Part 4: Obtaining Outdoor Relief in Eighteenth-Century Thames Ditton.

Agricultural workers made up the greater part of the working population of eighteenth-century England. They were employed in seasonal tasks, remunerated at different rates (sometimes cash and sometimes in kind) or engaged in other intermittent, casual labour. Incomes might be supplemented by the cultivation of a cottage garden or the exercise of common rights in gleaning and fuel gathering and, when these methods failed, recourse could be made to relief from the parish on a casual basis. It has been estimated that in any five-year period one in five of the inhabitants of a parish would apply for relief, although there were likely to have been huge parochial differences across the country.[1]

Table 1 below shows the average daily wage rate for an agricultural worker and the relative purchasing power that provided during the first half of the eighteenth century.  Workers on a low wage found that their disposable income rose above that of mere subsistence for much of the period 1730 - 1750 and until 1750 there was a corresponding decline or evening out in the incidence of need for parish relief.

Table 1: Daily wage rates of agricultural workers in pence.[2]

Period	Daily Wage Rate	Purchasing power (%)
1710-1719	11.29	98
1720-1729	11.13	100
1730-1739	11.64	112
1740-1749	12.07	113

 

By the mid-eighteenth century the average income of agricultural workers and labourers had improved and population levels were stable, nevertheless, the country experienced an increase in the cost of poor relief. One explanation is that more efficient farming and industrial work practices broke the connection between population growth and subsistence. While national incomes rose more rapidly than the population, the benefits were not distributed equally when fewer labourers were needed to undertake that work.[3]

Poor relief expenditure is a useful indicator of the seasonal trends in the economic situation facing the poor and additional disbursements provide evidence of any acute seasonal patterns. Table 2 below demonstrates seasonal payments for relief over two separate years for Thames Ditton. Lower payments appear during the summer 1726, while spring levels remaining high following the winter months. However, as the result of a particularly poor harvest in 1740 there was no seasonal dip in the September payments that year.[4]

 

Table 2: Seasonal variations in relief

Month	Monthly pension	Extra disbursements
April 1726	£9 2s	£7
September 1726	£6 12s	£1 15s
January 1727	£8	£6 9s
April 1740	£11 14s	£6 12s
September 1740	£11 16s	£0 14s
January 1741	£13 4s	£3 11s 10d

 

There is relatively little difference in the cost of the poor to the parish of Thames Ditton in 1725 and 1760 (Tables 3 and 4 below). Overseers’ accounts for April 1726 record twenty-five residents (many of them widows and other women) of the parish receiving weekly pensions of 1s 6d per week, one-off payments to four ‘poor persons’, and a payment of 10 shillings per week to ‘old Archer’ for taking care of six boys. Men with a wife and/or children received a higher level of relief (Table 3). In April 1760 over thirty persons received weekly pensions of similar amounts as thirty years earlier, while a further fifteen people were recipients of individual payments for such things as the payment of rent, care of a child, or the purchase of shoes or clothing (Table 4). 

Table 3: The Parish Book of Thames Ditton - Containing the weekly and extraordinary disbursements from the Parishoners for the Poor of the Parish.

At a Vestry held the 3rd day of April 1726 It is agreed on to allow the following Indigent persons for one month to come:

	£	s	d	Extra disbursements 3rd April 1726	£	s	d
Widow Martin	0	1	6	Old Archer for taking care  of the boys in the Gallery 1/2 yr	0	10	0
Widow White	0	1	6	Thomas Cockman’s wife last month Husband being gone off	0	19	0
Widow Beckington	0	1	6	2 shifts to Ann Seamour	0	2	0
Susan Kember	0	1	6	George Manders for keeping the parish accounts a year due at Ladyday	1	0	0
Charles Meaching	0	1	6	Old Wicks rent a year due at Ladyday	1	15	0
James Everitt	0	3	0	Tho Cockmans wife this month 5s per week	1	0	0
Widow Cook	0	1	6	Expenses going to Esteed enquire after Sarah Shoorleys husband	0	2	9
Widow Millis	0	1	6	Law and Expense at Quarter Sessions for Sarah Shoorley, Stephen Hook and Charles Griffin,	3	4	0
Edward Chitty jnr	0	2	0	Church Wardens for 1724/25	15	12	0
Widow Lod	0	1	6	Expenses at Easter choosing the officers for the year	0	8	0
Ed Chitty snr	0	2	0		24	12	9
John Wells & his wife	0	2	6
Widow Ginings	0	1	0
Widow Hurch	0	4	0
Ann Williams	0	1	6
Widow Freeland	0	2	0
Elizabeth Buchel	0	2	0
Thomas Bastard	0	2	6
Ann Seamour	0	1	6
Elizabeth Seamour	0	1	6
Two  Seamour children	0	4	0
Thomas Leonard	0	2	6
Sarah Shoorley	0	1	6
	2	5	0
4 weeks	9	2	0

 

Table 4: April 6th 1760 weekly pay.

