ABSTRACT
The working classes of Colyton, approached old age knowing that there was an alternative to the workhouse, and that the Poor Law, through which the community looked after its elderly, would support them when they could no longer earn a living. Two small farmers had to relinquish their tenancies and went on to the Feoffees’ list of the poor, and although one left Colyton altogether, the other obtained work as an agricultural labourer, and ultimately retired on a Poor Law pension at the age of seventy-three. In 1851, Colyton contained 190 men and women who were sixty years of age and over, and who, whether married, widowed, separated, or in one case single, had had one or more offspring who survived to adulthood. Single children, however, were only one line of defence in the fight against loneliness and incapacity in old age. Married sons and daughters who remained in Colyton were also available, close to hand, if help were needed.
