ABSTRACT
AMONG the best sources of information on how the poor lived in the eighteenth century are collections of parish or township papers dealing with the Old Poor Law. This body of legislation, codified under the first Elizabeth, had a wide application. It covered the care of the aged and infirm poor, the binding of poor children apprentice, the punishment of vagrants and beggars, the employment of those without work, the levying of a poor rate and the appointment of local officials, the overseers of the poor, to control these activities in every parish. The Poor Law of Elizabeth I, with numerous modifications, governed the care of the poor in this country down to 1834. Shortly after the Restoration an alteration was made whereby the law could be administered on a township rather than a parochial basis in the North of England, where parishes were often so large as to make administration difficult.
