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A study of the Poor Roll in a Scottish Highland Parish, 1864-1915

By Peter Lawrie, ©1997

This paper was written for a University project in 1997. My research discovered a wealth of data which had to be compressed into a restrictive word-count. It reads like a set of notes rather than an essay. One day I will rewrite it. Until then, if Helmsdale or the Scottish Poor Law is of interest to you, I hope that you find this article of value. Contact me for the supporting data and tables.

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Abstract:
Based on the annually printed List of the Registered Poor (1868-1915), Minutes of the Parochial Board (1864-1904), Statutory Death Records (1855-1901) and CEBs (1851-91) for Kildonan information on 336 paupers are analysed. Paupers are classed as aged, infirm, sick, insane, widow(er)ed with children, orphans and others. An analysis of out-relief payments shows that they rose from barely enough for survival in 1870 to basic subsistence level by 1900. The attitude towards the able-bodied and use made of the Poorhouse and Asylum are examined.

This project examines the Poor Law in a rural Highland parish using a ‘questioning sources’ strategy. Nominal Record linkage of the LRP and MPB to the CEBs and Death records helps to show who the paupers were, why they were so reduced and how they were treated. How did the Poor Law actually operate compared with the intention of the 1845 Act and the criticisms in the 1909 Poor Law Report?
Much of the published work on the Poor Law in Scotland is concerned with the problems created by rapid industrialisation and urbanisation and the boom/bust cycle of heavy manufacturing, or with the acutely congested western Highlands and Islands. Kildonan is an east-Sutherland parish with a commercial fishing port, a few large farms and a ‘long tail of tenants with tiny holdings’. (Gray,1957,p226)

Charity was “the care and concern for others....a thank offering for success....to the less fortunate”. Chalmers’ voluntary ideals recalled pre-modern society. Nineteenth-century economic theory held that charity defied the laws of the labour-market in assisting the able-bodied. (Checkland,1980,p2-3). In practice Victorian welfare was “parsimony injurious to the poor and discreditable to the rich”. (Alison,1840,p66).

“The Gaelic Highlander often refused to conform to the model of Smithian man. They had their own ideology, which was that the possession of land, the tenure of a croft, was the highest good a man could desire.” (Smout,1986,p67). It is impossible to conclude from the evidence how much this applied to Kildonan but the Poor Law was deeply rooted in the Smithian idea of ‘the invisible hand of economic self-interest’ (of the employing classes!).

James Loch, MP and agent for the Duke of Sutherland, in an 1846 letter on the developing potato famine stated “I do not think that some measure of distress will not reach our people. I think it will and I think it ought, it is the only thing that will induce them to work.” (Richards,1973,p263).

From an early Board of Supervision report “Any systematic attempt to refuse all relief, except such as may be received within the walls of a Poorhouse, would excite a baneful spirit of discontent among the poor.....without effecting any saving to the funds of the parish” (Levitt,1988,p9). Levitt goes on to illustrate from evidence to the 1844 Commission that it was not unknown for some parishes to give occasional relief to the unemployed.

Nicholls (an English exponent of the Workhouse and efficiency of relief. (Drake,1994,p278) stated that by 1853, 77% of parishes had moved to (Alisonian) assessment of ratepayers, rather than the voluntary giving which, prior to the 1843 Disruption and the 1845 Poor Law Act had been the practice in Scotland. (Nicholls,1967,p264). By 1850 only two Highland parishes continued the voluntary principle. (Hunter,1976,p75)

Quotations from the Board of Supervision reports: (Nicholls,1967) (The italics are mine)
1849,p229. “As Poorhouses increase they will furnish.....a simple test where there is reason to doubt the disability or destitution of the applicants.”
1850,p231. “When relief was a charitable rather than a legal obligation, Poorhouses were regarded as almshouses....admission was regarded as a boon.... The more perfect knowledge by the poor of their rights.....have caused a strong pressure on Parochial Boards. A Poorhouse will be wholly useless unless it is conducted.....so as to render it more irksome than labour.”.
1850,p233. “Admission to Poorhouse (1) Destitute persons.....who cannot be cared for by means of outdoor relief except at a cost exceeding that for which they can be maintained in the Poorhouse. (2) Persons whose claims are doubtful,....concealing resources,....idle, immoral or dissipated.”
1851,p235. “Parochial Boards had discretionary powers to afford temporary relief to casual poor including the able-bodied in absolute want....it may be more advantageous to give aid to such able-bodied persons than withhold it until disablement arises”. (Judgements of the House of Lords in 1852, 1859 and 1866 effectively removed this discretion from Parochial Boards (Levitt,1988,p11)).

