Poor Relief – Poorhouse records

The Board of Supervision issued detailed regulations for the records to be kept by poorhouse governors. They included a register of inmates with details, including the religious persuasion of each, a journal, which was an official log book or office diary, and a report book of offences against the rules of the poorhouse and punishments imposed. For many poorhouses all that survive are minute books of the managing committee or board, and these usually survive among county council or civil parish records held by local authority archives.

Substantial records survive for a few poorhouses, most notably those for Kyle Union poorhouse in Ayr, whose records (held by Ayrshire Archives) contain registers of inmates, financial records, punishment books, and plans. Most poorhouse records are held by local authority archives services. Where a poorhouse became a hospital, records (including registers of inmates) may survive among the records of the hospital concerned, held by the appropriate health board archive.

The National Records of Scotland hold sets of architectural plans for 40 Scottish poorhouses in the RHP plans series. Most are in large portfolios, which makes handling awkward, and photocopying impossible. Typically, these portfolios include plans, sections and elevations of a new poorhouse, along with drawings for later additions and alterations, ranging from the mid-19th century to the 1920s. The records of the Home and Health Department (HH), in the National Records of Scotland, contain the minute books and other records of the Board of Supervision and the Local Government Board for Scotland, which supervised civil parishes in Scotland. These include annual reports and financial accounts of poorhouse committees.

Poorhouse records, where they survive, are used by a variety of researchers, including school and university students and teachers looking at the treatment of the poor and the history of medical provision (since poorhouses operated hospital wards). Poorhouse admission registers are not, in general, very useful to family historians, since they contain few personal details of each inmate, apart from age and date of admission(s) and departure(s). However, they may refer to the parochial board or parish council to which the pauper applied, in turn leading the researcher to the appropriate register of applications or general register of the poor. They also may contain details of diet and the cost of food.

Records which contain personal information about living individuals will be closed to the general public under data protection laws. Individuals have a right to access information about themselves.