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Elizabethan Poor Law (1572)

Type Object Region Europe Time 1536–1834

The 1572 Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars Act and the 1576 Act for the Relief of the Poor formed the core of late Tudor parish poor relief in England, es…

Timeline

  1. 1536–1563England · EnglandAfter Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, responsibility for poor relief shifted from the Church to secular parishes; early legislation such as the 1563 Statute of Artificers attempted to distinguish the idle from the deserving poor, paving the way for systematic reform in the 1570s.
  2. 1572Westminster · EnglandParliament passed the Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars Act, authorizing parishes to aid the deserving elderly, sick, and infirm, to whip and compel able-bodied vagrants to labor, and to levy taxes to fund relief.
  3. 1576England · EnglandThe 1576 legislation required parishes to provide raw materials and tools to employ poor artisans and authorized the establishment of Houses of Correction, further institutionalizing relief and forced labor.
  4. 1577–1580Parishes across England · EnglandIn the late 1570s, parishes progressively appointed overseers of the poor, levied parish taxes, and kept relief registers, gradually implementing the 1572–1576 legislation at the local level and accumulating practical experience for the unified Poor Law of 1601.

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