Poor Relief - Law Commission

Reference Extent of repeal or revocation
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47 Geo.3 Sess.2 c.lxxiii (1807)
(Cosford and Polstead
Poor Relief Act)
The whole Act.
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47 Geo.3 Sess.2 c.lxxiii (1807) (Cosford and Polstead Poor Relief Act)
1. This note proposes the repeal of an obsolete 1807 Act passed to provide relief
for the poor living in the Hundred of Cosford 85 and the parish of Polstead, in Suffolk.
2. According to its long title, the purpose of the 1807 Act was:
to alter, amend, and render more effectual, an Act passed in the Nineteenth
Year of his present Majesty, for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor
of the several Parishes within the Hundred of Cosford, (except the Parish of
Hadleigh) and also of the Parish of Polstead, within the Hundred of Babergh,
in the County of Suffolk.
3. The preamble to the 1807 Act refers to an Act of 1779 86 which incorporated
The Guardians of the Poor within the Hundred of Cosford and Parish of Polstead, in
the County of Suffolk (“the Guardians”). Under the 1779 Act the Guardians built a
house for the reception of the poor 87 in the Hundred of Cosford. Some of the
provisions of the 1779 Act were found to be insufficient for the effectual relief of the
poor. It was therefore necessary to amend the provisions of the 1779 Act.
4. The 1807 Act provided as follows:
(a) repeal of 1779 Act provisions concerning discharge of poor children once
they reached 15 (males) or 13 (females); poor children sent to the
workhouse to be under the care and government of the Guardians;
Guardians to employ a teacher to teach the workhouse children to read
and write; poor children could be apprenticed out, provided the Guardians
were satisfied as to the suitability of the persons taking on apprentices;
provision for the expenses of clothing apprenticed poor children;
application of penalties for refusing to take poor children on as
apprentices; process for complaints of mistreatment of apprentices;
penalty for such mistreatment (Sections 1 – 8)
85 The “hundred” is an ancient description of groups of townships in English counties.
86 19 Geo. 3 c.30 (1779) “An Act for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor of the several
Parishes within the Hundred of Cosford, (except the Parish of Hadleigh) and also of the Parish of
Polstead, within the Hundred of Babergh, in the County of Suffolk”; now repealed by Statute Law
Revision Act 1948.
87 In other words, a workhouse.
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