief as a public duty.

Under the terms of the Elizabethan legislation relief of the poor within each parish was to be undertaken by the churchwardens and locally appointed Overseers of the Poor under the scrutiny of the local Justices of the Peace. The cost of Poor Relief was to be met by the levy of a specific rate on the inhabitants of each parish.

The Statute defined three classes of pauper and prescribed measures considered appropriate to their needs. Of the honest poor, the aged and infirm were to receive succour and be placed in poor houses when necessary while the able-bodied were to be set to work. The children of paupers were to be apprenticed; girls until their 21st year and boys until 24 years of age. The undeserving paupers such as rogues, thieves and vagabonds, were the subject of separate legislation which stipulated that they be flogged and placed in houses of correction before being ‘deported’ to their original place of settlement; their parish of origin.

Over the two centuries which followed, modifications of the Elizabethan legislation took place, the major one being the Act of Settlement of 1662, but from the late eighteenth century the impact of the Industrial Revolution created widespread destitution which substantially aggravated the general social situation dependant upon the Elizabethan settlement. One significant modification introduced in 1782 was Gilbert’s Act which formulated the concept of ‘outdoor relief’. The measure provided for willing labourers unable to obtain work through no fault of their own, being the victims of prevailing circumstances over which they had no control, to receive temporary relief without having to be admitted to a workhouse. The system of outdoor relief was being applied by Knottingley Select Vestry by the early nineteenth century. However, by that time at Knottingley and within society in general, demographic and technical change combined with the increasingly high cost of relief, threatened to overwhelm the administration of the age-old system of Poor Law provision and render its administration ineffectual.

Commissioners were appointed in 1832 to investigate the problems of the poor and they issued a report in 1834. Under the influence of Benthamite and Malthusian theories the Commissioners laid great stress on the burden imposed by poor relief and suggested remedies to the prevailing situation which it was claimed would ensure a return to the ‘spirit and intention’ of the Act of 1601. Following the report a Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in 1834.

Under the new legislation a series of parishes could be grouped together to form a Poor law Union, build a workhouse and elect a Board of Guardians to represent the inhabitants of the various parishes constituting the Local Board. The whole system was under centralised supervision to ensure uniform administration. Not only was the pace of development of the new Poor Law system uneven but it was met with great hostility and resistance, particularly in the north of England. Consequently, it was not until 1860 that the Pontefract Union was established. The period between the enactment of the legislation and the inception of the Pontefract Union was therefore one in which the Knottingley overseers continued with the regime introduced 260 years earlier.

As indicated above, under the ongoing system there were two types of poor relief; indoor and outdoor. Indoor relief was that afforded to paupers admitted into the parish workhouse in accordance with the dictates of the 1601 Act. Outdoor relief was of a more variable and casual nature, being administered in cases of temporary need such as seasonal unemployment arising from climatic conditions or from short term illness or disability.

The adverse influence of changing social and economic conditions substantially increased the number of applications for poor relief from the 1790s and the incidence of outdoor relief to meet the rising demand.

Although the Workhouse Test Act of 1722 had given any parish the right to deny relief to anyone refusing to enter a workhouse, the administration of outdoor relief was a more practical option for not only was outdoor relief less expensive but in small rural parishes such as Knottingley, the overseers had personal knowledge of the bulk of the applicants which obviated the need for strict interpretation of statutory legislation and thereby ensured that the limited space in the parish workhouse was reserved for needy cases. (3)

©2005 Dr. Terry Spencer