>The TNA have made many of their documents from Poor Law Unions and >Workhouses available for free download. You can search for names and key >words at: >http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/livingthepoorlife > >For example, here is the return in 1853 of the pauper lunatics from Clutton >Union. Recognise any of your names ? >Best wishes, > >Mike Gould >Leicestershire > > The TNA have made many of their documents from Poor Law Unions and > > Workhouses available for free download. You can search for names and key > > words at: > > http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/livingthepoorlife > > > For example, here is the return in 1853 of the pauper lunatics from > > Clutton Union. Recognise any of your names ? > > > Henry Latcham, Radstock > >Yes, I recognize some local surnames. > >Henry LATCHAM reminded me that B & S list member, Marjorie Keates, is >studying LATCHAM. (Guild of One-Name Studies). > >I see that Henry LATCHAM was also listed as an inmate of Clutton Workhouse >on the 1881 census along with other inmates: > >http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse//Clutton/Clutton1881.shtml > >Josephine Hello Mike and Josephine Back from a trip to England and now trying to catch up on emails. Takes me a while. Thank you, Mike, for publishing this list. Henry Latcham popped out at me. And thank you, Josephine, for drawing my attention to it. Poor Henry. He seems to have lived almost his whole life in the Clutton Workhouse appearing in census 1851-1911. He was with his family, age 6, in 1841. He was described in the Clutton Workhouse Medical Relief Book 1889/1890 as having been an idiot from birth. He was born about 1835 in Radstock but not baptised until 19 April 1837 in St Nicholas Church, Radstock. His siblings were all baptised soon after birth but his baptism entry says he was 5 years old. Some confusion re his age? Why did his parents wait so long in his case? Was that a requirment for admission to the workhouse and they were about to have him placed in the workhouse? He died 1914, age 78, in the Clutton Workhouse. At any rate, thank you to you both for this item and drawing my attention to it. It's one instance of Henry that I did not have. Marjorie

Hi Marjorie, People think of the Workhouse as a dreadful place, but for some members of the community, it did provide a useful service. Henry would have been fed and possibly clothed by the Workhouse - it wasn't necessarily such a bad life. The intent was to make it a bad place for those who could work but didn't choose to. The (local) government wanted to crack down on the scroungers - nothing changes, does it ! But Henry and others would receive more sympathetic treatment. I don't believe there was any "official" requirement for inmates to be baptised as a condition of admission, but local vicars, or perhaps the Workhouse Master, may have excerted pressure for it to happen. As to why the parents hadn't baptised him at birth, I can only speculate. Perhaps they thought he wouldn't survive beyond infancy and couldn't afford the cost of a baptism. Was he baptised at the same time as one of his siblings ? That often happened, since vicars could do a "two for the price of one" deal. Best wishes, Mike -----Original Message----- From: bristol_and_somerset-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:bristol_and_somerset-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Art & Marjorie Keates Sent: 23 October 2010 13:58 To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [B&S] Poor Law TNA Documents On-Line Hello Mike and Josephine Back from a trip to England and now trying to catch up on emails. Takes me a while. Thank you, Mike, for publishing this list. Henry Latcham popped out at me. And thank you, Josephine, for drawing my attention to it. Poor Henry. He seems to have lived almost his whole life in the Clutton Workhouse appearing in census 1851-1911. He was with his family, age 6, in 1841. He was described in the Clutton Workhouse Medical Relief Book 1889/1890 as having been an idiot from birth. He was born about 1835 in Radstock but not baptised until 19 April 1837 in St Nicholas Church, Radstock. His siblings were all baptised soon after birth but his baptism entry says he was 5 years old. Some confusion re his age? Why did his parents wait so long in his case? Was that a requirment for admission to the workhouse and they were about to have him placed in the workhouse? He died 1914, age 78, in the Clutton Workhouse. At any rate, thank you to you both for this item and drawing my attention to it. It's one instance of Henry that I did not have. Marjorie