Poor Relief - Law Commission

Reference Extent of repeal or revocation
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15 Geo.3 c.13 (1775) The whole Act.
(East and West Flegg Poor Relief Act)
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15 Geo.3 c.13 (1775) (East and West Flegg Poor Relief Act)
1. This note proposes the repeal of an obsolete 1775 Act passed to provide relief
for the poor living in the hundreds of East and West Flegg, Norfolk. 48 This was an
area on the eastern side of Norfolk, near Rollesby.
2. According to its long title, the 1775 Act was passed for:
the better Relief and Employment of the poor within the Hundreds of East and
West Flegg, in the County of Norfolk.
3. The preamble to the 1775 Act recorded that the poor living in the hundreds of
East and West Flegg “are very numerous, and are maintained at a great Expense”. It
also recorded the need to provide a place 49 to assist the elderly and infirm and the
able unemployed, to correct the profligate and idle and to educate poor children.
4. The 1775 Act provided as follows: 50
(a) appointment of guardians of the poor and their incorporation under the
name of “The Guardians of the Poor within the Hundreds of East and
West Flegg, in the County of Norfolk” (“the Guardians”)
(b) poor persons currently under the charge of the parish churchwardens and
overseers to be transferred to the Guardians once the workhouse had
been built; thereafter the Guardians to have charge of all poor children
and other persons incapable of providing for themselves
(c) the Guardians to have the care of workhouse boys till they reach 16 and
workhouse girls till they reach 14, the Guardians empowered to bind
children to apprenticeships and to hire out poor inmates to bring in the
harvest; the Guardians empowered to hand over poor inmates to any
relatives or other responsible persons willing to take them on
(d) the Guardians to meet in April 1776 to appoint 24 of their number to be
Directors of the poor (“the Directors”)
48
The ‘hundred’ is an ancient description of groups of townships in English counties.
49
The ‘place’ referred to was sometimes described as the “house of industry”. More commonly, as in the
present note, it was described as “the workhouse”.
50
The provisions of the 1775 Act are not identified by reference to section numbers because the Act
itself was not divided into sections.
38