	£	s	d	Extra Disbursements	£	s	d
Elizabeth Bonick		2	3	Francis Smithers		4	0
Ann Roberds		1	6	Expenses at vestry choosing officers		10	6
Widow Rust		1	6	2 poor women with child		1	0
Turners girl		1	0	Henry Kendale		7	0
Joseph Carpenter		2	0	John Perkins’ wife		2	0
Widow Rosse & children		4	0	Thomas Smith		4	0
Butlers boy		2	0	Isabella Walker		4	0
Dollett’s children		2	0	William Davie for Joseph Carpenter lodging 24 weeks		18	0
Elizabeth Bushell’s girl		1	6	Richard Reading pair shoes for Chapman’s boy		2	8
John Kimber & wife		2	0	James Howard for Rodgers’ girl		12	0
John Purton		1	6	Expense getting a Militia		15	6
Widow Westbrook		2	0	Mr Edmonds bill		2	0
Lanes child		1	6	Mr Dean a bill		1	9
Chapman family		4	0	Henry Turner 2 weeks for his girl		2	0
Widow Monger		3	6	Mr Chandler hat for Hait's girl		1	0
Sarah Redavich		2	0	William Cockman keeping Parish Accounts for 1 year, writing books and copies	2	0	0
Widow White		1	0	and for making the account		2	6
Elizabeth Bushell snr		1	0	Merchant for Turner’s girl		3	0
Widow Dolley		2	0	William Stanley		4	0
Worhham Daniel		4	0	Joseph King for Hannah Hart		5	0
John Stokes		1	6	Mr Holland for a coffin for Robards’ child		2	6
Richard Wesson		1	6	Mr Hewitt concerning the bells		7	9
Adams Family		3	0	Mr Chandler concerning rates uncollected		8	0
Widow Foster		2	0	persons overcharged and empty houses	7	17	5
Old Sampson		2	0	Joseph Stoaks - expenses to the Jury for Stars girl drowned		5	0
Widow Martin		1	6	Expenses making overseers accts		10	6
Rust’s girl		1	0	signing this account		2	0
John Sterck		1	6	Tho Simmonds Church Wardens accounts	4	10	7
Thomas Westfield		2	0	James Stokes Church Wardens accounts	8	27	11
	2	18	0		30	3	7
2 weeks	5	16	0

 

Prior to the establishment of the workhouse the adult poor relied on family or neighbours to accommodate them, particularly during a period of illness or injury, for which a parish might make casual payments by way of rent or payment of medical bills. In 1740 a man by the name of Gregory lodged with the Rust family for over 10 weeks the parish paid for both his rent and an additional sum to the family for looking after him. The Rust family were themselves living close to the poverty line as the name of Rust is not found amongst the names of the parish ratepayers at the time and a payment of £1 9s 9d was made for Rust’s wife when ‘laying in’ in 1745. By April 1750 the family were in receipt of a weekly pension of 3s 6d and in October of the same year Elizabeth Rust, a child of the family, was one of the children found residing at Mr Keel’s poorhouse for children.

 

Even after the workhouse opened in Thames Ditton (1760) payments continued to be made by way of outdoor relief (Table 5). Payments to un-named poor persons most likely concern transient paupers, not residents of the parish. Widow Dolley, John Kimber and Joseph Carpenter had been in receipt of a weekly pension of 2 shillings each in July 1760 and Thomas Goose, Peg Star, Stockers and Peacock had each been in receipt of exceptional payments on a number of earlier occasions, either on their own behalf or that of their children. The records for Thames Ditton demonstrate that outdoor relief continued in conjunction with indoor relief throughout the period under consideration.

 

Table 5: Disbursements May 1761.

		£	s	d
	Mr Dean for Stockers	1	1	0
	Expenses said Dolley		4	0
	Paid to John Simmonds*		11	0
	To a poor man		1	0
July	To a poor woman			6
Nov	To a poor woman			6
Dec	Pegg Starr or Peacock	2	2	0
	To a poor woman			6
	Elizabeth Wicks		6	6
Jan	Thomas Goose		1	0
	To a poor woman			6
April	Thomas Noyce shoes for John Kimber		5	0
	William Davie 10 weeks for Joseph Carpenter		7	6

* This is likely to refer to a business expense.

 

Slack considered that ‘... workhouses could not achieve even partial success, once population, prices and unemployment, especially rural unemployment, started rising again after 1760.’[5] Payments for relief of the poor in 1774 exceeded £255 and included payments of outdoor relief to nine poor inhabitants, fourteen poor persons, and a pension for 18weeks at 6d per week to Elizabeth Newman. By 1785 annual costs had risen to £380 and included the payment of weekly pensions to at least ten people living outside the workhouse or being kept by other parishes. Other payments were made to ‘persons in distress’, for shoes, a shovel and other sundry casual payments. Either the parish vestry were taking a lenient attitude to those claiming casual relief or, as is more likely, the workhouse was unable to provide for the rising number of people in need of relief.

Data source for Thames Ditton:

Surrey History Centre, Woking (SHCW) 2568/8/1-4 Overseers’ accounts 1704-1808.

In my next blog I will consider the place of the workhouse in the relief of the poor.

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[1] Brundage, Anthony, (2002) The English Poor Laws, 1700 – 1930, Hampshire: Palgrave, p. 15.

[2] Thirsk, Joan (editor) (1985) The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. V (II) 1640-1750,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 877-879.

[3] Grigg, D.B. (1980) ‘Population growth and agrarian change: An historical perspective’, Cambridge:

  Cambridge University Press, p.163.

[4] Thirsk, The Agrarian History, p. 46.

[5] Slack, P. (1990) The English poor law, 1531-1782, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 35.