Blog post written by Mark Iten (03 July 2020)
For this week’s #LALPOfTheWeek, we will look at two letters, one of which has been written #OnThisDay, July 3rd, whereas the other has been concerned with the payment of a pauper petitioner with money owed up to the 3rd of July. The two letters have been chosen for today’s blog post as they show a big variety when it comes to the length of the pauper letters included in the LALP corpus.
The first letter in question was written on July 3rd, 1814 in Birmingham by Elizabeth/Elisebeth Downes. It spans over two pages and is intended for a “Mr Grubb”, who at some point in time seems to have been one of the overseers of the Parish of Bromfield, where Downes was from originally. In her rather lengthy letter, she explains in detail how she does not know “who the Overseers ar at this time”, which is why she would like for Mr Grubb to forward the information from her letter to the intended recipients. According to Downes, she has been “verrey ill for som time” and therefore is in “Great Distress at this time for some Reliefe”. Her husband had been involved in an accident, where a large stone fell on his foot, which is why neither of the two have been able to work and make money for an unknown period of time. She then goes on to ask for the parish to “send [her] something as soon as Possable”, as otherwise she would have to “come over [to the parish]”, which would cause her even more trouble with the chance of her not even managing such a trip at all. She ends her letter once again by asking Mr Grubb to act soon and by leaving instructions on where the letters should be sent to.
Overall, this letter has a lot in common with the majority of the letters in the LALP corpus. Downes is sure to list as much information as possible, including where the letter was sent from, when it was produced, what the exact issues and her requests are, as well as where an answer should be sent to. The letter begins with a “Sir” as an initial greeting formula, followed by Downes excusing herself for “[having taken] this oppertunity of Wrighting thes few lines” and troubling Mr Grubb with her case in general. Similar to most letters in the corpus, she ends her letter by referring to herself as “your Humble Servant Elizabeth Downes”, which suggests that Downes is aware of certain elements of letter writing that are typical for a pauper petition similar to hers.
The second letter that features today’s blog post can also be considered a pauper petition. However, it is not nearly as detailed as the one presented above. Written by “Susen Bliſs”, the letter spans over only four short lines and says as follows: “Mr Mallard if you pleas / to bring My Money / Susen / Bliſs”.
Another hand, likely Mr Mallard himself, then wrote below: “Jul 2nd / Paid 8 Wks @ 2/- / uptothe from 8 May / to 3 July inclue —— 16/-“.
Whereas Susen’s original letter does not suggest a specific time of when the letter had been written, the comment by the overseer below shows that the letter must have been sent to them before July 2nd. The comment also suggests that Susen regularly sends requests for money to Mr Mallard and that they are usually sent every 8 weeks, with the current one covering the weeks up to July 3rd. Indeed, multiple other letters with exactly the same wording (apart from spelling differences) can be found within the corpus, all written by the same Susen Bliſs. However, the letter presented above is the only one that has been accompanied by someone’s comments.
Overall, while the letter includes the name of the intended recipient, the request for relief itself and the name of the sender, it does not include any of the other features of pauper petitions that can be found in the LALP corpus, such as the one written by Downes. Given that Susen Bliſs still likely received the money that she requested despite not including any of the common formulaic expressions, it is worth noting that most pauper petition still opt to follow a particular form, likely due to the petitioners hoping for a better chance at receiving relief by including as much information as possible.