The Act required Parochial Boards to care for the sick and infirm, but also insisted on rigid control of costs and tests of genuine destitution. The result was an unsatisfactory compromise. (MacLachlan,1987,p26)

During the period of this study, concurrent with parliamentary reform and the enfranchisement of the working-classes, legislation was introduced dealing with education, lunacy, public health, old-age pensions in 1908 and unemployment insurance in 1911. In 1909 a report was published which was highly critical of Poor Law practice. It concluded: the abolition of outdoor relief was wholly impracticable; offering the ‘House’ in all cases had unacceptable results; doles were manifestly inadequate for healthy subsistence and assumed to supplement ‘other’ resources, whether or not they existed; relief was unconditional with no check on actual maintenance or improvement. (NCBPLC,1909,p77-81)

The authors of the Main report aimed to modify and improve the Poor Law, whereas the Minority report for Scotland (MRNCBPLC,1909,p44) proposed its replacement by specialist agencies whose aim should be the prevention rather than relief of destitution. Subject headings relevant to this project are summarised:

Able-bodied.(p2-13). Treatment was inadequate and inept. National problems could not be solved at the parochial level. There should be a national Employment and Training Authority.
Children.(p13-19). Poorhouses were the wrong place for children. 30,000 children on outdoor relief were underfed and poorly clothed. The Education Authority should be responsible for orphans and children of the Poor.
Sick.(p20-28). The provisions for medical care were not working. The system provided the minimum necessary rather than the maximum practicable. The service was uneconomical, impracticable and wasteful. The sick should be wholly taken out of the Poor Law.
Mentally Defective.(p28-31). 20% of Paupers were mentally defective. All defectives should be removed from the Poor Law into the care of the Lunacy Authority.
Aged.(p31-34). The 1908 Old Age Pensions Act gave pensions to the necessitous over-70s. Excluded Pensioners and some under-70s unable to earn their maintenance should be removed from the Poor Law to the Pensions Committee.
Infirm but not Aged.(p31-36). Discrimination between the aged and younger infirm was unfair. Poor Law treatment was inadequate out-relief or the Poorhouse. They should be treated according to their needs outwith the Poor Law.

The underlying philosophy of the Poor Law, which implied the inferiority of the poor was criticised (MRNCBPLC,1909,p55):
There was an implication that moral defects caused destitution.
The stigma of pauperism was designed to be a deterrent to requesting relief.
Stress was placed on the efficiency of treatment (cost to the ratepayer) rather than long-term improvement in the condition of the pauper.
All classes of paupers were viewed equally as destitution cases and were not eligible for relief before they became destitute.


Description and evaluation of Sources and methods:
The annual “List of Registered Poor chargeable to the Parish of Kildonan”. (LRP)
These cover 1868-1915 with ten years missing. The MPBs were used to go back to 1864 and fill in some of the missing years. All individuals with a Kildonan settlement were linked on a spreadsheet into 336 cases, showing duration and nature-of-relief. Despite some inconsistencies, the absence of the GRP and the restarting (twice) of the roll-numbers, there was little risk of confusion. The LRPs were circulated to ratepayers, often the neighbours of paupers on the roll and included the annual statement of income and expenditure summarised at Appendix-3.

