Bibliography - Social and family topics: Poverty
Bibliography Home

The Murder Den, and its means of destruction; or, Some account of the working of the new Poor Law in the Eastbourne Union, Sussex, etc., by Charles Brooker, published 1842 (38 pp., Brighton: William Woodward) accessible at: British Library

An Old Lewes Poor House, by Mrs. Henry Dudeney, published 1928 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. II no. 5, article, pp.209-211) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9327] & The Keep [LIB/500138]

Rules for the Paupers in Shipley Poorhouse , by M. M. Hickman, published May 1944 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. X no. 2, article, pp.35-36) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8228][Lib 2209] & The Keep [LIB/500212] & S.A.S. library

Sussex Poor Law Records: A Catalogue, edited by Jane M. Coleman, published 1960 (xxix + 72 pp., Chichester: West Sussex County Council) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 5616] & The Keep [LIB/501890][Lib/504698] & East Sussex Libraries

Poor Law Administration in Sussex, 1801, by N. Caplan, published May 1969 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XVII no. 3, article, pp.82-88) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8235] & The Keep [LIB/500219] & S.A.S. library

The Poor Law in the area of the Eastbourne and Steyning Poor Law Unions 1790-1840, by D. R. Parker, 1972 at Sussex University (M.A. thesis)

Overseers and the Poor, by Michael J. Burchall, published September 1973 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 1 no. 2, article, pp.35-38) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7965] & The Keep [LIB/501253] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Discovering Putative Fathers, by Michael J. Burchall, published September 1974 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 1 no. 6, article, pp.150-153) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7965] & The Keep [LIB/501253] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Discussion of why fathers of illegitimate children were sought after with sample entries from Quarter Sessions records of Sussex bastardy actions: 1642 - 1755

Some Interesting Sussex Settlement Papers, published September 1974 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 1 no. 6, article, pp.172-174) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7965] & The Keep [LIB/501253] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Settlement papers samples show names, date of examination, place of birth, marriage date, names of children, and order to move and covers the years 1740 - 1767.

Putative Fathers - Open discussion, published December 1974 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 1 no. 7, article, p.198) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7965] & The Keep [LIB/501253] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Verrally Relieved!, published June 1977 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 3 no. 1, article, pp.13-15) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7967] & The Keep [LIB/501255] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

William Verrall and his family were on relief from the church for 20 years. Includes a list of expenses charged to the parish and covers the years 1717 - 1844 in the parish of Hailsham

Eastern Sussex Workhouse Census 1851, edited by M. J. Burchall, published 1978 (booklet, 48 pp., Sussex Family History Group) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 6764] & The Keep [LIB/501296] & East Sussex Libraries

On the Parish: a study of 19th century Steyning Poor Law, by J. Sleight, published 1978 (pamphlet) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 6791]

The Casual Wards at the Brighton Workhouse, by Janet Gooch, published September 1979 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 4 no. 1, article, pp.18-19) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8672] & The Keep [LIB/501256] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Pauper Apprenticeship in West Sussex, by Emlyn Thomas, published September 1979 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 14, article, p.5) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/14] & The Keep [LIB/500479]

Lewes Pauper Apprentices, by Emlyn G. Thomas, published March 1980 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 1 no. 4, article, pp.126-133) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 17603] & The Keep [LIB/501187] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

Includes a Catalogue of Lewes Apprentices 1652-1834

Sussex Poor Law Certificates, by Emlyn G. Thomas, published June 1980 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 2 no. 1, article, pp.15-20) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8671] & The Keep [LIB/501188] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

The Operation of the Poor Law in Warnham 1748-1816, by A. A. Henderson, published September 1980 (contribution no. 1, 2 pp., Warnham Historical Society) accessible at: Warnham Historical Society   Download PDF

Further Operation of the Poor Law in Warnham 1816-1846, by R. A. Villiers, published March 1981 (contribution no. 2, 3 pp., Warnham Historical Society) accessible at: Warnham Historical Society   Download PDF

The Salvation Army in Sussex, 1883-1892, by Asa Briggs, published July 1981 in Studies in Sussex Church History (edited by M. J. Kitch, pp.189-208, London: Leopard's Head Press & The University of Sussex, ISBN-10: 0904920038 & ISBN-13: 9780904920031) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

West Sussex Workhouse Census 1851, published September 1981 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 3 no. 2, article, pp.50-53) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8892] & The Keep [LIB/501189] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

