Date: 1690 - 1815
The Poor Laws, was established as a British welfare system in the 16th century. This system underwent a significant change with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This reform introduced a rigid distinction between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, forcing those in need into punitive workhouses. The stigma attached to seeking aid, along with localized data collection by individual boards, embedded biases into the records of the time. This data shows examples of cases from before the 1834 amendment.