Nottinghamshire Poor Law

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Poor Law

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An Act of Parliament in the year 1834 took the responsibility of administering to the poor from the local parish church to the doorstep of civil government. The government grouped each civil parish into a union of parishes. There were nearly 600 such unions throughout England, each one comprising close to 20 or more parishes, and were specifically setup to meet the demands of the poor among their local populations, with a workhouse on the premises. The responsibility was transferred from local parishes to a Board of Guardians in each union. These groupings or unions were known as poor-law unions. Nottinghamshire had the following poor law unions within its boundaries:

The Poor Law Unions

• Basford Poor Law Union, Nottinghamshire
• Bingham Poor Law Union, Nottinghamshire
• Mansfield Poor Law Union, Nottinghamshire
• Newark Poor Law Union, Nottinghamshire
• Nottingham Poor Law Union, Nottinghamshire
• Radford Poor Law Union,Nottinghamshire
• East Retford Poor Law Union,Nottinghamshire
• Southwell Poor Law Union,Nottinghamshire
• Worksop Poor Law Union, Nottinghamshire

The Records

Records from the poor law unions, which were created from this time forward include the following:

1. Guardianship
2. Creed Registers
3. Rate books
4. Workhouse Lists of Inmates
5. Register of Apprentices
6. Register of Births
7. Register of Deaths
8. Vestry Rate Books
9. Admission and Discharge Registers
10. Board of Guardians' Records

Records at The FamilySearch Library

To determine records availability for each poor law union, search the FamilySearch Catalog under the name of the county (Nottinghamshire), and then under the name of the poor law union, i.e. Southwell; then search using "poor law" or "poorhouses".

Pre-1834

Nottinghamshire Record Office staff created an index to old poor law records. It is available on microfilm:

• Index to Settlement Certificate and Examinations, and Removal Orders, 1697-1861 FS Catalog Collection

Online Transcriptions Relating to Poor Law Records

• The Workhouse
• Paupers in Workhouses 1861, 10 percent sample of England's poor in 1861.