Westminster, London, England, Poor Law Registers, 1561-1900

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Westminster, London, England, Poor Law Registers, 1561-1900 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2023.
Original data: Westminster Poor Law Records. London, England: City of Westminster Archives Centre.

About Westminster, London, England, Poor Law Registers, 1561-1900

General collection information

This collection contains records pertaining to the Poor Laws in the parishes of Westminster between 1561 and 1900.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

  • Name
  • Maiden name
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Marital status
  • Name of person apprenticed to
  • Event date
  • Arrival date
  • Departure date and place
  • Death date and place
  • Birth date, parish, and county
  • Marriage date, parish, and county
  • Parents’ names
  • Mother’s maiden name
  • Parents’ marriage date, parish, and county
  • Spouse’s name
  • Spouse’s maiden name
  • Spouse’s birthplace
  • Next of kin birth date, age, relationship, and parish
  • Second next of kin birth date, age, relationship, and parish
  • Third next of kin birth date, age, relationship, and parish
  • Fourth next of kin birth date, age, relationship, and parish
  • Fifth next of kin birth date, age, relationship, and parish

    • Poor Law records can include many family names and the relationships between family members enabling you to expand your genealogical research. Some records also contain biographical narratives and clues to the financial status of your ancestor.

    Collection in context

    The registers were created by parish and government officials in the parishes of Westminster.. The original documents are housed in the City of Westminster Archives Centre.

    Church parishes were charged with taking care of their poor residents by the Poor Law Act of 1601. The act limited the mobility of poor people; if an impoverished person moved into their boundaries, parishes had the legal authority to send that person back to their original parish to receive relief. By 1697, poor people who moved had to carry a certificate noting their official parish for purposes of relief.

    Poor residents could receive two types of assistance. Some people received payments to supplement their incomes, which was known as outdoor relief. For those who were destitute, indoor relief meant time in a workhouse. After 1834, when the Poor Law Amendment Act was instituted, outdoor relief was limited while workhouses became more widespread. The act allowed parishes to form unions to share the costs of poor relief and in 1868, the Westminster Union was established from the parishes of St. James, St. Anne, and Soho.

    For most of the 1800s, parish workhouses were operated by boards of governors who were often the top businessmen of the community. Some boards ran the workhouses like prisons, while others were more benevolent. In the worst workhouses, life for the poor was constant manual work amid poor living conditions. Workhouses were crowded, allowing diseases to quickly spread, and families were split up by a system whose main goal was often profit rather than relief for the poor.

    By 1900, when the most recent records in this collection are dated, workhouses were beginning to be viewed as places of cruel punishment. During the early 20th century, many workhouses were transformed into facilities for the care of the elderly or chronically ill.

    Bibliography

    Brain, Jessica. “The Victorian Workhouse.” Historic UK. Accessed January 26, 2023. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Victorian-Workhouse/.

    City of Westminster Archives Centre. “Parish and workhouse records.” Accessed January 26, 2023. https://www.westminster.gov.uk/leisure-libraries-and-community/archives/researching-family-history-archives-centre/parish-and-workhouse-records.

    ---. “Poor Law Records.” Accessed January 26, 2023. https://www.westminster.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/documents/Poor%20law.pdf.

    Higgenbotham, Peter. “City of Westminster, London.” Workhouses.org. Accessed January 26, 2023. https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Westminster/.