Poor Relief - Law Commission

Reference Extent of repeal or revocation
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7 Geo.4 c.cxli (1826) The whole Act.
(Shrewsbury Poor Relief Act)
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7 Geo.4 c.cxli (1826) (Shrewsbury Poor Relief Act)
1. This note proposes the repeal of an obsolete 1826 Act passed to provide relief
for the poor living in Shrewsbury.
2. According to its long title, the purpose of the 1826 Act was:
To repeal an Act of the Twenty-fourth Year of His late Majesty King George
the Third, for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor belonging to
several Parishes within the Town of Shrewsbury, and the Liberties thereof, in
the County of Salop; and to make other Provisions in lieu thereof.
3. The preamble to the 1826 Act refers to an Act of 1784 139 which united into one
district several parishes 140 around Shrewsbury and incorporated The Guardians of
the Poor of several Parishes within the Town of Shrewsbury, and the Liberties
thereof, in the County of Salop. Under the 1784 Act the Shrewsbury House of
Industry 141 was built in the parish of Meole Brace and the poor of the district were
maintained and provided for there. However, the provisions of the 1784 Act were
found to be insufficient for the purposes for which it was intended and it was thought
expedient to abolish the corporation and create a new body with the responsibility for
maintaining the poor.
4. The 1826 Act provided as follows:
(a) repeal of the 1784 Act; the united district to continue and to be known as
the Shrewsbury Poor United District; all rate-paying inhabitants of the
District to continue as a corporation to be known as The Guardians of the
Shrewsbury Poor United District (“The Guardians”) (Section 1)
(b) the house of industry and all lands belonging to the previous corporation
to be vested in the Guardians; the Guardians to take on all the debts and
liabilities of the previous corporation; acts and grants of the previous
corporation to remain valid; books and papers of the previous corporation
could be used in evidence (Sections 2 – 4)
139
24 Geo.3 Sess.2 c.15 “An Act for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor belonging to several
Parishes within the Town of Shrewsbury and the Liberties thereof, in the County of Salop”.
140
These parishes were St Chad, St Mary, St Alkmond, St Julian, Holy Cross and St Giles, and Meole
Brace.
141
Workhouses were commonly described as “Houses of Industry”.
143