The Minutes of the Parochial Board for Kildonan. (MPB)
The “General Register of the Poor” for Kildonan in Highland Archives only covers 1924-30 but some of the Minute books of the Parochial Board survive. Fair copies cover 1863-Oct/1878 and Aug/1890-1904. A draft covers 1877-Oct 1884, thus 1885 to part of 1890 is missing. Draft rolls in November and May are included with new applications for relief or changes (increased doles, shoes and blankets or house repairs). The MPBs refer to communications received or actions by the Inspector, only occasionally giving extra detail about paupers. An annual rate was levied on the owners and occupiers of property. The parish was owned by the Duke of Sutherland and his factor was a member of the Board until the Parish Council took over in May/1895. James Campbell, the Inspector of the Poor (Parochial Clerk, Collector, Schoolmaster, Sanitary Inspector and Registrar) was appointed in 1866 after his predecessor had resigned following criticism by the Board of Supervision’s visiting Inspector. Following an 1869 inspection Campbell was commended for the new printed return which forms the basis of this project. Retiring in 1914, he probably did ‘know everybody’s business’. (Fraser&Morris,1990,p272).

Statutory death records. (SDR)
As far as possible the death of a pauper in the LRP was linked to the SDR, adding age and cause of death to summary spreadsheets. For many pauper deaths the Inspector was Informant as well as Registrar and the personal information is often incomplete and cause of death uninformative.

CEBs for Kildonan (52) 1851 to 1891.
Using extracts of the spreadsheets in alphabetical order with the people whom I expect to find in each of the CEBs (1851-91) for annotation, I identified all but eleven local paupers in one or more CEBs for their reported ages, places of birth and occupations (before becoming ‘paupers’). The CEBs are a frustrating source due to temporary absences, reporting errors and the lack of any useful addresses in this parish. However, due to their circumstances and need to maintain a ‘settlement’ potential paupers tended not to move. In the 1851 CEB 62% of the population were locally born and 81% in Sutherland. Among paupers over the period 80% were born in the parish and 89% in the county (Appendix-10). Having found discrepancies between ages on the LRP and SDR, there are more between these and the ages reported for the same individuals on successive CEBs. Only 58 had informative occupations, other than e.g. ‘domestic-servant’, ‘lotter’, ‘wife’, ‘daughter’ or blank.

Old Parish Record for Kildonan, 1791-1854. (OPR)
The OPR was checked for paupers born in the parish up to 1843 according to the CEBs. Most were found, though it appears few people knew their exact age and therefore some of the commoner names are open to dispute. Almost all paupers had parents described as lotters, tenants or labourers, which accounted for the bulk of the pre-clearance population. However this source would have been more valuable if I had time to examine kinship links in order to understand relationships between paupers and their neighbours in the community.

Main Findings.
Eligibility.
Many claimants were refused on the grounds that they were able-bodied, not destitute or “not a proper object of relief”. Some are relieved but the inspector is instructed to recover advances from relatives. Although amounts recovered are regularly reported, it is rarely possible to link this to individual relief given. (See Drake,1994,p96-97 for the responsibility under English law of children for their parents). The Board became involved in legal disputes over settlement of paupers and, in 1875, £89 (20% of the total paid to the regular poor) was spent on a case claiming restitution from a reputed father. For ‘settlement’, birth or three years residence was necessary, without receiving relief or begging for assistance. (Day,1918,p127). Several claims by tramps are rejected annually, though the financial returns show payments to casual poor. Kildonan paupers in other parishes (2-4p.a.) are included but paupers from elsewhere (5-6p.a.) are ignored in this project. The percentage of the population on-the-roll rose a little above the Scottish average in 1870 and in most years until 1897. (Appendix-2).

Imbeciles and Lunatics.(sic)
There are 51 cases, 15% of the total (less than the national 20%). Six were sent to the Inverness Asylum for short periods before the Board of Lunacy payments began in 1876 and 36 thereafter, mostly after 1893 when the payments increased. (Appendix-3) Lodging-house keepers were authorised and paid by the Board to keep lunatics. Ten imbeciles were boarded-out in earlier years and sent to the Asylum later, one for ‘chasing conveyances on the highway’. Several widows-with-children spent time in the Asylum. It is impossible to classify the rest, perhaps depressed by impoverished circumstances?

