Ancestry UK

Knatchbull's Act (Workhouse Test Act)

Sir Edward Knatchbull's Act of 1722-3 — For Amending the Laws relating to the Settlement, Imployment and Relief of the Poor (9 Geo. I c.7) enabled workhouses to be set up by parishes either singly, or in combination with neighbouring parishes.

An abstract of Knatchbull's Act is given below:

The Church-Wardens and Overseers of the Poor of any Parish, with the Consent of the Major Part of the Parishioners, in Vestry, or other Publick Meeting for that purpose assembled, upon usual notice given, may purchase or hire any House or Houses in the Parish or Place, and Contract with Persons for the Lodging, Keeping and Employing of poor Persons; and there they are to keep them, and take the Benefit of their Work and Labour, for the better Maintenance and Relief of such Persons. And in case any poor Person shall refuse to be Lodg'd, Kept and Maintain'd in such House or Houses, such Person shall be put out of the Parish Books, and not entituled to Relief.
  Where Parishes are small, two or more such Parishes, with the Approbation of a Justice of the Peace, may unite in Purchasing or Hiring Houses for the Purposes aforesaid. And Church-Wardens, etc. of one Parish, with the Consent of the Major Part of the Parishioners, may contract with the Church-Wardens, etc. of any other Parish, for the Lodging and Maintenance of the Poor.
  But no poor Persons, or their Apprentices, Children, etc. shall receive a settlement in the Parish, Town, or Place to which they shall be removed, by Virtue of this Act.
  Note. This is a General Law, and extends to all England.

You can read the full text of the Knatchbull's Act

Knatchbull's Act was also the first legal embodiment of the workhouse test — that the prospect of workhouse should act as a deterrent and that relief should only be available to those who were desperate enough to accept its regime. The workhouse test probably owes its origin to Matthew Marryott, a workhouse manager from Buckinghamshire, who opened his first establishment at Olney in 1714. Marryott promoted the operation of many workhouses in the south of England. He may also have had a hand in the writing of the 1725 publication An Account of Several Workhouses for Employing and Maintaining the Poor, which described the operation of over 100 workhouses and the financial benefits to a parish of their introduction.

Parishes often adopted Knatchbull's Act in the belief that it would reduce the demand for poor relief, and thus the parish poor rates, especially if the workhouse was the only form of relief on offer. Parishes could also operate a mixed system, with 'deserving' claimants such as the elderly or chronic sick being given out-relief (hand-outs in cash or kind), while support for claimants such as the able-bodied could be limited to the workhouse.

By 1732, following Knatchbull's Act, it is estimated (Slack, 1990) that about 700 workhouses were in operation. Parliamentary reports in 1776-7 list a total of almost 2,000 parish workhouses in operation in England and Wales — approximately one parish in seven. However, the great majority of parishes did not establish a workhouse, preferring to relieve their poor only through out-relief.

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