ABSTRACT
The part of the 43 Eliz. c. 2 which the imperfect parochial machinery found least difficulty in carrying out was the “necessary Relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind and such other among them, being poor and not able to work.” The history of outdoor relief is important for two reasons. It was probably the most continuously, as well as the best, executed branch of the poor law; and had, also, an important influence in shaping its after history. It owed its continuity to the fact that it was the easiest part of the law to set in motion and keep in working order. There was no complicated machinery to be dealt with, and, unlike the provision of work, it did not make too great demands on the overseers' capacity. To collect the rate and share out the proceeds among the parish poor presented no great difficulties, whilst the needs of the old and infirm, of children, and of the sick, made a more obvious appeal to human sympathy. Thus, when other branches, notably the provision of work, broke down during the lack of oversight in the Civil Wars, it is probable that a meagre amount of poor relief went on in most parishes. In this way it had a continuous history. It was probably also the most widely executed part of the law. For every person removed there were probably half-a-dozen relieved; for every child apprenticed there were probably several boarded out. Even in parishes which possessed a workhouse, outdoor relief was not entirely abolished, while in many parishes, where there was no workhouse, the chief duty of the overseers comprised the relieving of the poor by the grant of monthly pensions, by the gift of clothes, and by the provision of house room and fuel. What loomed most largely in theory—the provision of work—did not to the average overseer appear half so important as the work connected with outdoor relief, since this was the aspect of the law with which he was most conversant.
