Poor Relief - Law Commission

(b) Guardians empowered to punish workhouse inmates for misbehaviour;
penalties for churchwardens and overseers of the poor who neglect their
duties; churchwardens and overseers empowered to grant cash relief to
the poor of their parishes in cases where the poor persons are living in
their own homes; provision for cash relief even if the poor persons are
from another parish; churchwardens and overseers empowered to raise
and levy money for the support of the poor (Sections 9 – 13)
(c) expenses of maintaining the poor in the workhouse to be defrayed by the
parishes in proportion to the number of poor sent by each parish;
expenses to be calculated weekly; Guardians to provide the poor in the
workhouse with clothes and to charge the expense to the parish that sent
the poor person to the workhouse; expenses of the continuing
maintenance of the workhouse to be paid by the parishes in proportion to
the number of poor each parish sent there; expenses of procuring this Act
(Sections 14 – 17)
(d) Churchwardens to deliver an annual list of the poor persons relieved by
them outside of the workhouse; penalty for refusal to deliver such list;
penalty for giving false evidence pursuant to this Act; inhabitants of
Hadleigh not to have rights under this Act 88 (Sections 18 to 20)
(e) this Act to be construed together with the 1779 Act; status of this Act
(Sections 21 and 22).
5. Pursuant to the 1779 Act, a workhouse was built in 1780 at Semer. The
Cosford incorporation provided for by that Act was dissolved and replaced by the
Cosford Poor Law Union which was established in 1836. The new Union took over
the Semer workhouse and further works were carried out to it. The building ceased
to be used as a workhouse in 1930. A small portion of the original workhouse
remains and has been incorporated in a private house. 89
6. The 1807 Act has long been obsolete. It dates back to an age when relief for
the poor, and the money to pay for this, was organised on a parish basis. As
indicated in the accompanying background note, the system of parish-run poor relief
was abolished by the Local Government Act 1929. The poor law system was itself
finally abolished by the National Assistance Act 1948. The finance for providing the
income and other support previously provided by the parish is today drawn either
88 Hadleigh maintained a separate system of poor relief.
89 users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Cosford/Cosford.shtml.
104