Pauper Voices, Public Opinion and Workhouse Reform in Mid-Victorian England
This book represents the first attempt to identify and describe a workhouse reform ‘movement’ in mid- to late-nineteenth-century England, beyond the obvious candidates of the Workhouse Visiting Society and the voices of popular critics such as Charles Dic
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Pauper Voices, Public Opinion and Workhouse Reform in Mid-Victorian England
Peter Jones • Steven King
Pauper Voices, Public Opinion and Workhouse Reform in Mid-Victorian England Bearing Witness
Peter Jones Nottingham Trent University Nottingham, UK
Steven King Nottingham Trent University Nottingham, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-47838-4 ISBN 978-3-030-47839-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47839-1 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
This book has its roots in the remarkable MH12 series at The National Archives. This voluminous set of records encompasses all materials sent to the post-1834 Poor Law Commission, Poor Law Board and (from 1871) Local Government Board. In it, we find correspondence from poor law unions seeking advice or clarity on central rules and the practices and standards expected of them. MH12 also includes circulars, minutes of evidence gathered at the point of local inquiries by Boards of Guardians or central inspectors, the letters of advocates for poor people and, of course, copies of all the letters the central authorities sent in response to that correspondence. But the series also includes something else: the letters of social investigators and also those from paupers themselves. The AHRC project “In their own write”, conducted jointly with Dr Paul Carter at The National Archives (Ref: AH/R002770/1; https://intheirownwrite. org), has been identifying and collecting the latter material. This massive undertaking (MH12 bound volume numbers in their thousands and have no index) suggests that there are likely to be between 20,000
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