West Sussex Workhouse Census 1851 - continued, published December 1981 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 3 no. 3, article, pp.90-94) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8892] & The Keep [LIB/501189] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

Ringmer poor in Chailey Union, 1835-1841, by Margaret Diggle, published 1982 in Ringmer History (No. 1, article, pp.19-27)

The Poor Law in Steyning, by Joyce Sleight, published January 1982 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 21, article, p.1) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/21] & The Keep [LIB/500480]

West Sussex Workhouse Census 1851 - continued, published March 1982 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 3 no. 4, article, pp.136-139) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8892] & The Keep [LIB/501189] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

The Poor Law in Steyning, by Joyce Sleight, published May 1982 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 22, article, p.19) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/22] & The Keep [LIB/500480]

The Relief of Poverty in the Workhouse 1793-1815, by Timothy Cotton, published December 1982 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 4 no. 3, article, pp.84-91) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8893] & The Keep [LIB/501190] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

A study of workhouses in Hurstpierpoint, Westbourne, West Grinstead and Wisborough Green

Problem families in Victorian Ringmer, by Margaret Diggle and John Kay, published 1983 in Ringmer History (No. 2, article, pp.8-17)

Discusses the Clark, Evans and McKinley families.

The Chailey Unon, 1858-1873, by Margaret Diggle, published 1983 in Ringmer History (No. 2, article, pp.15-23)

Charity and Chastity: Brighton Workhouse and the Female Penitents Home, by Romald Tibble, published March 1983 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 4 no. 4, article, pp.128-135) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8893] & The Keep [LIB/501190] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

The Relief of Poverty in the Workhouse 1793-1815, by Timothy Cotton, published March 1983 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 4 no. 4, article, pp.149-155) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8893] & The Keep [LIB/501190] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

A study of workhouses in Hurstpierpoint, Westbourne, West Grinstead and Wisborough Green - Part II

Housing in Sussex: Affluence and Poverty, by Fred Gray, published 1 September 1983 in Sussex Environment Landscape and Society (pp.250-269, Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd., ISBN-10: 0862990459 & ISBN-13: 9780862990459) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8831] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Sussex Workhouse Dietaries, a footnote, by Neil Caplan, published September 1983 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 5 no. 2, article, pp.53-54) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9173] & The Keep [LIB/501191] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

Evidences for Poor Relief in Horsham, 1545-1642, by Annabelle F. Hughes, published May 1984 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 28, article, p.1) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/28] & The Keep [LIB/500481]

Eastern Sussex Workhouse Census 1851: An outline history of the Lewes Workhouses 1835-75, by Julia Rutter, published June 1984 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 6 no. 1, article, pp.19-24) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [MP 6277] & The Keep [LIB/501192] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

The Gilbert Poor Law Union, Sutton, West Sussex, 1791-1827, by George Hothersall, published September 1984 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 29, article, p.29) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/29] & The Keep [LIB/500481]

A Poor Man's Rye: The Daily Life of a Local Labouring Family, 1847-1930, by Peter Ewart, published 1985 (132 pp., published by the author, ISBN-10: 0950858013 & ISBN-13: 9780950858012) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

The Gilbert Poor Law Union, Sutton, West Sussex, 1791-1827, Part 2, by George Hothersall, published January 1985 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 30, article, p.21) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/30] & The Keep [LIB/500481]

The Gilbert Poor Law Union, Sutton, West Sussex, 1791-1827, Part 3, by George Hothersall, published May 1985 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 31, article, p.19) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/31] & The Keep [LIB/500481]

West Sussex Poor Law Papers Index, by Peter Wilkinson, published September 1985 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 7 no. 2, article, pp.53-54) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [MP 6277] & The Keep [LIB/501193] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.

The Gilbert Poor Law Union, Sutton, West Sussex, 1791-1827, Part 4, by George Hothersall, published September 1985 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 32, article, p.13) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/32] & The Keep [LIB/500481]

The poor of the parish and the work of the Westbourne select vestries, 1819-1835, by Peter Ellacott, published 1986 (Bygone Westbourne, no. 3, 32 pp., Westbourne Local History Group, ISBN-10: 0950749621 & ISBN-13: 9780950749624) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9555] & West Sussex Libraries

The sad plight of David Hayler, by Margaret Diggle, published 1986 in Ringmer History (No. 4, article, pp.42-49)

Letters from 1864 reflecting the difficulties of this labourer's life.

