A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



The usual result ensued, distress increased greatly. In 1812 half the 

 population of the three parishes of Nottingham were on the rates. 281 In 

 1 807 it had been suggested that the Corporation of Nottingham should 

 erect a House of Industry for the Poor for 12 miles round, but this was 

 defeated by the strong local opposition. 882 



Meantime, full advantage was taken of the rate in aid of wages. 

 Frame-work knitting was the chief industry in the cottages for about 

 twenty miles round Nottingham. The ' stockinners ' rented these frames for 

 u. a week from the manufacturers, who employed them and paid them 

 wages. The manufacturers lowered the wages to about 6s. per week, for 

 instance, and gave the workmen a certificate to that effect ; the workpeople, 

 who lived outside the employers' parishes, applied to their own overseer 

 for relief and showed the certificate, whereon the overseers made up the 

 deficit by a grant of 4^. or 5-r. weekly. At Southwell false certificates were 

 sometimes given, so that larger sums might be claimed. 383 That such a 

 system greatly increased the fluctuations in wages appeared from their 

 steadiness where these regulations were not adopted. At Thurgarton, for 

 example, wages were not tampered with nor partial relief given for the 

 forty years previous to i834, 28 * with the result that all through that critical 

 period wages remained steady in amount, though they gradually increased in 

 purchasing power. 



Yet more interesting instances of Poor Law administration occurred at 

 Southwell and at Bingham. In both these parishes the rate in aid of wages 

 and the payment per child had at one time been adopted. In Southwell 

 certain cottages had also been devoted to the use of paupers and exempted 

 from assessment, but both parishes had discovered the evil effects of the 

 system and had relinquished it, Bingham in 1818, Southwell in 1822. 

 In Southwell a workhouse had been erected, where the aged and impotent 

 were maintained, well fed, and clothed, though under considerable restric- 

 tions. 285 Drinking and smoking were forbidden, the sexes were separated, 

 and the inmates not allowed to see visitors. Able-bodied paupers were also 

 maintained and set to work with the best results. ' Violent young paupers 

 who came in swearing they would beat the parish,' on being set to stone- 

 breaking, discovered that they preferred working for themselves, and de- 

 parted. In 1834 the inmates of the workhouse had sunk to eleven. 28 * 

 Crime, immorality, and improvident marriages had all diminished, and the 

 people themselves approved the change, with the exception of the alehouse 

 keepers. Before the reform, violence towards local authorities had been 

 common. The overseers had sometimes been assaulted, and it had been 

 feared that an outbreak would follow the introduction of the new system. 287 

 No such consequences, however, ensued, and before long the authorities, by 

 one judicious step, had made the people their allies. The town cottages 

 were no longer utilized for the paupers, and they and every other tenement 

 in the place were assessed. In a community as small as Southwell the 

 result was a sudden development of public spirit ; the cottagers, proud of 

 being rated, put their rate certificates in their windows, and watched most 



Kl W. Felkin, Hist, of Machine-wrought Hosiery, &c. 231. ** Blackner, Hist, of Notts. 399. 



183 Report of the Poor Late Commission, 1831 (1894 ed.), 65. ** Ibid. 196, 199. 



Ibid. 45. " Ibid. 189, 190. w Ibid. 203. 



302 





