Accommodating the elderly poor: almshouses and the mixed economy of welfare in England in the second millennium

Abstract

This article provides an outline of the development of the English almshouse across the second millennium, and its place within the broader spectrum of social welfare. It discusses the evolution of the almshouse into its modern form, as privately endowed housing dedicated to the elderly poor. It presents the results of new research that provides a firmer quantitative foundation for consideration of the role of the almshouse in welfare history and revisits the issue of the mixed economy of welfare to demonstrate the complex relationship between public and private provision.

Keywords:

• almshouse
• philanthropy
• elderly

Notes

¹ The quotation is from Innes, ‘State’ (1998), 24. For the new research projects in England and Holland see Goose/Basten, ‘Almshouse Residency’ (2009); Goose, ‘English Almshouse’ (2010), 3–19; Goose/Looijesteijn ‘Almshouses’ (2012); and the papers in the special issue of Continuity and Change, Vol. 27 (2012).

² Cunningham, ‘Introduction’ (1998), 2.

³ van Voss/van Leeuwen, ‘Charity’ (2012), 176.

⁴ van Voss/van Leeuwen, ‘Charity’ (2012), 177; van Leeuwen, ‘Giving’ (2012); Looijesteijn, ‘Funding’ (2012).

⁵ Davis, ‘Poor Relief’ (1975), 17–64.

⁶ Davis, ‘Poor Relief’ (1975), 46.

⁷ Innes, ‘State’ (1998), 28, 30.

⁸ van Nederveen Meerkerk, ‘Will’ (2010); see also Prak, ‘Armenzorg’ (1998) ; van Leeuwen et al., Continuity and Change, Vol. 27 (2012).

⁹ Solar, ‘Poor Relief’ (1995), 3.

¹⁰ Clay, Hospitals (1909), 17–30; Godfrey, Almshouse (1955), 15–20; Howson, Houses (1993), 17–33; Orme/Webster, Hospital (1995), 15–68. The best recent general survey is Sweetinburgh, Hospital (2004), 19–67.

¹¹ McIntosh, Autonomy (1986), 238–40; Rubin, Charity (1987), 288–9.

¹² McIntosh, ‘Local Responses’ (1988), 217–25; Schofield, ‘Geographical Distribution’ (1965); Sheail, ‘Distribution’ (1972).

¹³ Orme/Webster, Hospital (1995), 28–9; Rawcliffe, Leprosy (2006), Chapter 6.

¹⁴ For an accessible but authoritative modern account of the break with Rome, see Guy, Tudor England (1988), 116–53.

¹⁵ McIntosh, ‘Local Responses’ (1988), 228; McIntosh, Poor Relief (2012), 124–7.

¹⁶ Rushton, ‘Monastic’ (2001); Rushton/Sigle-Rushton, ‘Monastic’ (2001).

¹⁷ The best account of poverty and poor relief in this period is still Slack, Poverty (1988). Hindle, Parish (2004), provides some updating and slight modifications, though is wholly rural in its focus. A useful short summary covering a longer time period is Slack, English Poor Law (1990).

¹⁸ Solar, ‘Poor Relief (1995), 3; Slack, Poverty (1988), 170; Hindle, Birthpangs (2000); Hindle, Parish (2004), 246, 251.

¹⁹ Slack, Poverty (1988), 170.

²⁰ Hindle, Parish (2004), 246, 251.

²¹ Personal communication.

²² McIntosh, Poor Relief (2012), 8, 127–38, 295–6.

²³ See my extended review of McIntosh's book in the Institute of Historical Research's online Reviews in History.

²⁴ Goose, ‘Philanthropy’ (2006), 484; Goose/Cooper, Colchester (1998), 88–97.

²⁵ Ben-Amos, Culture (2008), 140–1, 378.

²⁶ Jordan, Philanthropy (1959). Jordan included the cities of London and Bristol as two of his ten ‘counties’.

²⁷ Jordan, Philanthropy (1959), 240.

²⁸ Jordan, Philanthropy (1959), 24.

²⁹ Bittle/Lane, ‘Inflation’ (1976); Hadwin, ‘Deflating Philanthropy’ (1978). This would not hold true, of course, if there was a wholesale collapse of established charities, but there is no evidence that this was the case for endowed charities.

³⁰ McIntosh, Poor Relief (2012), 68–71.

³¹ Wrigley et al., English Population (1997), Table A9.1.

³² These figures are slightly at variance with those offered by McIntosh: Poor Relief (2012), 75.

³³ Slack, Poverty (1988), 171.

³⁴ Goose, ‘Philanthropy’ (2006), 482–3.

³⁵ Morant, History (1748/1970), Book III, 1.

³⁶ British Parliamentary Papers, 1837–8, Vol. XXV.I, Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring Concerning Charities, 32nd Report Part I, 536–7. On his death in 1684 he left a further £5 per annum after his wife's death to the poor of the Dutch Congregation as long as it persisted, £10 to the Dutch poor, £10 to his poor neighbours in Northstreet, and £1 for each loom that his weavers had in work for him: The National Archive (hereafter TNA) PROB 11, Cann 50, TNA, PCC will of John Winnocke, baymaker, St Peters, drawn 1684, proved 1685.

