Sickness, medical welfare and the English poor, 1750-1834

This book explores the experiences of the sick poor between the 1750s and through the so-called crisis of the Old Poor Law ending in the 1830s. It provides a comprehensive and colourful overview of the nature, scale and negotiation of medical welfare. At its core stand the words and lives of the poor themselves, reconstructed in painstaking detail to show that medical welfare became a totemic issue for parochial authorities by the 1830s. The book suggests that the Old Poor Law confronted a rising tide of sickness by the early nineteenth century. While there are spectacular instances of parsimony and neglect in response to rising need, in most places and at most times, parish officers seem to have felt moral obligations to the sick. Indeed, we might construct their responses as considerate and generous. To some extent this reflected Christian paternalism but also other factors such as a growing sense that illness, even illness among the poor, was and should be remediable and a shared territory of negotiation between paupers, advocates and officials. The result was a canvas of medical welfare with extraordinary depth. By the 1820s, more of the ill-health of ordinary people was captured by the poor law and being doctored or sojourning in an institution became part of pauper and parochial expectation. These trends are brought to vivid life in the words of the poor and their advocates, such that the book genuinely offers a re-interpretation of the Old Poor Law from the bottom up. ' Sickness, medical welfare and the English poor explores the welfare experiences of the sick poor from the 1750s through to the 1830s, covering the so-called and#x2018;crisis of the Old Poor Law'. Drawing together a considerable amount of data and#x2013; from accounts, vestry minutes and bills, to letters written by, for or about the poor and#x2013; this study provides a comprehensive and colourful overview of the nature, scale and negotiation of medical welfare. At its core stand the words and lives of the poor themselves, reconstructed in painstaking detail to show how medical welfare became a totemic issue for parochial authorities by the 1830s. The Old Poor Law confronted a rising tide of sickness by the early nineteenth century. Whilst there were certainly instances of parsimony and neglect in response to rising need, this was not the norm, with parish officers more often feeling a strong sense of moral obligation to the sick. This can be attributed to a sense of Christian paternalism, but we also see other factors at play. There was a growing sense that illness amongst the poor was remediable and that there was scope for negotiation of the relief package between paupers, advocates and officials. The result was a canvas of medical welfare with extraordinary colour and depth. By the 1820s, more of the ill-health of ordinary people was captured by the Poor Law and being doctored or sojourning in an institution became part of pauper and parochial expectation. These trends are brought to vivid life in the words of the poor and their advocates, with the study offering a re-interpretation of the Old Poor Law in its later phases' --Back cover At the core of this book are three central contentions: That medical welfare became the totemic function of the Old Poor Law in its last few decades; that the poor themselves were able to negotiate this medical welfare rather than simply being subject to it; and that being doctored and institutionalised became part of the norm for the sick poor by the 1820s, in a way that had not been the case in the 1750s. Exploring the lives and medical experiences of the poor largely in their own words, Sickness, medical welfare and the English poor offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of the so-called crisis of the Old Poor Law from the later eighteenth century. The sick poor became an insistent presence in the lives of officials and parishes and the (largely positive) way that communities responded to their dire needs must cause us to rethink the role and character of the poor law. Front matter Dedication Contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Part I Locating sickness and medical welfare The ecology of poor relief Defining and measuring Negotiating medical welfare Part II The scale and character of medical welfare Treating the sick poor: a quantitative overview Medical people Wider medical welfare Dying, being buried and leaving people behind Part III Parochial medical welfare in context Institutions and the sick poor The medical economy of makeshifts Making sense of diversity Appendix Bibliography Index This book explores the medical world of the poor and the Old Poor Law in the period 1750-1834. Encountering the sick poor in their own words and everyday situations, I offer a new and more positive view of English welfare.