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English Poor Law (1598)

Type Event Region Europe Time 1598

In 1598 the English Parliament passed a Poor Law establishing a framework of parish responsibility for relieving the poor.

Timeline

  1. 1597England · EnglandPopulation growth, rising prices, and harvest failures led to a surge in vagrant paupers; the parliament of 1597 had already passed a preliminary poor law authorizing parishes to settle paupers and establish workhouses, laying the foundation for more systematic legislation in 1598.
  2. 1598Westminster · LondonParliament passed the Poor Law (39 Eliz. c. 3), providing that parish overseers be responsible for levying the poor rate, relieving the aged, infirm, and sick, providing work opportunities for able-bodied paupers, and punishing those who refused to work and vagrant beggars, establishing a system of parish poor relief responsibility.
  3. 1598–1601Parishes across England · EnglandParishes across the country successively appointed poor relief overseers, levied the poor rate, and established almshouses or workhouses. This system localized and institutionalized poor relief, profoundly influencing British social policy for the next two centuries, and was integrated and refined by the Poor Law of 1601.

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