Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Reforming Women
This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Reform
This entry is part 5 of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals
This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Poor Law through the Ages

Set in the stocks for even being suspected of being idle, puts in context ‘we don’t know just how lucky we are, part of the sequence of the Old Poor Law and certainly gives some insight into the plight of the poor and the conditions imposed on them by the ruling elite…

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Poor Law Amendment Act 1834

This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Law - Poor Law
This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Reforming Women
This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Reform
This entry is part 1 of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals

The draconian Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was to seal the fate and abject misery of many poor people through the majority of the19th century. Find out here the basis of the law and how it was implemented in Victorian Britain.

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Workhouse Test Act 1723

This entry is part 10 of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Poor Law through the Ages

Workhouse Test Act of 1723 was more of the same in terms of oppressive laws thinly disguised as a programme of social welfare that worked in reality more as a form of repression and implied punishment. The plight of the poor was not as yet something that governments saw as anything but a problem and cost to be minimised. Find out more in this article and a series of connected posts tell the story of the history of lay in respect of the poor.

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Sir Robert Peel Prime Minister capitalised on his father’s success but what happened next?

This entry is part 8 of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals

Sir Robert Peel the Prime Minister who creates the Metropolitan Police helps emancipate Catholics in Britain to avoid the potential for civil war and repeals the repressive Corn Laws even when it mean’t division in his own ranks. He showed the ability to be pragrmatic, transition and change course on the big issues that mattered. The son of a wealthy industrialist whilst educated at the right schools and Oxford, he largely was still seen as an outsider amongst the old elite, the land-owners and aristocrats that had dominated the Commons and the Lords. But despite his wealthy background history gives us a glimpse of man that can make the right decisions even when it will be a more difficult path to follow. One in our series of profiles about British Prime Ministers linked to related articles, periods and historic themes.

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