Pauper Voices, Public Opinion and Workhouse Reform in Mid-Victorian England : Bearing Witness

"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 Dickens and Florence Nightingale. It is a subject on which the existing workhouse literature is largely silent, and this book therefore fills a considerable gap in our understanding of contemporary attitudes towards institutional welfare. Although many scholars have touched on the more obvious strands of workhouse criticism noted above, few have gone beyond these to explore the possibility that a concerted 'movement' existed that sought to place pressure on those with responsibility for workhouse administration, and to influence the trajectory of workhouse policy"--Cover, page [4] Preface 5 Contents 7 List of Tables 8 Chapter 1: From Resistance to Reform: Changing Attitudes to the New Poor Law Workhouse in England and Wales 9 Continuity and Change 10 Workhouse Contexts: The Long Eighteenth Century 13 Public Opinion and the New Poor Law Workhouse 21 Thinking of Reform 31 Chapter 2: Not That Joseph Rowntree: The Amateur Workhouse Inspector 47 Introduction 48 The Amateur Workhouse Inspector 51 Rowntree and the Casual Poor 55 Rowntree and the Poor Law Board 62 “A Long Tissue of Captious, Ill-Tempered, Uncharitable Fault Finding”: Responses to Rowntree’s Criticisms74 66 Chapter 3: Pauper Letter Writers and the Workhouse Experience 81 Introduction 82 Thomas Gould, Poplar Workhouse 87 Mungo Paumier, Bethnal Green Workhouse 92 Henry Jones, Pwllheli Workhouse 94 John Rutherford, Poplar Workhouse 98 Workhouse “Crusaders” and the Court of Public Opinion 102 Chapter 4: Bearing Witness and Thinking Again 117 Bibliography 125 Primary Sources 125 Acts, Guides and Circulars 125 The National Archives 125 Newspapers and Periodicals 126 Printed Primary Sources 127 Secondary Sources 128 Unpublished Sources 136 Websites 137 Index 138 Front Matter ....Pages i-ix From Resistance to Reform: Changing Attitudes to the New Poor Law Workhouse in England and Wales (Peter Jones, Steven King)....Pages 1-38 Not That Joseph Rowntree: The Amateur Workhouse Inspector (Peter Jones, Steven King)....Pages 39-72 Pauper Letter Writers and the Workhouse Experience (Peter Jones, Steven King)....Pages 73-108 Bearing Witness and Thinking Again (Peter Jones, Steven King)....Pages 109-116 Back Matter ....Pages 117-136