Poor Relief records

These deal with the administration of the system of poor relief and matters relating to it. The information tends to be of a more general nature but can mention specific cases and it may be worthwhile looking through these if little information is found in other records.

Matters covered range from levying the assessment on the land and property owners, health concerns, diets, etc.

The content differed from parish to parish, and some rural parish minutes contain a lot of information, such as residence of the applicant and their living conditions, reason for application, reasons for acceptance or rejection of an application, members of the applicant's family and their earnings, and comments by the Inspector of the Poor. Yet some minutes contain little information on applicants, sometimes only their name and the decision made regarding them.

If there are no other records for a parish, it can be worth checking the minutes, but bear in mind that they are rarely indexed. They are most useful where you already have a date, such as when someone died.

In this series of documents you can find records of the original applications made and their reasons for acceptance or rejection.

The information they contain includes:

• the hour and date of the application
• the applicant's name, residence and country of birth
• the date of the Inspector's visit to their home
• their condition, age, occupation and average weekly earnings
• whether the applicant was wholly or partially disabled
• the names and ages of any dependants they may have
• other information pertinent to the claim
• number of previous applications
• results of the application
• grounds for refusal
• number in the General Register of the Poor (if accepted)

These were the poor relief registers maintained by individual parishes. In 1865 the Board of Supervision introduced new General Registers of Poor and Children's Separate Registers. They contain a wealth of information on individual applicants including names, place of residence, disability, family members, trade/occupation, and general comments on their relief and living conditions and any changes in circumstance.

Sometimes information in them may contradict information in other records. This can be because the applicant was ill or elderly and may only have given vague information to the Inspector of the Poor. Some applicants also give false information to qualify for relief, or a clerical error may result in a misspelled name, or someone being located in the wrong parish or county.

Children's Separate Registers were introduced in 1865 by the Board of Supervision and were designed to record the applications for relief of children who were receiving relief from the parish or combination, and who were either an orphan or deserted by their parents, or who may have been ordered to be separated from their parents and placed elsewhere, or with only one parent.

They contain a great deal of information including:

• reference to the relevant General Register Folio
• age, condition, health, and any ailments
• reason they have been separated from their parent(s)
• name and residence of parents
• details of who they were boarded out to
• name of the school they attended
• whether they were apprenticed or a servant

Assessment Rolls were kept by the Parochial Boards and Parish Councils to enable the levying of the poor relief among the landowners and property owners of the parish.

They provide a great deal of information on the social standing of the population, giving such details as:

• the name and address of the land/property owner
• the amount of rent they are due yearly for their land/property
• how much they have been assessed at
• and how much was paid to the collector

They also include an abstract of the money paid by tenants and owners, and proprietors

The Register of Guardians was required to be kept under the Children act of 1908.

It contains information on families and guardians who were to be in charge of children who were either separated from their parents or orphaned.

They contain information including:

• the name of the person receiving the child and where they live
• the name, date and place of birth, sex, date received, date of the notice given to the parish council for the child
• the name, address and the terms agreed upon of the person from whom the child was received
• occupation of the guardian
• the number of rooms in the dwelling house of the guardian, and the number of people living there
• the number of children under the ages of 7 that the parish council have authorised to be retained there
• and any details of the Inspector's Visits, Reports and findings

Public Assistance departments in the County Councils took over the administration of the Poor Law from Parochial Councils in 1929/30 and continued until they in turn were abolished by the National Insurance Act of 1948. Please note that access to these records is restricted under the Data Protection Act.

The minutes include information on:

• the name, age, marital status, address, disability and allowance granted to applicants
• unemployment relief
• boots and clothing allowances
• casual relief
• repairs to churchyards
• changes on the relief rolls
• appeals for relief

Relief of the poor was administered by the kirk sessions until 1845. It can be worth checking the heritors' and kirk session records for mentions of payments to paupers up until around 1885, due to the variety of ways in which parochial boards operated locally.

More information on kirk session records, along with other denominations for which we hold records can be found on our Church Records page.

In addition, you can now access kirk session records for the whole of Scotland from both our searchrooms. Following a collaborative project between the National Records of Scotland and the Church of Scotland, digital images of kirk session records can now be viewed online.

Where parishes did not impose a poor law rate (i.e. a local tax for the relief of the poor), the parochial board was comprised of the heritors and kirk session. Where a poor law rate was charged in a parish, there would be some elected members on the board. The number of parishes assessed for a poor rate increased gradually after 1845, until by 1862 this rate was legally assessed in most parishes.

Poor law records for many of the parishes covered in our holdings start after 1845, so you may wish to check kirk session records if you find that the early years after 1845 are not covered in the parish you are searching.

Poorhouses

There were six larger poorhouses in the North East in the late 19th - early 20th century: 

A list of smaller almhouse-type poor houses run by parishes across the North East can be found on the Workhouses website. The history of these establishments can often be traced in Parochial Board minute books at the archive. 

• Poorhouse Locations has information about the running of poorhouses, and pictures of some of the poorhouses and alms houses in the North East.
• The Scottish Archive Network has a useful set of guides in their Knowledge Base available on their Research Tools page. There are links to guides on poor relief in the 'drop down' boxes for records and subjects.
• Although the National Records of Scotland have only a very limited number of records relating to the poor, their Guide to Records of the Poor is still interesting and may be useful if you are searching for people in any of the areas covered by their holdings.