THEME Social reform and change
Workhouse and Poor Law Data.
What Poor Law and workhouse records can you use to add contextual colour to your family history? How can you find out more about the events that shaped our pauper ancestors. How many of your family were in the workhouse?
Read MoreWilliam Booth and the Inspiration behind the Salvation Army 1865
William Booth founder of the Salvation Army had a vision but what were his motivations and how did he achieve what he did. Explore the biography of William Booth.
Read MoreStatute of Labourers 1351
In 1351 following Plague and pestilence there was a shortage of Labour and the ruling elite were not happy to have to ‘suffer’ the inflationary costs that resulted as workers for the first time had the power to refuse to work for low wages. Was this the distant start of organised labour in Britain and a capsule that reflects the uneasy relationship between the monarch, parliament and the people…Will the Peasants Revolt?
Read MoreCholera on the streets of 19th Century London
Mid C19th and the streets of London were filled with filth and disease. Poor science exacerbated the problem until the work of people such as John Snow and Joseph Bazalgette turned the situation around.
Read MorePunishment of Vagabonds and Beggars 1536 Henry VIII
1536 Anne Boelyn executed. Dissolution of the Monasteries commences following Henry VIII’s declaration of Supremacy over the Church… Doesn’t bode well for the poor and idle if that is how you treat the people you love…Trace what happens next in the plight of the poor and the evolution of the wlefare state. It all goes back a lot further than you might think….
Read MoreStatute Punishment of Beggars and Vagabonds 1531
Was Henry VIII and his rule kind to Beggars? How does this act reflect the longer timeline of legislative events that lead to our current day Welfare State and how far back do the roots go, a snippet in a series of linked posts, designed to piece together the evidence that led to the British Welfare State. With great relevance and resonance with our current and hard pressed economic climate…
Read MoreStatute of Cambridge 1388
The starting point the putting down by Richard II of the Peasants Revolt of imposing order and punitive conditions on the poor in what was to become known and codified as the Old Poor Law…follow this chronology and the related law provides a great source of information and the reason why our welffare state in the UK evolves as it does…
Read MoreOld Poor Law
The Old Poor Law was the codified series of statutes that predated the draconian Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the timeline of this law casts some light on the origins of welfare and the plight of the poor in England for many years. If you have any reason to want to better understand the basis of society during the 19th century then some reference to these legal orgins will be helpful.
Read MoreThe Use of Antiseptics in Operating Theatres
The problem of infection in operating theatres had been known about from the end of the C18th through the C19th. More people were dying from infections acquired in the operating theatre than were dying of their ailments. Florence Nightingale highlighted the need for a rigorous approach to hospital hygiene and Lister’s work with carbolic, changed…
Read MoreChloroform For Anaesthesia
The miracle of the discovery of chloroform and it’s use as an anaesthetic by James Young Simpson
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