Blog post written by Anne-Christine Gardner (22 October 2020)
When I joined the project in September, one of the first things that struck me was how the pauper petitions we transcribe open a window into the past, revealing snippets of life stories and human tragedies. Today’s blog post takes a closer look at some of these lives as portrayed in letters which were written around or #OnThisDay, and in the month of October more generally.
More often than not, the true depths of human struggles can only be guessed at. On 22 October, sometime in 1810s, for instance, Ann Cannon from Newington writes to a Mr Right in Shefford to intercede on her behalf with the parish overseers in charge of her case. She is asking for the 12 shillings that she is owed to be sent to her, stating that while it does not make a difference to them, it greatly changes things for her: “as it Makes no Odds to you it will be of Grate use to me at present for I am in Grate wants of that Sum”. Why she is in such need she does not specify here, but it is likely that she did so in an earlier letter, for example when she first applied for poor relief. Unfortunately, we do not have any other letters from Ann Cannon, so her story must end here for now.
Yet how much were 12 shillings for the labouring poor? In a different letter we recently transcribed, William Wall from Portsea notes on 12 September 1821 that half a year’s rent was £3 10s., and that some weeks he only earned 5s. or as little as 1s. 6d. So for him 12 shillings would have meant up to 8 weeks’ worth of wages or his rent for one month.
We also learn about pauper lives from correspondence related to relief applications. On 20 October 1832, overseer David Knaggs from Kirkleatham reports to the unnamed overseer of the parish of St Oswald in Elvet that he has settled accounts concerning a Robert Robinson. It would seem that soon after the last poor relief payment Robinson passed away, as there is a reference for funeral expenses and it is Robinson’s wife who receives financial support afterwards. Sadly, however, she must have died soon after her husband. She last received a week’s allowance of 3 shillings up to 22 June, and a cheque for her funeral expenses was paid on 1 August. Covering funeral costs was, incidentally, also a form of poor relief (King 2019: 275–278). Were the Robinsons an old couple who died in quick succession? Or were they young, leaving behind children?
For young families life could certainly be very challenging, even more so when the husband was away much of the time. This was the case for Mary Radcliffe who lived in Manchester. In a letter filed with the date (or on?) 21 October 1833, but actually written on 13 October, she turns to the assistant overseer Thomas Clamp from the parish of St Oswald in Elvet after her poor relief was reduced to a weekly payment of two shillings. Hoping to achieve a return to her usual pay, Mary Radcliffe describes the difficulties she has been facing in the bleakest of colours. Her husband gone for one year out of eight, he left (for work presumably) four months before she gave birth to her last child. What’s worse, both Mary Radcliffe and her youngest have been suffering from poor health for a year, being confined to bed the previous winter. At the same time she has to bring up two further children on very little money: “I can safely say for the last twelvemonth I have not had three shillings a week and four of us to keep besides rent and fire”. Added to the living costs are regular instalments to pay back the 30 shillings which it cost her to have her eldest bound as an apprentice and clothed, money which the master advanced.
Unusually, we have three earlier letters which shed further light on Mary Radcliffe’s troubles. It was not only in October 1833 that she had to re-apply for poor relief, but she also had to do so on 25 June: the Select Vestry of Salford, where she was living at the time, put a general stop to payments to “out townships”. Also in this letter she describes the poor health of herself and her youngest child, fearing for his life: “I think he is going in a decline”. It is only through “the kindneſs of a few Ladies who I do a Little work for” that she managed to make ends meet. Why did Mary Radcliffe move from No 6 Burgeſs Buildings, Green Bank, Salford, Manchester to No 14 Back King Street, Manchester, which is the address she gives in her October letter? Was rent cheaper in her new home?
The two other letters are written by John Etherington, who acts for his brother Thomas, overseer in the parish of St Oswald in Elvet. In response to Mary Radcliffe’s letter he visits her in her home a few days later, and writes to his brother with a report on 1 July. Etherington finds that “the boys were very badly clothed – and the appearance of the house shewed distress”, and confirms that the youngest child, a boy of seven years, “appears to be very delicate”. At this time, the oldest, a 14-year-old boy, “good looking & Stout”, is not yet bound an apprentice, but has been out of work for 10 weeks. Of the middle child, a 13-year-old girl, we read more in Etherington’s second letter from 10 September: “The Employment of the Girl, I understand, is Sewing, I cannot tell what she Earns – they say she is not constantly in work, she is a fine healthy looking Girl and I should think that she would not trouble you long”. By this time the oldest boy’s apprenticeship had begun, with an uncle in Liverpool helping with buying clothes. Most unusually, Etherington even records the names of the children: the oldest is called Charles, the girl Susannah, and the youngest Augustus. Both letters document how Mary Radcliffe did receive financial support, also to help her pay back the “fancy Chair Maker” who apprenticed Charles, and that her allowance would be paid up to 3 October.
It is ten days later that Mary Radcliffe writes the letter with which I started her story. She ends with a desperate plea: “I can aſsure you neither myself or Children as any shoes nor what is worse a blanket of any sort on the bed therefore I hope you will take it into Consideration and not drop me this Winter”. We do not have any later letters concerning Mary Radcliffe. We can only hope that she and her family safely made it through the approaching winter.
As this blog post shows, petitioners were faced with a variety of challenges. Very often their wages were so low that they existed below subsistence level. They struggled to pay their rent, light a fire in their homes, buy food or clothe themselves and their children. From an early age, children were required to contribute to the household income or become self-sufficient by learning a craft. However, as we have seen in the case of Charles Radcliffe, also the privilege of an apprenticeship had to be paid for initially. The Old Poor Law provided the labouring poor with an opportunity to receive financial support, but it was a volatile system – payments could unexpectedly be stopped, as happened to Mary Radcliffe. Still, there is evidence in letters that there were also sympathetic officials who helped secure the petitioner’s survival, for a little while longer at least.
Reference: King, Steven. 2019. Writing the Lives of the English Poor, 1750s-1830s. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.