Sick.
I defined “long-term-sick” as 38 (11%) who were on-the-roll before the age of 60, remaining for more than two years and “final-illness” as 12 (4%) younger cases dying within a year of joining the roll. Incapable paupers were nursed by untrained women who probably stayed off the roll themselves only by virtue of 1/- pw attendance paid for each. A Medical Officer shared with Loth parish was partly paid by government grant, (Day,1918,p128) though the Chairman of the Board complained repeatedly about the cost of the MO’s house. SDRs for paupers often indicate ‘old-age’ or ‘debility’ as a cause of death, making analysis pointless. Tuberculosis and phthisis were commonly reported as causes of premature death, probably due to damp, inadequate housing (Hunter,1976,p112-3). Medicines were provided to sick paupers but the Board was reluctant to send paupers to Inverness Infirmary. Typhoid, typhus and other fevers were regularly reported but serious expenditure on sanitation only begins after the Public Health Act of 1897.

Aged.
I defined the elderly at 65+, although the 1908 Act referred to over-70s. They account for much of the roll, 45% overall based on age-of-entry and higher based on actual ages, until 1908. The median age-of-entry to regular out-relief overall was 63, rising to 68 when I excluded widows-with-children and orphans. The median age of the 156 who were or had been on-the-roll and died aged 65+ (1864-1901) was 80. The median age of death of all 366 65+s in the parish (1855-1901) was 77. The oldest are most likely to need aid, but this does not explain such longevity on nine years of 1lb meal/day! (Appendix-8)
At Appendix-12, in 1871, 68% of females and 27% of males calculated to be 65+ were on-the-roll and in 1891, 53% of females and 10% of males. It is reasonable to assume that although some of those not on-the-roll may have had savings or remittances to live on, most lived with younger relatives. Out-migration of younger people as the population declined by 25% between 1851 and 1901 reduced the available support for the elderly.

Widows and Orphans.
During 1864-1908, 35 widows-with-children (11%) receive out-relief; for 21 in the parish and 8 elsewhere relief ceased, presumably when the children reached 14; Of only 4 widowers-with-children, two died leaving 6 orphans; 32 Married men (10 elderly, 5 elsewhere) featured of whom 20 died on-the-roll. (Appendix-9). 12 orphans or illegitimate children (4%), two of them imbeciles, were maintained, normally boarded-out in the community with one brought up in the Poorhouse from birth till 14.

Able-bodied claimants.
It is difficult to determine whether the able-bodied were assisted. 11% of cases (Appendix-10) are uncertain, some outwith the parish, others received short-term or one-off payments for unstated reasons. Apart from subsistence crofting agriculture, Kildonan depended on cyclical industries: inland sheep-farming and coastal arable-farming in eastern Sutherland were hit by agricultural depression after 1875 (Devine,1984,p243); the herring fishery could turn unpredictably from glut to famine. Kildonan residents who migrated for work might return to the parish during periods of unemployment. Seven shoemakers appeared on-the-roll in the years after the railway reached Helmsdale in 1870, perhaps assistance was given to craftsmen whose trade had been ruined? A cooper was described in a CEB as unemployed prior to joining the roll. Occasional charity could be paid to the able-bodied but only the infirm could receive regular relief. (Nicholls,1967,p112). The law was constantly broken when an able-bodied claimant had a sick dependent or a sympathetic MO could register the unemployed person as ‘disabled’. (Day,1918,p127). One can speculate that if an unemployed person became truly disabled by reason of their destitution and, therefore, a “proper object of relief”, they would probably remain unemployable. Truly an inept system, as described in MRNCBPLC.

