Durham Poor Law Unions

An Act of Parliament in the year 1834 took the responsibility of administering to the poor from the local parish church to the doorstep of civil government. The government grouped each civil parish into a union of parishes. There were nearly 600 such unions throughout England, each one comprising close to 20 or more parishes, and were specifically setup to meet the demands of the poor among their local populations, with a workhouse on the premises. The responsbility was transferred from local parishes to a Board of Guardians in each union. These groupings or unions were known as poor-law unions. Durham had the following poorlaw unions within its boundaries:

The Poorlaw Unions

 * Auckland Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Chester le Street Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Darlington Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Durham Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Easington Poor Law Union,Durham
 * Gateshead Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Hartlepool
 * Houghton Le Spring
 * Lanchester Poor Law Union,Durham
 * Sedgefield Poor Law Union, Durham
 * South Shields Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Stockton
 * Sunderland Poor Law Union, Durham
 * Teesdale
 * Weardale

The Records
Records from the poorlaw unions, which were created from this time forward include the following:


 * 1) Guardianship
 * 2) Creed Registers
 * 3) Rate books
 * 4) Workhouse Lists of Inmates
 * 5) Register of Apprentices
 * 6) Register of Births
 * 7) Register of Deaths
 * 8) Vestry Rate Books
 * 9) Admission and Discharge Registers
 * 10) Board of Guardians' Records

Records at The Family History Library
To determine records availability for each poorlaw, search the Family History Library Catalog under the name of the county (Durham), and then under the name of the poorlaw union, i.e. Darlington, then under the term[s] "poorlaw" or "poorhouses".

Online Transcriptions of Post-1834 Poorlaw Records
Here are workhouse inmates as found in the 1881 census for the following Durham Poorlaw Unions:

South Shields



For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's web site: www.workhouses.org.uk and http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Sunderland/Sunderland1881.shtml

Durham - a county listing (approx. 10%) from 1861 census