The 1601 Poor Relief Act
1601, the 43rd year of the reign of Elizabeth I, saw the passing of An Acte for the Reliefe of the Poore (43 Eliz. I c.2) which, although it was essentially a refinement of the 1597 Act, is often cited as marking the foundation of the Old Poor Laws.

Opening section of the 1601 Act.
Under the 1601 Act, each parish was obliged to relieve the aged and the helpless, to bring up unprotected children in habits of industry, and to provide work for those capable of it but who were lacking their usual trade.
The main objectives of the 1601 Act were:
- The establishment of the parish as the administrative unit responsible for poor relief, with churchwardens or parish overseers collecting poor-rates and allocating relief.
- The provision of materials such as flax, hemp and wool to provide work for the able-bodied poor. Any able-bodied pauper who refused to work was liable to be placed in a 'House of Correction' or prison.
- The relief of the 'impotent' poor — the old, the blind, the lame, and so on. This could include the provision of 'houses of dwelling' — almshouses or poorhouses rather than workhouses. The Act also made the relief and maintenance of such persons, the legal responsibility of their parents, grandparents, or children, if such relatives were themselves able to provide such support.
- The setting to work and apprenticeship of children
Collection of the poor rates was done by the parish overseers who were unpaid and elected annually by the parish vestry. This was never a popular job and even missing one of their regular monthly meetings could result in an overseer receiving a hefty one pound fine. The poor-rates were dispensed to the needy of the parish as 'out-relief', usually in the form of bread, clothing, fuel, the payment of rent, or money.
You can read the full text of the 1601 Act.
.Bibliography
- Slack, Paul. The English Poor Law, 1531-1782, 1990, CUP.
- Webb, Sidney and Beatrice English Poor Law History, 1927, Longmans, Green & Co., London.
- Webb, Sidney and Beatrice English Poor Law Policy, 1910, Longmans, Green & Co., London.
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