The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.3 | December 2022

Local Group Programmes

Trevor recalled being assembled by the railings of King Edward VI School in Southampton to wave to the Queen and Prince Philip as their car passed by. Judith has attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party (lovely cake) and had also shaken hands with our new King when, as Prince of Wales, he and Princess Diana visited York not long after they married. (October) Vagrants, Paupers and the Welfare State – Jan Smith We were honoured to have Jan Smith, the County Archivist at Hampshire Record Office until her retirement in 2010, as our speaker and her talk was 'Paupers, Vagrants and the Welfare State'. She described how the records fit into the context at that time. The records covered how the poor were 'looked after' and these provide a glimpse into the lives of those who typically have few personal records. As they are official records they are not always sympathetic. The earliest records in Hampshire are for St Johns, Winchester and date from 1294. Before 1500 the church provided alms but, with the reformation, the loss of monasteries meant that the parishes took over responsibility. As the parishes had to raise money it was during the Tudor period that records started to be kept. The settled poor were those who received help (outdoor relief) in their own homes; indoor relief was given in alms or workhouses. Throughout the ages there was a tension between supporting those who needed help whilst not being seen to encourage the lazy. Government legislation which tried to resolve this tension was not always successful. The main acts were the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Laws, 1662 Act of Settlement, 1782 Gilbert Act (for Workhouses), 1908 Old Age Pensions Act, 1911 National Insurance Act and the 1948 National Assistance Act. The various documents can, if they survive, provide information for us family historians which we would not necessarily find elsewhere. These included bastardy bonds/orders, settlement certificates, removal orders, overseers accounts, poor law rate books and pauper apprenticeship indentures. The workhouses had guardians' minute books, masters' report books, registers of admissions and discharges, registers of births and deaths, punishment books, etc. Jan advised that these records survive well in most counties (but not necessarily Hampshire!), and her talk certainly mentioned a few things most of us won't have looked at before. Forthcoming Meetings: All meetings at 7:30pm

Christmas Social

December 13th

Membership Renewal If your subscription is due for renewal please see the insert with this issue or the inside of the back cover.

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