What is the Elizabethan poor law?
Before the reign of Elizabeth I there was very little done about poverty and there was almost no help for the poor.
The only help for poor people was private charity given by wealthy people. The government was worried that the growing numbers of beggars and vagrants might lead to social disorder and they also realised that people who were poor were not at fault.
The Poor Relief Act (poor law) of 1601 allowed each church to collect money to give to the poor who were weak and helpless such as the elderly and the blind. They also provided workhouses for the ‘poor by casualty’, such as the sick and the senile, so that they could earn money and improve their lifestyles. Orphans were given apprenticeships allowing them to work and earn, this also provided them with skills. Only the ‘idle poor’, the people who begged when they were fit, healthy and able to work, were whipped and returned to their place of birth.
The 1601 Poor Law did not end poverty, but it remained as England's poor law system for two centuries, and gave basic help to the underprivileged.
- In 1494 a law had ordered beggars to be put in the stocks as a punishment.
- In 1547 beggars and vagrants had been ordered to be branded with a ‘V’ and made a slave for two years.
- A law of 1572 continued this approach, declaring that beggars should be whipped and, for a third offence, executed.
The only help for poor people was private charity given by wealthy people. The government was worried that the growing numbers of beggars and vagrants might lead to social disorder and they also realised that people who were poor were not at fault.
The Poor Relief Act (poor law) of 1601 allowed each church to collect money to give to the poor who were weak and helpless such as the elderly and the blind. They also provided workhouses for the ‘poor by casualty’, such as the sick and the senile, so that they could earn money and improve their lifestyles. Orphans were given apprenticeships allowing them to work and earn, this also provided them with skills. Only the ‘idle poor’, the people who begged when they were fit, healthy and able to work, were whipped and returned to their place of birth.
The 1601 Poor Law did not end poverty, but it remained as England's poor law system for two centuries, and gave basic help to the underprivileged.