Abstract
For many years, historians focused on the institutional aspects of the poor laws and the power vested in the central authorities; more recently, the experience of the poor themselves has been at the heart of academic study. This article looks at a third group: those who exercised power and influence in delivering poor law policy at a local level and specifically how certain individuals with strong personalities administered or disrupted what was heralded as a uniform and centrally controlled system. Based on an in-depth local history study on the development of the poor law unions in the county of Hertfordshire, England, this paper will look in detail at the contribution made by specific individuals during the early years of the new poor law and consider how they influenced poor law policy and practice. It will argue that personal contributions made a difference to the operation of the poor laws and that the personality of certain poor law officials had the potential to influence the central authorities, which has not been fully recognised. This research supports the argument that the new poor law was regionally diverse and provides new evidence to suggest that the power of local personnel to influence poor law policy contributed to that diversity and should not be overlooked.
Highlights
Traditional poor law narratives have focused on the power of the policy makers, namely the PoorLaw Commission
Through the power vested in their office by virtue of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the poor law commissioners and their influential secretary Edwin Chadwick sat in London and dictated policy to the provinces
The men cited in the examples above represent just a small sample of the thousands of men who served as guardians or were otherwise involved in poor law administration but they all made a difference to the implementation and the operation of the poor law as a result of who they were
Summary
Traditional poor law narratives have focused on the power of the policy makers, namely the Poor. The National Archives) which provide evidence of those most active in poor law matters.2 This places regional and preferably local studies at the heart of accessing information, which demonstrate particular relationships and the influence individuals exerted over others in relation to poor law matters. It concludes by suggesting that there is more material to be found to enable further study of individual contributions which, in turn, may enhance our understanding of how the poor law operated This is not a discussion of poor law policy per se, nor is it a discussion about pauper agency or a history from below, but a recognition of how individual people, some ordinary and some less so, were able to influence—both positively and negatively—the implementation and operation of the new poor law during its early years
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