When in Want or Distress - Records of the Parish Overseer by Peter Ewart
Peter Ewart’s talk started with what seemed like a party political broadcast as he quoted from past prime ministers and former members of parliament on their take on the welfare state through the decades of the last century.
Peter’s talk as always was engaging, informative and entertaining especially worthy of note as this talk was without illustrations but packed with numerous examples. The talk covered the Elizabethan poor law and not the Victorian system of the harsh workhouses. Peter covered the role of the parish Overseer of the poor and his Poor Book which contained Assessments (the income collected from Parishioners to support the poor) and Disbursements (how the Overseer spent the money on food, clothing and shelter of the parish poor) and the latter have the more interesting details albeit only a sentence of two. These invaluable records are in the Parish Collections at record offices around the country. The coverage of these records in Kent is better than the norm.
W. E. Tate’s classic book “The Parish Chest” is still seen as the best source on the poor law records. There were murmurings amongst the members about finding their copy to have another look, myself included as I open my 1983 copy from the shelf.