Poor Laws Flashcards
(10 cards)
What were the main causes of poverty in Elizabethan England?
Population growth, rising food prices, unemployment due to enclosure and decline of cloth trade, and bad harvests.
What is enclosure and how did it contribute to poverty?
Enclosure was the fencing off of land for sheep farming, which caused job losses for agricultural workers and tenant farmers.
What is the difference between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor?
Deserving poor could not work due to age or illness; undeserving poor were able to work but didn’t.
What was the aim of Elizabethan Poor Laws?
To provide help for the deserving poor while punishing or deterring vagrants and the idle.
What did the 1563 Statute of Artificers do?
Made it law for people to pay towards poor relief and encouraged apprenticeships to reduce unemployment.
What was the 1572 Vagabonds Act?
Harsh law that punished undeserving poor with whipping or execution; also introduced national registers of the poor.
What did the 1576 Poor Relief Act introduce?
JPs were to provide materials like wool or flax for the poor to work with and set up Houses of Correction for idle poor.
What was the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law?
It brought together earlier laws to create a national system of poor relief based on local parish responsibility.
How were local parishes involved in poor relief?
They collected taxes (the poor rate), appointed Overseers of the Poor, and provided work or support to the deserving poor.
What were Houses of Correction?
Institutions where the idle poor were sent to be punished and forced to work.