³⁷ Jordan, Philanthropy (1959), 27, 261–2.

³⁸ Archer, ‘Hospitals’ (2008), Table 4, 65.

³⁹ Slack, English Poor Law (1990), Table 1, 30.

⁴⁰ Kidd, State (1999), 66.

⁴¹ Owen, Philanthropy (1964), 86; Slack, English Poor Law (1990), 30.

⁴² Owen, Philanthropy (1964), 86; Gorsky, Philanthropy (1999), 41–2.

⁴³ Owen, Philanthropy (1964), 192.

⁴⁴ Williams, Pauperism (1981), Table 4.6, 169.

⁴⁵ British Parliamentary Papers 1877, Vol. LXVI, Explanatory memoranda and tabular summaries of the general digest, Table 111.

⁴⁶ Kidd, State (1999), 67.

⁴⁷ Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse (1988), 41.

⁴⁸ Brown, Whiteley (1992); Howson, Almshouses (2008), 71.

⁴⁹ Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse (1988), 80.

⁵⁰ Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse (1988), 88; Knight, Voluntary Action (1993), 22.

⁵¹ Bryson/McGuiness/Ford, ‘Chasing’ (2002), 50–1.

⁵² http://www.almshouses.info/, ‘What are almshouses?’ accessed 13th June 2012.

⁵³ The cities included separately in the data in Table 1 are excluded from the foregoing discussion.

⁵⁴ The closer the correlation coefficient is to 1.0, of course, the stronger is the statistical association.

⁵⁵ Goose, ‘Regions’ (forthcoming).

⁵⁶ Sixty was the most common age at which individuals were eligible for almshouse accommodation from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and the most common age in the Victorian period to mark the onset of ‘old age’: Goose/Looijsteijn, ‘Almshouses’ (2012), 1056–7.

⁵⁷ The ‘hazardous and irregular’ nature of voluntary giving has also been emphasised recently by Ben-Amos, Culture (2008), 388.

⁵⁸ Broad, ‘Housing’ (2000), Table 1, 168.

⁵⁹ Broad, ‘Parish Economies’ (1999), 997–8, 1000.

⁶⁰ TNA, PROB 11, 45 Dixy, PCC will, John Hunwick, merchant and bailiff, 1594; Essex Record Office (hereafter ERO), Borough Muniments, Assembly Book 1576–99 [10 November, 1595, 3 September 1596].

⁶¹ ERO, Borough Muniments, Assembly Book 1620–46, f.176v [1637]; Assembly Book 1646–66; British Parliamentary Papers, 1837–8, Vol. XXV.I, Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring Concerning Charities, 32nd Report Part I, 552; Cooper, Victoria History (1994), 369. In 1748 Morant noted that the interest on the £300 had been distributed to 1741, although ‘it is sunk in proportion to the interest of other moneys’: History (1748 and 1970), Book III, 2.

⁶² Cooper, Victoria History (1994), Vol. 9, 308.

⁶³ Norfolk Record Office, Case 20f/14 William Doughty's Will, 25th April 1687; N/MC 2/3 Hospital Committee minutes, April 1708-April 1720. See also Goose/Moden, Doughty's Hospital (2010), 31–4, 60–1.

⁶⁴ Owen, Philanthropy (1964), 538–41, quote on 541.

⁶⁵ Owen, Philanthropy (1964), 547–52, quote at 552. This is discussed more fully in Part IV of Goose/Moden, Doughty's Hospital (2010).

⁶⁶ Imray, Charity (1968), 32–3.

⁶⁷ Richmond, ‘Victorian Values’ (2001), 229.

⁶⁸ Richmond, ‘Victorian Values’ (2001), 227–8.

⁶⁹ Thomson, ‘Almshouses’ (2011).

⁷⁰ Howson, Almshouses (2008), 47–8.

⁷¹ Murdoch/Vigne, French Hospital (2009). The quotations are taken from a Huguenot Society leaflet.

⁷² Howson, Almshouses (2008), 70.

⁷³ See the online database associated with McIntosh's book, available on the CUP website.

⁷⁴ Goose/Basten, ‘Almshouse Residency’ (2009).

⁷⁵ Fissell, ‘Charity’ (1992).

⁷⁶ Rose, Relief of Poverty (1972), Appendix A, 50; Goose, ‘Poverty’ (2005), Table 1, 35.

⁷⁷ The increasing frailty of almshouse residents, who are themselves becoming older as they strive to maintain independent households for as long as possible, is a problem well known to the almshouse movement in the twenty-first century.

⁷⁸ For a stimulating historical account of old age which also considers the elderly in contemporary Britain, see Thane, Old Age (2000). For continued family and community support see also Freeman/Wannell, ‘Family’ (2009).