Weekly Doles.
Some payments for rents or repairs were made and clothing, bedding and fuel given out, but there is insufficient data to evaluate them. I concentrated on an analysis of 2372 pauper-years of weekly outdoor-relief. (Appendix-6). Between 26 and 64 were on regular outdoor-relief (1864-1910) averaging 49 and 9 years/pauper. Doles ranged from 6d to 5/-, averaging 2/6 with a median 2/3 overall. Some families are included so median values are more significant than the average. Over decennial periods the doles rose steadily from 1/3 (1864-70), 1/6 (1871-80), 2/- (1881-90) and 2/9 (1891-1900).
The mid-1880s saw the rise of the Highland Land League. (Hunter,1976,p131-183). The Kildonan branch of the Sutherland Association, a precursor of the League, was active from 1878 (MacLeod,1917,p29) and forced the estate to concede on several local issues. (MacCall,1995). Crofter representatives (including the son of a pauper who died in 1885) were on the Board in 1890, (MPBs for 1885-1889 are missing) following the Third Reform Act(1885), but the doles were rising before 1885, so could the Board have been responding to local political pressure?
The rise is even more significant in the context of a prices index falling from its peak of 151 in 1877 to 92 in 1896 and 100 in 1900. (Bowley,1900). Adjusting to 1900 prices the median dole was 1/- in 1864, only reaching 1/3 in 1878, 2/- in 1887 and 3/- by 1897. At 1870 prices a diet of oatmeal, potatoes and fish providing just 1900 calories per day would cost 2/- pw and the actual median 1/3 buys just 7lb of oatmeal/week, (some doles were paid in meal). In 1900, 3/- pw would buy a more balanced 2800 calories/day. (Appendix-5). For comparison, at Appendix-4 it was calculated that on a Sutherland labourer’s wage, spending 3/- on food per head (plus sundries and rent) a couple would be in primary poverty with one child in 1868-1884 and throughout with two. (Rowntree,1902 and Bowley,1900). Appendix-7 graphically illustrates how difficult survival would have been for paupers. If destitute, as demanded by the Poor Law, how could they have ‘other resources’? Perhaps they received their customary codach (portion) from among the crofters and labourers. Waste fish from the harbour, nettles from the midden and shellfish from the shore may have provided extra when they were mobile enough to get them. Doles paid to long-term paupers sometimes rose in their final years.

Poorhouse.
The Sutherland Combination Poorhouse was too large, distant, expensive, unsuited to the Highlands and little-used. It cost 8/4 per pauper/week in 1879. (Day,1918,p111). The Scottish average in 1863 was 4/4. (Ferguson,1948,p218). The Poorhouse ‘Test’ was recommended for all but the most ‘deserving’, yet in Scotland generally only 14% were sent to the Poorhouse, probably because outdoor-relief was cheaper, compared with 31% in England. (Fraser&Morris,1990,p275). The English New Poor Law, designed for the rural South aimed to put as many paupers as possible in the workhouse. (Drake,1994, p277-278). Only 7 (2%) were sent (1868-1895), including a child for 14 years, yet the Poorhouse cost the parish £1176 in that time. (Appendix-3). A further five were sent in 1905-1915. Fourteen on outdoor-relief between 1867 and 1869 were ‘offered Poorhouse’, after pressure from the Board of Supervision, though only one was sent and seven continued on regular relief subsequently. Three more were ‘tested’ in 1901, two came off-the-roll but one continued. Several people refused even the offer of outdoor-relief demonstrating the ‘stigma’ effect and other deserving cases may well not have applied.
The ‘Barracks’ were a terrace of six pauper-houses in Helmsdale which cost £210 in repairs and housed, during 1872-1905, 14 individuals or families receiving regular relief totalling roughly £1060, or £8 per pauper-year instead of £49 for the Poorhouse. Cottages were taken over by the Board in exchange for relief and used as ‘Parochial lodging-houses’. (Day,1918,p116).

Conclusions:
The concern of the Board was ‘efficiency’ of relief to the deserving-poor and forcing the non-deserving-poor to labour. Doles rose from utterly inadequate to bare subsistence-level by 1900. The aged, insane and infirm were aided to the minimum level needed for survival, though this does not appear to have affected their life-expectancy. The able-bodied may have been assisted by subterfuge. The Poorhouse was expensive and unsuitable. Relatively large sums were spent on legal costs and administration. Though the MRNCBPLC criticisms were justified, it does not appear to have been as bad in Kildonan as in the urban areas. Economic dogma and parochial parsimony in the face of a rapidly changing economy bore hardest on the poorest.