Sussex Labourers and the Poor Law Commission of 1834, by Peter Mantin and Richard Pulley, published 1988 (pamphlet) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10067]

Eastbourne Paupers, by Roy Grant, published December 1988 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 4, article, pp.183-187) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

List of Paupers receiving Parochial Relief - 1831-32

Eastbourne Paupers, continued, by Roy Grant, published March 1989 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 5, article, pp.200-202) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

List of Paupers receiving Parochial Relief - 1831-32

Workhouse Memories, by Joan Turnbull, published March 1989 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 5, article, pp.203-205) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Memories of Cuckfield Workhouse in 1935

Trouble at the Workhouse: Lewes Union Management, 1916-1922, by Julia Rutter, published March 1989 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 5, article, pp.224-225) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Westbourne Poor House, 1773-1830, by George & Majorie Hothersall, published September 1989 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 44, article, p.13) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/44] & The Keep [LIB/500482]

Southlands: Workhouse and Hospital, by Rev. John White, published 28 June 1990 (League of Friends of Southlands Hospital) accessible at: Southwick Society & West Sussex Libraries

The Westbourne Union life in and out of the new workhouse, by Ian Watson, published 1991 (Bygone Westbourne, no. 5, 60 pp., Westbourne Local History Group, ISBN-10: 0950749648) accessible at: British Library

Setting Brighton's Poor to Work: the Work of Brighton Distress Committee 1905-1914, by John Jacobs, published 1991 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 129, article, pp.217-238) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11694] & The Keep [LIB/500295] & S.A.S. library

Brighton Paupers, by Roy Grant, published March 1991 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 9 no. 5, article, pp.170-174) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11999] & The Keep [LIB/501261] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

A list of unsettled poor giving name, age, number of years resident, period of relief and Union for the years 1831 - 1846 in Brighton.

Withyham Sussex Parish Records: Relief to the Poor in Service, Winter 1837, by L. D. Avis, published December 1991 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 9 no. 8, article, p.291) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11999] & The Keep [LIB/501261] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

The Poor of Bognor, 1790-1870, by Michael A. H. Gowler, published 1994 (pamphlet, 66 pp., Bognor Regis Local History Society, ISBN-10: 0950745537 & ISBN-13: 9780950745534) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12655] & West Sussex Libraries

Transportation (by mistake) of the Boy Etsell, by Mrs. Rachel Fletcher, published March 1995 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 11 no. 5, article, pp.164-166) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14878] & The Keep [LIB/501263] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

The story of Charles Edsell/Etsell, born 1805 at Chichester, the illegitimate son of Emma Edsell, who was transported for life for "stealing from the Guardians of Poor at Yapton one jacket 2s and one pair of trousers 2s" that he was wearing when he ran away from Yapton Workhouse on 2 December 1835.

Vagrants in 18th Century West Sussex, by George Hothersall, published October 1995 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 56, article, p.19) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/56] & The Keep [LIB/500484]

Chichester and the Westhampnett Poor Law Union, by Barry Fletcher, published 1996 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 134, article, pp.185-196) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13390] & The Keep [LIB/500296] & S.A.S. library

Budgenor Lodge, by F J-D [Mrs D.V.F Johnson-Davies], published December 1997 in Midhurst Magazine (Volume 10 Number 2, article, pp.7-14, Winter 1997) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15969]

A concise history of Budgenor Lodge, former Workhouse, which was opened in 1794 and finally closed in 1993. Extracts taken from 'Budgenor Lodge - A Brief History' by Dr Andrew R Guyatt.

Henry Isted - In The Workhouse, by Bruce Isted, published March 1998 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 13 no. 1, article, pp.10-11) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14880] & The Keep [LIB/508816] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Henry Isted born 1804 in Ashburnham was appointed Hailsham Union Workhouse Clerk in 1836

East Preston Gilbert Union Workhouse, by R.W. Standing, published April 1998 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 61, article, p.11) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/61] & The Keep [LIB/500485]

Mary Sophia Honor, by Mrs. Dee Monnery, published December 1998 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 13 no. 4, article, pp.136-137) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14880] & The Keep [LIB/508819] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Paupers in the Matter of Lunacy as occurred with Mary Sophia Honor at the West Sussex County Asylum in 1912

