Hi John You can read it from the horses mouth so to speak - The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act is on-line at: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/poorlaws/1834frames.html The 1601 Act for the Relief of the Poor, which , as amended, applied up to 1834 can be seen at: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ So - as you see, your question has to be phrased accordingly ;-) Regards Paul On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 23:23:07 +1000, J Weeks <jwweeks@ozemail.com.au> wrote: >Hello Life Listers, > >Is there anyone out there who, without too much time and trouble, can (even >briefly) explain how the "POOR LAW" worked in and around the 1800's ? >I know the parishes elected a couple of wardens to control it but what was >"IT" and where did "IT" come from? > > >John >In beautiful Canberra. >Capitol of OZ > > > >==== ENG-DORSET-LIFE Mailing List ==== >The Dorset Genweb pages can be found at: >http://www.rootsweb.com/~engdor/ > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 50.33.50N 02.26.70W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html