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A mini history of poor law records
Last month we looked at the main collections of records created by our Anglican parishes; the registers of baptisms, marriages, banns and burials. But the parish chest contained a lot more besides.
The lives of our rural ancestors were largely ruled by two institutions; the Manor and the Parish. We’ll take a look at some of the documents created by the Manorial Courts later in the year but this month we’ll explore one of the most important roles carried out by the parish authorities; namely, the administration of the Poor Law.