The Poor Law 1700-1900, by Roger Wells, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.70-71, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

East Preston Gilbert Union Workhouse, 1791-1869, Part 1, by R.W. Standing, published April 1999 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 63, article, p.13) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/63] & The Keep [LIB/500487]

East Preston Gilbert Union Workhouse 1791-1869, Part 2, by R.W. Standing, published October 1999 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 64, article, p.7) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/64] & The Keep [LIB/500488]

Children from Sussex Unions sent to Canada between 1886 and 1925, by John Sayers, published June 2000 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 14 no. 2, article, pp.70-74) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14881] & The Keep [LIB/508823] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Lists name, age, date, to whom the child was sent, Sussex residence

East Preston Gilbert Union Workhouse 1791-1869, part 3, by R. W. Standing, published Autumn 2000 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 66, article, p.12) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/66] & The Keep [LIB/500490]

William Henry Hawley, Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, by Spencer Thomas, published Autumn 2000 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 66, article, p.32) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/66] & The Keep [LIB/500490]

Mid Sussex Poor Law Records, 1601-1835, edited by Ian Nelson and Norma Pilbeam, published 2 June 2001 (vol. 83, 453 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450505 & ISBN-13: 9780854450503) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14468][Lib 14474] & The Keep [LIB/500460][Lib/507866] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

This book presents the fullest picture yet to be achieved of an almost invisible community: the English rural poor of the two centuries up to 1835.
The poor had their annals; and they are by no means "short and simple" as Thomas Gray suggested. They survive in formidable quantity. Their lives have come down to us through the bureaucracy which controlled and monitored their movements, apprenticed their children and attempted to arrange the maintenance of their illegitimate offspring. The records of the parish overseers and the vestries, and of the courts of Quarter Sessions, combine to preserve their stories. Although this documentation exists in all English counties and is a well-known source, its publication in such range and depth has never been achieved before. In this volume the editors have attempted the coverage of a cohesive rural area by abstracting the records for a block of 23 parishes based round the modern area of Mid Sussex.
There are a host of personal stories - like that of William Roberts, in 1618 whipped as a vagrant at Cuckfield and sent to "travayle" home to Anglesey within 30 days. Or Mary Willson, in 1743 a serving maid in a London coffee house, left destitute by the death of her soldier husband at the siege of Cartagena in Central America. Or Edward Hillman, in 1741 sent back in his old age from Tonbridge to the "home" parish of Cuckfield he had left 37 years before. Or Anne Wright, a soldier's wife found begging in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, in 1746 and sent back by a succession of carriers to her husband's parish of East Grinstead. Or Thomas Andrew, a Marine from Chatham in 1764, sent back to Cowfold where he had been born in a barn to vagrant parents a quarter century earlier.
The result is the biography of a rootless underclass over two centuries. It records the origins, movement, employment and unemployment of over 10,000 individuals whose poverty made them subject to constant invigilation from the local officials. The volume will have enormous appeal to family historians, and great value to demographers, and to social historians of the dispossessed. For the first time they will have a database which will be sufficiently large and consistent for genuine comparisons to be made and significant conclusions to be drawn.

An unfortunate family, by R. W. Gillett, published June 2001 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 14 no. 6, article, pp.208-209) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14881] & The Keep [LIB/508823] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

James Pelling married Emma Parsons at Hellingly in 1835 and after the birth of their first child they entered the Hailsham Union Workhouse.  They had three more children: James, Emma and Patience before both parents died - Emma in 1841 and James in 1843. The living children were raised in the workhouse.

Power, paternalism, patronage and philanthropy: the Wyndhams and the new Poor Law in Petworth, by Spencer Thomas, published 2002 in Local Historian (vol. 32, no. 2, article, pp.99-117)

Rev. Thomas Sockett (1777-1859) Rector of Petworth (1816-1859): Factotum, 'worthy' and Champion of the Poor, by Spencer Thomas, published Spring 2002 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 69, article, p.3) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/69] & The Keep [LIB/500493]

From the workhouse, by Peter Cox, published March 2006 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 17 no. 1, article, pp.6-7) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508985] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

The search for his Cox ancestors finds six members 'from the union house'

Bringing luxury to the poorhouse [at Budgenor Lodge, Midhurst], by Country Life contributor(s), published 6 July 2006 in Country Life (vol. 200 no. 27, article, p.101)

A most extraordinary Poor Law case, by Michael J. Burchall, published December 2006 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 17 no. 4, article, pp.171-174) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508988] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

On 17 July 1777 the Justices for East Sussex sitting in Quarter Sessions at Lewes heard a remarkable appeal from the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of the parish of Waldron against a local magistrate's order removing the Rev Robert Wilson, clerk, his wife Mary and son John aged about eight from the parish of Wadhurst to that of Waldron. Robert Wilson had married Mary Atwood on 29 April 1768 at Whatlington and they had one child, John.

