Concept information
Preferred term
Date: 1598Elizabethan Poor Law
Definition(s)
- Alarmed by rising levels of material hardship and resulting social unrest, the English propertied classes passed laws through their representatives in parliament that established a compulsory system of public poor relief in 1598 (amended in 1601) to assist and control the growing number of poor and vagrant individuals during the last years of the reign of Elizabeth I. Population growth, price increases, poor harvests, and a 60% decline in real wages in the previous decades meant that even those with jobs could no longer stay out of poverty. These “laboring poor” became as much a concern as the traditional “impotent poor” (widows, the aged, and the infirm) for the wealthy landed and urban classes and a far greater threat to social stability. [Source: Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice; Elizabethan Poor Law]
Broader concept(s)
Belongs to group
Notation
- Date: 1598
URI
http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/N9J-F6Q7FNQQ-4
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