The elderly and the workhouse in eighteenth century London: The workhouse as hospice and the lifecyc

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The elderly and the workhouse in eighteenth
century London The workhouse as hospice and
the life-cycles of the elderlyJeremy
BoultonLeonard SchwarzSocial History Society,
March 30th, 2007, University of Exeter
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The elderly in the eighteenth century

• Role of institutional care
• Extent of such care amongst elderly populations
  hospice or refuge?
• Londons atypicality in nineteenth century
• Large institutions
• High proportions of elderly females in workhouse
• High proportion of the elderly in 1851

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The eighteenth century source material
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The population at risk
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Admission rates and patterns of elderly admission
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Life cycle crises and applications for welfare
Interval between husbands death and examination
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The Workhouse as hospice death and the indoor
poor
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The treatment of the indoor elderly

• Freedom of movement
• Work rate
• Family break up

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Outdoor relief of the elderly

• The settled poor and the casual poor
• The parish almswomen
• Discrete populations

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Summary and conclusion

• Multi-functional over entire period
• Part of elderly survival strategy in last years
• There is a chronology of use by elderly, more
  commonly used in some decades than others
• Particularly frequently experienced by elderly
  females
• Variety of experience of elderly usage

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Case study 1 persistent applicants

• It is possible to create a number of case
  histories. Unlike many studies of this sort, it
  is possible to state exactly how typical these
  are.
• Grace Wilson (fl. 1772-1809) is utterly atypical
• Grace Wilson was admitted to the St Martins
  Workhouse 67 times between 1772 and until her
  death in the institution in 1808. The most
  frequently admitted pauper in the Georgian
  workhouse.
• First admitted in 1772, she appears regularly
  thereafter until her death in 1809
• Stated to be 36 in 1772, she was 67 in 1808. Her
  ageing process clearly slowed down, since she
  should have been 72 in 1808 - if earlier age
  statements were correct.

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Graces experience suggests that proportionately
more time might be spent in the workhouse as
individuals approached their 60s More
interesting, however, is that even in extremis
Grace never spent a complete year in the
workhouse. The workhouse was not an almshouse.
She must have lodged elsewhere in the parish, and
paid her way, even in the last decade of her
life.
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Case study 2 The long stay widow at the end of
life Temperance Cullis was admitted into the
workhouse only twice. She was first admitted in
1748, when she described herself as aged 68 when
she was passed from St Giles in the Fields. She
claimed a settlement in St Martins by virtue of
her husbands service. She stayed in the
workhouse for six years, and left the house in
10/06/1754, when she would have been 74.
Temperance was admitted again after an interval
of two years, for the second and last time, now
claiming to be aged 82, on 18/09/1756. She was
placed in ward 20 and died in the workhouse
nearly eight years later in 21/04/1764.
Temperance was examined in the workhouse nine
days after her second admittance in
1756 Temperance Cullis aged 81 years in the
workhouse of and in the Parish of St Martin in
the Fields upon her oath saith that she is the
widow of Thomas Cullis (who died about 30 years
ago) to whom she was married at St Bridget,
vulgarly St Brides, Church London about 50 years
ago, that he was a Founder by trade and was bound
an apprentice by an indenture for seven years to
Mr Davis a Founder at the house (now Mr Mist) in
Long Acre in the Parish of St Martin the Fields
aforesaid and there served all his time out, that
he never kept house rented 10 by the year paid
any parish taxes nor was a yearly hired servant
since the expiration of his said apprenticeship,
nor hath she is she this Examinant since the
death her said husband. Taken in the workhouse
the 27th Day of September 1756. This suggests
that Temperance managed 22 years of independent
existence after her husbands death, before
entering the workhouse of St Martins for the
first time. She also lived for two further years
out of the workhouse before returning there in
her dotage and final years.
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Case study 3outdoor relief and the workhouse as
hospice Syth Cross was admitted only once to
the workhouse in 1783. She was admitted
19/08/1783 at the age of 82, and died in the
workhouse in 26/11/1783, so she was admitted for
the first time for the last three months of her
life. She was examined in 1783 Syth Cross aged
about 82 years removed by an order of removal
from the Parish of St Pancras in the County of
Middlesex to the Parish of St Martin in the
Fields upon her oath saith that she is the widow
of Hugh Cross (who died about 38 years ago), that
since the death of the said husband she (this
Examinant) lived in and rented an house in Round
Court in the said Parish of St Martin in the
Fields for the space of eight or nine years at
the yearly rent of 10 pounds besides taxes,
quitted the same about 30 years ago, that she
hath not kept house rented a tenement of 10
pounds by the year paid any parish taxes nor been
a yearly hired servant in any one place for 12
months together since. Sworn the blank Day of
blank 1783 before blank. Here then is a
widow who managed 38 years of independent
residential existence, only coming to the
workhouse in her last three months of life.
However, Syth had in fact been receiving regular
payments as one of the settled poor of the
exchange ward between 1749 and 1772. Syth got 1s
6d a week between 1749, possibly after her
husbands death, and 1751, which was reduced to
1s a week 1765-1772. Here her pension was first
paid when she was in her 40s.. Her independent
existence included outdoor relief from the parish
for periods of years, with gaps.