Poor Cottages and Proud Palaces: The Life and Work of Thomas Sockett of Petworth 1777-1859 , by Sheila Haines and Leigh Lawson, published 2007 (304 pp., Hastings Press, ISBN-10: 1904109160 & ISBN-13: 9781904109167) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/503906] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

An account of the life and work of Reverend Thomas Sockett of Petworth (1777 -1859), who was born in East London, the son of an impoverished bookseller. The early part of this fascinating book deals with his transition from penury to rural clergyman under the patronage of Lord Egremont at Petworth House. In his journal recording his life from 1805 to 1807, reproduced in full, he describes playing tennis and practising French with refugee aristocrats, seeing Nelson embark from Portsmouth on his final voyage, and time spent with the Egremont children reading the classics such as Horace and Demosthenes.
We are given a picture of his domestic life, but the authors are primarily interested in his role as the thoughtful and concerned Rector of Petworth. Although he was a friend of aristocrats, he worked hard to improve the lives of the poorest of his parishioners, particularly through the teaching of literacy which he saw as a route to morality. Together with Lord Egremont, he organised the emigration to Canada of many of his parishioners, including his own oldest son, George. He was also in frequent disagreement with the guardians of the local workhouse about the treatment of its inhabitants.
Sheila Haines and Leigh Lawson have presented an insight into life in West Sussex from aristocrat to peasant at a time of political, cultural and economic upheaval. The book is meticulously researched and evidenced and should prove a valuable resource for local history students, and anyone else who likes looking into other people's lives.

Guardians of the Hastings Union (work house) : recorded deaths : April 1909 - March 1913 & April 1918 - March 1919 & April 1921 - March 1923, compiled by R. A. Longley, published 1 March 2007 (10 pp., published by the author, ISBN-13: 9781905585700) accessible at: British Library & East Sussex Libraries

The information contained in this publication has been taken from funeral ledgers held by Banfield & Pomphrey Ltd., funeral directors, of Ore, Hastings

A homeless cleric in 1670, by Michael J. Burchall, published March 2008 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 18 no. 1, article, pp.12-15) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508968] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

In a recent issue of Sussex Family Historian (Vol 17, No 4, December 2006, pp171-175) it was noted that in 1777 an East Sussex parson was brought before the Quarter Sessions justices and that a removal order was confirmed for him and his family under the Old Poor Laws. It was stated that this may have been a unique case, but recently a further case brought under similar legislation over a hundred years earlier has been found. At the Chichester Sessions held 11 and 12 April 1670, a complaint was made to the justices as follows: "On the complaint of Abel STEPNEY of [West] Chiltington, clerk, late curate, that he wants a present habitation for himself and his family, the overseers and churchwarden are ordered to provide the same until further order to the contrary."

A Lingering Fear: East Sussex Hospitals and the Workhouse Legacy, by Harry Gaston, published 17 November 2009 (247 pp., Newhaven: Southern Editorial Services, ISBN-10: 0955846722 & ISBN-13: 9780955846724) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/502160] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

They are not taking me to the workhouse are they? That was the fear of many elderly people who were being admitted to hospital through much of the twentieth century. A Lingering Fear shows what life was like in the 1930s and 40s in eight Sussex institutions Stone House at Battle, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Shoreham, Newhaven, Chailey and Cuckfield. These were the years when inmates daily lives were frequently governed by former workhouse masters and matrons, when tramps queued at the gates for admission, when many of the onerous tasks for inmates from workhouse days continued, and misdemeanours could lead to seven days hard labour in prison. Much of this changed after 1948 when seven of these institutions became NHS hospitals in East Sussex Battle, St Helen s at Hastings, St Mary s in Eastbourne, Brighton General, Newhaven Downs, Pouchlands and Cuckfield. But the care of their older patients continued to be affected by their workhouse origins and it was not until 2008 that the final patient was discharged from the last remaining hospital. The fear of the workhouse is now a thing of the past. But A Lingering Fear helps to explain why even today older people are sometimes neglected and suffer from a lack of care and respect in Britain s hospitals.

