Dear Roy The following is an extract from my U3A Family History lesson on the Poor Laws and explains why, prior to the 1834 new Poor Law, farmers were given Poor Rate money to increase the wages of their workers to subsistence level thus keeping them fully employed instead of living wholly off the parish. Between 1723 and 1750, about 600 parish workhouses were established in England and Wales. By *1776, when the first official workhouse returns* were made, the number of workhouses had increased to about 2,000 - each with between 20 and 50 inmates. The cost of indoor relief was high and inefficient workhouse management led to increased social pressure for more sympathetic treatment of the poor. This led to the passing of *Thomas **Gilbert's Act* <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/gilbert.html>* in 1782* , the second main act, which was intended to provide a more humane method for the relief. During the 1780s there was an increase in under- and un-employment in rural areas because of high food prices, low wages and the effects of enclosure. Agricultural labourers were hard-hit and claimed on the poor rates for survival. As a result, poor rates increased rapidly, which was unacceptable to the landowners. Gilbert’s Act aimed to organize poor relief on a county basis, with each county being divided into large districts corresponding to a Hundred (an old administrative unit within a county) or other large group of parishes. Such *unions* of parishes could set up a common workhouse, or 'poor house' for the benefit of only the old, the sick and the infirm and orphaned children. No pauper was to be sent to a workhouse more than 10 miles from their own parish, and children ,under the age of seven, were not separated from their parents. Able-bodied paupers were excluded from these poor-houses: instead, either they were to be provided with 1. outdoor relief or 2. employment near their own homes Land-owners, farmers and other employers were to receive allowances from the parish rates so that they could bring wages up to subsistence levels. Gilbert Unions were controlled by a board of Guardians, one from each member parish, elected by ratepayers and appointed by local magistrates. This represented a major shift in power from the parish to the landed gentry. The French Wars from 1793-1815 made importing foodstuffs from Europe difficult and the price of corn, and therefore bread, increased rapidly. In 1795 there were already food shortages due to poor harvests. It was feared that riots would break out so, to avoid civil disturbance ,in 1795 magistrates at Speen, near Newbury, Berkshire, decided to bring in an allowance scale whereby a labourer would have his income supplemented to subsistence level by the parish, according to the price of bread and the number of children in his family. Known as the Speenhamland System it did not pass into law nor was it adopted nationally. It is not part of the Old Poor Laws, nevertheless it is part of the history of support for the poor. It did however produce some anomalies – farmers deliberately paid poor wages knowing their labourers would be subsidized by the ratepayers Others are detailed on the Victorian Web website* and a Google search throws up a lot of websites * www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/poorlawov.html <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/poorlawov.html> - over 80 documents on the Poor Law Regards Joy