Bucks Poverty Drives Migration Northward During the 1800s

Each local area, called a parish, was responsible for helping poor people living there. Officials called Overseers managed this support and decided who received aid. Old people lived in special houses such as almshouses or poorhouses. Money went to people unable to work, including the lame, blind, or mentally ill.

Healthy people had to work in a House of Industry, while lazy people went to a House of Correction. Taxes funded this assistance.

This system lasted over 200 years. By the 1800s, it became too expensive, and problems with it increased, especially in farming areas.

In 1834, a new law changed things. Poor people could only get help in workhouses, where life was very hard, discouraging people from seeking aid. Workhouses were harsh places where families split up into sections. Men, women, and children lived apart.

The Poor Law Commissioners managed the system, and Local Poor Law Unions ran workhouses. Unions included multiple parishes, and people elected Poor Law Guardians; however, the Commissioners had to approve their plans.

Northern business owners wanted more workers. They asked the Commissioners for help and suggested moving unemployed people north.

The Commissioners agreed to try this. Bledlow, a town in Buckinghamshire, was chosen because it had high unemployment and low pay. An official visited poor families in Bledlow and offered them jobs up north that paid much better. They earned very little money each week.

At first, few people wanted to move. Two families finally agreed. John Howlett and John Steevens left Bledlow and went to Quarry Bank in Cheshire in 1835. They worked at Samuel Creg & Company’s cotton mills.

John Howlett worked as a farmhand earlier. At the mill, he did similar work, and his children worked in the mill as well. His daughters worked long hours each day, and his son worked a shorter day. The family earned more money than before.

John Steevens’ family also moved, and Widow Hannah Veary and her children joined them. Joseph Stevens moved his family to Lancashire, too. The Stevens family also earned more money.

Before, they collected stones for roads. Now, they had regular income. George Allen and others joined them later. Around 83 people migrated from Bledlow, and other towns in Buckinghamshire followed.

John Howlett was happy in the north and said he would never return home. The mill owners were pleased with them and wanted more workers from the south.

Did other families have the same good experience? Another article will explore that.