Brighton paupers buried in Cambridge, 1885-1920, by Michael Burchall, published December 2009 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 18 no. 8, article, pp.406-409) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508993] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

One of the lesser known aspects of the workings of the New Poor Law after 1834 was the possibility of burying paupers in parish or municipal cemeteries other than that in which the pauper died. Paupers could be buried in the parish where the Union Workhouse was situated, they could be returned to their home parish or, in cases where the body was unclaimed by relatives, they could be disposed of at the discretion of the governors of the Union Workhouse.

Budgenor Lodge: A Georgian Enterprise, by Guyatt, Andrew R, published 2012 (Midhurst: Middleton Press) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18316] & West Sussex Libraries

Tracing the history of the Easebourne House of Industry, later Midhurst Union Workhouse, now a residential complex.

A History of the Brighton Workhouses, by James Gardner, published 1 May 2012 (460 pp., published by the author, ISBN-10: 095361011X & ISBN-13: 9780953610112) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/501559] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

This book deals with an issue which is timely, for we are again debating what we can afford to spend on benefits, how they can be fairly distributed and monitored so those who can work are encouraged to do so and how to provide for children, disabled and elderly people who need care. This book demonstrates that in the past many people lacked families who could afford to care for them or who would seek do so and that then as now, a system of basic support of some form was needed. The big difference between the debates from the Tudor period until the mid-1940s and nowadays is that all expenditure was met directly by local ratepayers.
Thus this book is a study of the issues of local management and accountability in the context of 'the poor' - 'localism' in action. Rates (now called Council Tax) were collected locally as they are today but the state did not recycle money from income tax and business rates in to local government as it does now, currently forming the greater part of the money spent locally. Local taxpayers, quite a small part of the local community, paid for everything that was either a legal requirement such as care of the poor, or desirable such as running the public gardens. Local meetings about expenditure were often lively. Ratepayers wanted cheating stopped and accountability. In this book there are examples of governors of the workhouse, staff, inmates and those on weekly pay abusing the system.
The parish of Brighton was only responsible for its own poor; the three workhouses (of 1727, 1822 and 1860s) were funded by its residents and did not take in poor from other parishes that are now within the City. These had to go to other workhouses. By the early 18th century it also paid a weekly amount to poor people who, in the view of the overseers, might find work or for other reasons were best left in their own home, a practice which continued into the 1940s and was the precursor to the benefits system. The preference was to keep people employed, both within the workhouse and also by keeping weekly income tightly controlled. The strength of the book is the detailed study of the period between the 1850s and the end of the Poor Law in the mid 1940s. The lives of inmates and of employees of the workhouse and the Industrial School at Warren Road reflect how hard it must have been to be poor and also how to manage a fair and effective means of supporting those in need. We have perhaps had our attitudes to the Workhouse overly strongly affected by the novels of Dickens and others who depicted them as a nightmare. But few of the critics even tried to find a more effective solution to a system of care which would not totally absorb local revenues or result in one town or parish becoming a target due to the quality of treatment offered by many people who did not live locally.
There are a couple of errors in the early section; for example the 'Great Storm' of 1703 did not destroy many fishermen's dwellings below the cliff (there is plenty of archival evidence to disprove this wonderful piece of 18th century journalism) and, when Brighton's fortunes declined, many of the young people did as they would today and 'upped sticks'.
Mr Gardner is to be applauded for wading through many sources and bringing to our attention the great dilemma of the 19th century - how does one deal with the care of the poor in rapidly expanding towns where employment was so cyclical as in Brighton. What we have to remember is that with the workhouses, weekly pay, soup kitchens, mendacity charities, dispensaries and hospitals all aimed at helping the poor, local people tried hard to help. This book reveals how difficult it was to ensure that treatment was reasonable and fair and not subject to exploitation. The debate how best to do this continues

Winchelsea Poor Law Records, 1790-1841, edited by Malcolm Pratt, published 1 April 2013 (vol. 94, xxxvi + 380 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450769 & ISBN-13: 9780854450763) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18291] & The Keep [LIB/500471][Lib/507890] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries   View Online

