Bowden Park <1>
Thursday Eve
Dear Sir,
I quite concur with you as to Moore’s <2> going to Uley to obtain any and every information relative to the plan they adopt we shall then see how far it may be applied to Lacock parish<3> at any rate practical experience is the most useful but I much doubt the policy of sending the poor to befarmed by another parish first because I question the legality of such a measure and secondly I fear it would cause great dissatisfaction particularly from the disposition that generally prevails amongst the poor to complain the truth as falshood upon which could not be ascertained as the distance would preclude the possibility of Your Overseers superintending and I much question the parish of Uley consenting to the transfer & much confusion I fear would result independent of increased expansion – My first suggestion was for two or three cottages to be joined together and fitted up as a workhouse with a useful active superintendn paid moderately and amounted in proportion to his merits having every thing made at the house beer brewed & bread baked subject to daily inspection by the overseers or any parishioner if this plan were adopted and looked after I have little doubt of its saving the Inhabitants many pounds, I also recommend a select vestry to meet once a fortnight chosen by the parish annually to meet many morn or eve as may best suit the great advantages of which if properly selected have too obvious to admit of doubt – Cottage Gardens have in most instances proved very beneficial one quarter of an acre given to each pauper With a family paying for one weeks labour to get it in order and giving seeds for the first crop charging a very moderate rent the first year having an inspecting committee what shall determine at the end of the year the allowment entitled to several such as a spade rake hoe &c – and if your funds were sufficient some more valuable proof of your approbation – this would tend to keep the men from the Beer houses & bring up their children in habits of industry.
most willing shall I be to lend the little knowledge I possess in furthering any plan for the employment of the poor the reduction of the rates and the better security of the neighborhood while I am amongst you persuaded it is a subject of vital importance to the Country I fear I shall have tired you but I have long been almost a slave to the subject
I remain Dr Sir Yours most truly
Ez Harman
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Notes:
1. Bowden Park, Wiltshire, 1 mi SE of Lacock.
2. Thomas Moore (possibly d. 1854), member of the Lacock Parish Vestry. [See Doc. No: 02596].
3. The ‘Select Vestry’ was a voting body set up to assist the poor. With the severity of depression in rural areas after the Napoleonic Wars, and the onset of industrialisation, the traditional means of supporting the poor were clearly inadequate. In 1818, the ‘Act for the Regulation of Parish Vestries’ passed, setting up a voting system based on the rateable value of property. In 1819, this was further amended to add resident clergymen. The Select Vestry elected the Guardians of the Poor and distinguished between the 'deserving' poor and those who were idle. These acts were named after their supporter, the Tory MP, William Sturges-Bourne (1769-1845). This system was completely replaced in 1834 with the passage of the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’, which established a national Poor Law Commission. Each parish, or union of small parishes, was required to build a workhouse. Outdoor relief was permitted, but discouraged, and previous discrimination against Roman Catholics and Non-Conformists was eliminated. This forced revisions to the workhouses and practices of Select Vestry in parishes that had established a system. In the 1840s, further restrictions were introduced which compelled confinement to a workhouse as the only method of receiving aid.