Poor Relief - Law Commission

(k) Charitable bequests for the poor to be applied by the Guardians according
to the will of the donor; all parish officers to assist in the execution of this
Act; one-off or occasional relief of the poor permitted (Sections 33 – 35)
(l) Workhouse goods and chattels to be vested in the Directors; damaging or
receiving workhouse property punishable offences (Section 36)
(m) Actions of the Directors only valid if done at official meetings under this
Act; Directors may grant certificates of settlement; documentation
regarding certificates issued to be handed over to the Clerk (Sections 37
- 40)
(n) Directors empowered to make bylaws regarding the governance of the
Corporation and the better regulation and maintenance of the poor; the
industrious poor to be rewarded; records to be kept of the proceedings of
the Directors; and Directors’ accounts to be made available annually
(Sections 41 –45)
(o) Illegitimate children born in the workhouse not to gain settlement rights;
ratepayers competent to give evidence; Justices of the Peace to respond
to complaints of the Directors as if they had been made by Overseers;
charitable gifts to the Corporation to be disposed of by the Directors
(Sections 46 - 49)
(p) Directors empowered to make such drains, watercourses and sewers as
necessary to serve the workhouse (Section 50)
(q) The recovery and application of penalties made under this Act; provision
for appeal against penalties under this Act; recovery of penalties not to be
invalidated for want of form; form of conviction (Section 51 – 54)
(r) The expenses of the obtaining this Act; civil procedure matters; status of
this Act (Section 55 – 57).
5. A house of industry was built between 1792 and 1796 in Tewkesbury, south of
Gloucester Road, pursuant to the 1792 Act. The workhouse was taken over by the
Tewkesbury Poor Law Union in 1838 and went on to become Holm Hospital. In the
1990s the building was renovated into the Shepherd Mead Retirement Home. 68
6. The 1792 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
68 users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Tewkesbury/Tewkesbury.shtml.
73