ABSTRACT
Providing appropriate assistance to those unable to take care of themselves has for many centuries been a responsibility shared among various individuals and groups within English communities. During the later medieval and Tudor periods, relatives, neighbours, and wealthier households continued to offer most of the informal or person-to-person aid as they had in previous centuries, while organizations such as religious bodies, parish fraternities, and town governments increasingly offered more structured or formal relief. 2 Support might be provided in the needy person's own home, through boarding and care in someone else's home, or in residential institutions – hospitals for the infirm and almshouses for the elderly. From the middle of the sixteenth century, some communities began to experiment with the use of compulsory rates, local taxes levied upon more prosperous citizens for the benefit of the poor. This process culminated in Parliament's passage of the Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601, which required that all parishes provide minimal help for the needy, supported by rates. The kinds of people who qualified for help were defined throughout the later medieval and Tudor years in terms of their inability to perform the labour necessary to support themselves: those who were ill or injured, were physically or emotionally disabled, or were unable to work because of age or domestic situation – especially the elderly, orphans, and widows with young children.