"The poor are ever with us" is a common phrase, but one that usually evokes images of an amorphous, anonymous mass. Rarely do we get beyond grim registers yielding stark statistics on people, money, food and clothing. Yet through the use of an amazing and unusual collection of letters, this volume puts stories. faces and individual identities to the poor of Winchelsea of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In doing so, it also conjures up the life of this small town at that time, the work of its inhabitants and the duties of those in authority who took responsibility for the poor. In particular, it highlights the dedicated and highly efficient work of one man, Charles Arnett, the master of the workhouse and the only salaried official, as he struggled for five years to both care for the poor and balance the books. Here are stories for all times as people moved in and out of employment, suffered from rising food prices, coped with how life could suddenly be changed by ill-health, and the constant struggles of maintaining families - all against a backdrop of limited and inadequate housing. This volume yields a multi-faceted set of stories drawn not only from the points of view of those in authority and their various registers, but also from the heartrending letters of the poor.

In the popular imagination, by the 18th century little but fields of waving corn survived on the spot where once King Edward's burgesses of New Winchelsea had plied one of the country's foremost wine trades: the combined efforts of silting, French aggression and the rise of Rye had reduced it to a shadow of its former grandeur. But as ever, the reality is more complicated, and more nuanced. Life inevitably went on in Winchelsea after its decline but the more depressed it became, its status as both a parliamentary borough and an exempt jurisdiction, combined with an influx of troops during the Napoleonic Wars, paradoxically ensured the preservation of an archive, almost unparalleled in East Sussex, which chronicles the lives of its poorest inhabitants.
In 1683, the Poor Rate had produced a return of £20 3s 9d; even by 1782, the Overseers were prepared to spend £175 a year to outsource poor relief to a private contractor. It was the abandonment of that experiment in 1792 - a decade later the rate was required to produce £1229 - which gave rise to most of the documents edited by Malcolm Pratt in the excellent, if at times harrowing book.
The quantity and richness of the archive has determined the author to present his material not chronologically or thematically but by case, which makes the book one to be read, not merely consulted. The material ranges de alto in basso - from the story of the former parish overseer John Eagles, eventually hanged at Newgate for the theft of a banknote in 1827, to the demand of Edward Brignell of Ivychurch for appropriate clothing for Mary Relfe, taken on as a farm servant a month earlier at a shilling a week; 'otherwise I shall send her back again'.
Unlike Thomas Turner's diary, whose detailed narrative of his implementation of the Poor Law has so much to tell us about ordinary lives half a century before, these are not merely writings about the poor - many are penned by the poor themselves. As almost all the cases show, the line between literate prosperity and destitution was often a narrow one, over which whole families could be pushed in a matter of weeks by the unpredictable vagaries of unemployment, the weather and bad health.
The author has dedicated the volume to the memory of Roy Hunnisett, who continued to cultivate his Sussex roots as he rose to become one of the foremost scholar-archivists of his generation. His wise counsel as a member of council and latterly as a literary director, coupled with his own editorial endeavour, contributed to a renaissance in the quality of the Sussex Record Society's output. His role as mentor, acknowledged by the author, was also formative at the start of my own career almost 40 years ago, and one to which I am equally proud to pay tribute.
With this volume Malcolm Pratt, a former town clerk of Winchelsea with two histories of the Port of Stranded Pride to his name, has done more than credit to his outstanding material, and to the efforts of his predecessors to preserve it.

Warren Farm School, by Allison Caffyn, published September 2014 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 21 no. 3, article, pp.104-107) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/508853]

In 1858 the Brighton Guardians were beginning the process of building a new workhouse with an industrial school located about two miles away at Warren Farm in Rottingdean. The aim of the school was to give pauper children a basic education and a grounding in industry so that they could go out and earn a living (so reducing the likelihood they would be a burden on the system in the future). The school opened in 1862, boys were taught trades such as gardening, tailoring and shoemaking whilst girls were taught domestic service. There was a school band and many boys were taught to play an instrument, often leading to a career in an army band.
The school produced a variety of records including a log book which lists the children as they were placed in employment. The log book is now at the East Sussex Record Office (reference R/S/37/1) and covers the period 1891 to 1935 but the 100 year rule means only entries up to 2013 can be viewed (two other log books survive which take the records up to 1951).

A comparison of poor relief in a Wealden parish and a South Downs parish in eastern Sussex c.1830-1860, by Mary Rudling, published 2017 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 155, article, pp.181-196)