England Miscellaneous Workhouse Records (National Institute)

Workhouse Birth and Death Registers
There were actually various registers of birth, christening, death and burial kept by workhouses, and they are especially useful in the early period (1837-1874) of civil registration when registration was not compulsory. It must be remembered that because of the intense social shame engendered in Victorian England by having an illegitimate child, most families heartlessly evicted a pregnant unmarried daughter and her only option was to have her baby in the workhouse.

Patient Certificate from Union Infirmary, Hackney, Middlesex 1921

Workhouse Baptism and Burial Registers

 * Baptism registers mostly contained illegitimate children born in the workhouse.
 * Burial registers occur where the workhouse had its own burial ground, but most paupers would have been buried in the parish churchyard, or city cemeteries after 1853, with their abode listed as union, workhouse, or simply house.

Workhouse Inmates Clothing Records
These are records of what clothing was brought into the workhouse by the paupers.

Workhouse Punishment Books
Registers of offences by, and punishments awarded to, inmates were kept.

Workhouse School Registers
Where a workhouse had a school then there were dated lists of children, sometimes with other information.

Workhouse Tradesmens’ Accounts
A list of bills for Fareham is givenbelow, and a list of the contracts for the Greenwich Union (Holmes) after that. Plenty of ancestors here!

Tradesmen Supplying the Fareham, Surrey Workhouse 1836

Tradesmen Supplying The Greenwich, Kent Workhouse 1854

Workhouse Allowances
Extra Allowances at Titchfield Poorhouse 1835

Workhouse Food
The Bill of Fare at Fareham Workhouse 1835!

Relief Order Books and Workhouse Out-Relief Books
Out-relief lists and relief order books, which give names and usually amounts of money and reasons for payments, with sometimes the address and names of any dependants. Sometimes there are separate records of Loans granted to paupers and Rent for paupers. Tom Wood recommends Bill Painter’s book (Upon the Parish Rate: The Story of Louth Workhouse and the Paupers of East Lindsey) on a Lincolnshire workhouse as being of more general value.

Workhouse Medical Records
Medical records include many different items such as Medical Officers Treatment Books, Lists of lunatics both in asylums and not in asylums, Midwives’ bills, and payments for Nursing of the sick

Smallpox vaccination records
The serious epidemic of smallpox in England that occurred in 1837-1840 lead guardians to start vaccination in 1840, since the poor were particularly vulnerable, and it became compulsory for all infants from 1853-1948, but even so there was another bad outbreak in 1870-1872. Parents received vaccination certificates containing the name and age of the child and the date of vaccination, and often the place of birth. Registers kept by hospitals and the guardians from 1862-1948 give similar information, together with the father’s name and occupation, and these may be found in county archives or (later ones) in hospital archives.

Militiamens’ Dependents
According to Acts of Parliament of 1758, 1793, and 1803 each parish had to support the dependants of its militiamen. The militiaman got a certificate of service from his captain that he sent to his wife. She gave it to the Overseers of the Poor or obtained a Justice of the Peace’s Order for payment (Camp 1999-2) which could come from the Poor Rates or the special Land Taxes. An order and a payment account are shown below.

Order to Support a Militia Wife Eling, Hampshire 1810

Payment Account for Support of a Militia Wife Eling, Hampshire 1810

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Poor Law and Parish Chest Records offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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