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Family Responsibility and State Responsibility in Britain Before the Welfare State1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. A. Crowther
M. A. Crowther
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Extract

In his autobiography, Joseph Arch recalled a trial which had taken place in Bedford in 1875, and which had caused much local dissatisfaction:

Samuel Dawson, a farm labourer aged fifty-seven, whose wages averaged twelve shillings a week, was sent to Bedford gaol for two months with hard labour…because he could not pay one shilling a week towards the maintenance of his parents… It was a cruel business and it touched scores and scores of labourers on the raw^-fof'this question of maintaining parents was a burning one.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1982 , pp. 131 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

2 Arch, J., The autobiography of Joseph Arch (1966 reprint), pp. 98–9.Google Scholar

3 Ford, P., ‘Means tests and responsibility for needy relatives’, Sociological Review, xxix (1937), 177.Google Scholar

4 The history is given in Scottish Law Commission, memorandum no. 22, Family law: aliment and financial provision, ii (1976), 334ff.Google Scholar

5 Ford, P., Incomes, means tests and personal responsibility (1939), p. 72.Google Scholar

8 From the annual Criminal and Judicial Statistics, Parliamentary Papers.

7 Kent County Archives: G/Br AZ 5.

8 P[ublic] R[ecord] O[ffice]: AST 7/147, Nov 1935.

9 Ford, Incomes, means tests, and personal responsibility, p. 73.

10 S. G., and Checkland, E. O. A. (eds.), The Poor Law report 0f 1834 (1974) P 135.Google Scholar

11 H.M.S.O., Report of the royal commission on the Poor Laws and relief of distress i, part viii, section 8iff.

12 Ibid., section 90.

13 Charity Organization Society, The prevention and relief of distress (1931), 31.

14 P.R.O.: MH 79/299, 29 Nov. 1932, T. S. Lamb.

15 Ford, ‘Means tests and responsibility for needy relatives’, p. 175.

16 For a full account see Gilbert, B. B., British social policy, 1914–1939 (1970), ch. 2.Google Scholar

17 Ford, Incomes, means tests, and personal responsibility, p. 15.

18 P.R.O.: AST 15/4.

19 A description of this legislation and its effects is given in Deacon, A., In search of the scrounger; the administration of unemployment insurance in Britain, 1920–1931. Occasional papers on social administration 60, (1976), esp. 25–6.Google Scholar

20 The best recent account is Skidelsky, R., Politicians and the slump; the Labour government of 1929–1931 (1967).Google Scholar

21 M. Anderson, ‘The impact on the family relationships of the elderly of changes since Victorian times in governmental income-maintenance provision’, in Shanas, E. and Sussman, M. B., Family, bureaucracy and the elderly (Durham, N. C. 1977) gives a good general account.Google Scholar

22 P.P. 1895 (7684), xiv, 20; H. M. S. O., R.C. on Poor Laws, minority report part i, p p. 255ff. The majority agreed cautiously, but argued that the number of unions giving insufficient relief was ‘comparatively very few’, part iv, section 331.

23 Ibid., part vii, section 237.

24 P.R.O.: MH 79/306: ‘The principles of Poor Law administration’, 13 March 1933.

25 P.R.O.: AST 7/168, 24 March 1938: H. Field house.

26 P.R.O.: AST 56/36, 10 Nov. 1936.

27 P.R.O.: AST 7/49, memo 30/35, 4 April 1935.

28 P.R.O.: MH 79/306, report of County Council Association conference, 1933.

29 Ibid.

30 P.R.O.: AST 7/168, R. W. Currie to W. T. Matthews, n.d.

31 According to the annual criminal statistics.

32 T. Lynes, ‘Unemployment Assistance Tribunals in the 1930’s’, in M. Adler and A. Bradley (eds.), Justice, discretion and poverty (1975), pp. I7ff.

33 Ibid. p. 20.

34 P.R.O.: MH 79/308, 22 Oct. 1932: K. W. Grant.

35 Ibid. W. P. Elias.

36 E.g. Young, M. and Willmott, P., Family and kinship in east London (1957);Google ScholarTownsend, P., The family life of old people (1957).Google Scholar

37 Ford, Incomes, means tests, and personal responsibility, p. 38.

38 Ibid. pp. 50–1.

39 Ibid. p. 62.

40 Anderson, ‘The impact on the relationships of the elderly’, pp. 51ff.

41 Anderson, M., Family structure in nineteenth century Lancashire (Cambridge, 1971), p. 66.Google Scholar

42 P.R.O.: AST 7/49, Minutes, March 1934.