Ancestry UK

Long-term Workhouse Inmates in Penzance Union, Cornwall, 1861

In 1861, the Poor Law Board published a return of the name every adult pauper who had been a workhouse inmate for a continuous period of five years or more, together with the duration of their residence (in years and months), the reason for it, and whether they had been brought up in a District or separate Workhouse School. It was noted that the term 'District School' had been widely misinterpreted by respondents as meaning any school in the local area, such as a national or private school, and that there was only one instance in the whole report of an inmate actually having been in such a school.

NameYrsms.ReasonSchool
Eliza Phillips200Loss of one legno.
Elizabeth Matthews220Epilepsyno.
Jane Barnes63Paralysisno.
Sarah Triggs180Bodily infirmityno.
Grace Warren59Inability to support herself and her two illegitimate children.no.
Maria Hancock60Reduced from affluence to poverty through extravagance; bodily and mentally incapacitated for labour,no.
Anne Jennings80Imbecilityno.
Anne Ellis60dittono.
Mary Grose210Bodily infirmityno.
Ann Bryant130Imbecilityno.
Elizabeth Hart120Old ageno.
Prudence Thomas200Epilepsy and old ageno.
Philip Harvey150Paralysisno.
Mary Ann Hyden200Epilepsyno.
Martha Webb153Mental infirmityworkh. school.
Thomasine Snell66Blindnessno.
Anne Williams180Old ageno.
Grace Eddy80Inability to support herself and her two illegitimate children.no.
James Dyer143Old ageno.
Eliza Trenyard70Partial blindness and imbecilityworkh. school.

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