The State of the Poor
Or, An History of the Labouring Classes in England, from the Conquest to the Present Period

Published in 1797, this three-volume work describes poverty in England and the various measures introduced to deal with it.

Frederick Morton Eden (Author)

9781108036894, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 November 2011

674 pages
29.7 x 21 x 3.4 cm, 1.59 kg

Sir Frederick Morton Eden (1766–1809) was an English writer and a pioneer social researcher. Eden studied at Christ Church, Oxford, and subsequently worked in banking and insurance, inheriting a baronetcy from his father, who had been the governor of the American province of Maryland, in 1784. Arguing that poverty could not be tackled without knowing what it actually meant to be poor, this innovative three-volume work is an attempt to define what poverty meant in concrete terms. It is packed with data from across England, divided by county, and covering factors such as food prices, wages, diet and mortality rates. Volume 3 presents the second set of reports on living conditions of the poor in the various English counties, sorted alphabetically from Surrey to Yorkshire, and the Welsh counties. A study of Scotland's poor is included in an appendix.

Parochial Reports - England: Surrey
Sussex
Warwickshire
Westmoreland
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Yorkshire
North Wales: Denbighshire
South Wales: Pembrokeshire
Radnorshire
Appendix: 1. A comparative and chronological table of prices
2. Wages appointed by statute, in 1495
3. Wages of labourers, rated by justices at different periods
4. Compositions paid by the different counties, in lieu of purveyance, in 1593
5. Extracts from the Houshold Book of the Earl of Surrey, in 1523
6. Extracts from Sir Edward Coke's houshold accounts, in 1596
7. Regulations of a House of Correction at Bury, Suffolk, in 1589
8. Principal Acts of Parliament concerning the poor
9. Catalogue and titles of the statutes relating to the poor
10. Account of the poor in Scotland
11. Mr. Pitt's speech on 12th February 1796, and heads of his Poor Bill
12. Expences and earnings of agricultural labourers, in various parts of England
13. Prices of provisions in Suffolk, for five years
14. Poor's rates, houses paying and exempted from window-tax, and population, in several parishes
15. Mr. Bailey's computation of the quantity of meat, etc. necessary in work-houses
16. Forms of registers for admissions, births, deaths, and apprenticeships of parish children
17. Account of broad and narrow cloths, manufactured in the West Riding of Yorkshire, since 1726
and county expences in the West Riding, for several years
18. Catalogue of English publications concerning the poor
19. Proposal for a County Bank in Cumberland
20. Dr. Price's tables for regulating contributions and allowances in friendly societies
21. Mr. Pitt's Poor Bill, as amended by the Committee of the House of Commons
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB]