Other Sources of Information

Poor Law Records prior to 1834

The Poor Law was established by Acts of 1597 and 1601, and placed responsibility for the poor in the hands of the parish with churchwardens or parish overseers collecting poor rates and allocating relief.

The main documents where you might find information are:

• Apprenticeship Records
• Bastardy Bonds and Maintenance Orders
• Churchwardens' Accounts
• Overseers’ Accounts
• Removal Orders
• Settlement Certificates
• Vestry Minutes

These records were usually kept in the Parish Chest and have been transferred to the Record Office. You will find details of any surviving records in the parish catalogues which can be searched online.

You will find more information on the history of the Poor Law on the website, The Workhouse.

Poor Law Records post 1834

In 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act, also known as The New Poor Law, was introduced. A new system was created which removed the onus of dealing with the poor from individual parishes and gave it to Poor Law Unions. The unions were comprised of groups of parishes. Each union, administered by its own board of guardians, provided both outdoor and indoor relief to the poor, the latter given in the workhouse.

The following unions were in existence in County Durham:

• Auckland*
• Chester-le-Street*
• Darlington*
• Durham*
• Easington*
• Gateshead
• Hartlepool
• Houghton-le-Spring*
• Lanchester*
• Sedgefield*
• South Shields
• Stockton*
• Sunderland
• Teesdale*
• Weardale*

You will find lists of unions with the places contained in them in local county directories. Some material for those unions identified with an asterisk (*) is held in the Record Office. You will find details of our holdings for each union in the catalogues which can be searched online.

You will also find material for Chester-le-Street, Easington, Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland Poor Law Unions deposited with Tyne and Wear Archives Service.

In 1929 Unions and Guardians were abolished and their functions were transferred to public assistance authorities run by county boroughs and county councils. Many workhouse buildings became Public Assistance Institutions and continued to provide accommodation for the elderly, chronic sick, unmarried mothers and vagrants. Conditions in the institutions improved very slowly during the 1930s and 1940s and with the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 many of the former workhouse buildings continued to house the elderly and the chronic sick. You will find details of the records of some institutions in the Poor Law Union catalogues which can be searched online.

You will find more information on the history of the workhouse and the Poor Law on the websites, The Workhouse and The National Archives.