Personal Note
My great-grandfather, Joseph MacLeod, MBE, author of 'Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement', a founder of the Sutherland Association and a prominent Land-League speaker, was the son of a shoemaker in Helmsdale. Alexander, his father received both occasional and regular out-relief at various times after 1870 until the last of his six children reached 14. Unusually Alexander came off the roll aged 65. The family lived at the Barracks where his mother nursed incapable paupers. Despite their circumstances, Alexander lived until he was 87 and Ann, his wife, to 97.


References
Primary:
Census Enumeration Books for Kildonan parish, (52), 1851, - transcribed on my computer
Census Enumeration Books for Kildonan parish, (52), 1861,1871,1881,1891 - microfilm (CEBs)
Old Parish Record for Loth (1803-1854) and Kildonan (1791-1854). - transcribed on computer (OPR)
Published List of Registered Poor chargeable to the Parish of Kildonan 1868-1915 - (LRP)
Statutory Death records for parish of Kildonan 1855-1901 - (SDR)
Minutes of the Parochial Board for the Parish of Kildonan 1845-1924 - (MPB)
Highland Council Archives: CS6/8/2, 1863-1870
CS6/8/3, 1871-1878
CS6/8/4, 1877-1884 Scroll (Draft book only)
CS6/8/5, 1890-1904

Official Reports:
The report of the National Committee to promote the break-up of the Poor Law Commission, 1909 - (NCBPLC)
The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission for Scotland, in the above report of the National Committee to promote the break-up of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, (MRNCBPLC)
Report by the Board of Trade into Earnings and Hours of Labour of Work People in the UK, Vol V - Agriculture in 1907, HMSO, 1910
Report of an enquiry by the Board of Trade into Working Class rents and retail prices in industrial towns in 1912, HMSO, 1913

DA301 Final Project Report,
MacCall, A.T., Marrel East Sutherland during the Highland Land War of the 1880s, Project report submitted for Open University Course DA301 (Studying Family and Community History), 1995

Published Secondary Sources:
Alison, W.P., 1840, On the management of the poor in Scotland, Blackwood
Bowley, A.L.,1900, Wages in the UK in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge
Checkland, O, 1980, Philanthropy in Victorian Scotland, John Donald, Edinburgh
Crowther, A.M. Poverty, ‘Health & Welfare’ in Fraser & Morris, People & Society in Scotland, qv
Day, J.P., 1918, Public Administration in the Highlands & Islands, London
Devine, T.M.,(Ed), 1984, Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland Scotland, 1770-1914, John Donald
Drake, M. (Ed), 1994, Time Family and Community, Open University
Drake & Finnegan, (Ed), 1997, Sources and Methods, (Vol 4), Open University
Finnegan & Drake, (Ed), 1994, From Family Tree to Family History, (Vol 1), Open University
Flinn M.W, & Smout, TC.,1977, Scottish Population History from the C17 to the 1930s, Cambridge
Ferguson, T, 1948, The Dawn of Scottish Social Welfare, Nelson, Edinburgh
Fraser & Morris, (Eds), 1990, People and Society in Scotland Vol II 1830-1914, John Donald, Edin.
Golby, J (Ed), 1994, Communities and Families, (Vol 3), Open University
Gray, M, 1957,. The Highland Economy 1750-1850, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh
Hunter, J, 1976, The Making of the Crofting Community, John Donald, Edinburgh
Kyd, J.G., 1975, Scottish Population Statistics, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh
Levitt, I, 1988,. Poverty and Welfare in Scotland 1890-1948, Edinburgh
Levitt, I. & Smout, T.C., 1979, The State of the Scottish Working Class in 1843, Edinburgh
MacLachlan, G (Ed), 1987, Improving the Common Weal, Edinburgh
MacLeod, J. (1917), Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement, Inverness
MacPherson, J.M, nd, . The Kirk’s Care of the Poor, Aberdeen
Nicholls, Sir G, 1967, [1856], A History of the Scotch Poor Law, Kelley, New York
Pryce, W.T.R. (Ed), 1994, From Family History to Community History, (Vol 2), Open University
Richards, E, 1973, The Leviathan of Wealth, Routledge, London
Rowntree, B.S., 1902, Poverty. A study of Town Life, MacMillan
Smout, TC, 1986, A Century of the Scottish People, 1830-1950, Collins, London