Posted with permission of the transcriber, 'Ann'. 'Sickness & Poverty in Nineteenth Century Whitehaven' is a series of articles which Ann has transcribed in 67 parts. I have already posted a few of the more interesting (to my mind) passages but if anyone wants to read the entire transcription it will soon be available on the Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions site at; http://tinyurl.com/nkhym Geo. SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 39 THE NEW POOR LAWS. The Memorial agreed to at a public meeting of the Ratepayers of this township, held at the Workhouse on the 9th inst. Is now lying for signature, we perceive, at the several booksellers shops in this Town. Annexed is a copy of the document: - To the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales. The memorial of the undersigned rated Inhabitants of the Township of Whitehaven, in the Parish of Saint Bees, in the County of Cumberland. Your Memorialists state that the affairs of the Poor in the said Township have been managed hitherto by four overseers of the Poor, a Visitor, a Guardian, assisted by a Committee of fifteen other rated Inhabitants, elected at a Public Meeting of the Ratepayers held annually on the 25th day March, at the Workhouse, in the Township of Whitehaven, being a district formed under the 22nd Geo. III, c. 83, and Public Notice given, so that all parties may attend and protect their rights. That in and previous to 1820 the Poor Rates of the Township amounted to about 6,000/ annually, and since that period the same have been reduced to 2,100/ on an average of the last three years, thus exhibiting a strong ans irresistible proof that the rates have been administered with economy. As respects out-door Paupers no relief to able bodied Paupers has been given this class of persons on applying for relief being offered work, and the result is that no burden has fallen on the township from the able bodied Paupers; the only out-door relief given is that which is afforded to fatherless children, and in cases of accident and temporary illness. The Whitehaven Workhouse is divided into wards, the occupants being able to work are kept in employment, and their earnings for the last year amounted to 117/., and nothing more can be obtained from the labour of the resident paupers. The Township of Whitehaven contains a population of nearly 16,000 persons, and the proposed Union, comprising a district including 29 parishes with a population of not more than 40,000 persons, would be a grievance of which your Memorialists have a right to complain, for the cost of carrying into operation the proposed measure of forming a Union of twenty-nine parishes will subject the Township of Whitehaven to the payment of nearly, if not quite, one half of the increased charges. Your Memorialists further state, that if they should be compelled to form the proposed Union the increased expense which will fall on the Township of Whitehaven will not be short of 4,000/ annually, and before you sanction such a change your Memorialists feel assured you will take into consideration the extreme hardship of subjecting them to such increased expenditure, when the present management is satisfactory both to the ratepayers and the poor. Influenced by these considerations your Memorialists request you will allow them to continue to manage the affairs of the poor of the Township of Whitehaven as has been done for many years.