POOR

[The Market Street Workhouse, Brighton, Sussex.] Manuscript titled 'A prayer for the poor in the poor House at Brighton'. With note by the author written 38 years later, lamenting the lack of improvement in conditions.

Author: 
[The Market Street Workhouse, Brighton, Sussex]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. February 1801.
£120.00

2pp., 8vo. The prayer is 39 lines long. In fair condition, on aged and worn laid paper with 'GATER' watermark. The prayer begins: 'O. Lord - O.

[Richard Oastler, Tory radical.] Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed editor, regarding the proof of his 'sayings of last Monday'.

Author: 
Richard Oastler (1789-1861), Tory radical, abolitionist and campaigner for Poor Law reform
Publication details: 
'Mr. Tathams'. 27 March 1839.
£120.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. He has just 'received notice that the Mansfield meeting will be held on Thursday at 12 o'clock - & the Sutton meeting on Saturday at One O'clock.' He continues: 'If you intend to insert any of my sayings of last Monday, I should feel obliged by a sight of the proof, if consistent with your official regulations'.

[Sir Thomas Dyke Acland.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Thos. Dyke Acland') to an unnamed recipient, explaining how he has ceased to make charitable payments to the widow of an artist 'labouring under loss or decay of sight'.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1787-1871), successively Conservative Member of Parliament for Devonshire and North Devon
Publication details: 
From the Waterloo Hotel, on his crested letterhead. 10 June 1863.
£56.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces of glue from mount along one edge. A hurried letter, illegible at points. 'You will see the name of yr. respectable at the end of the enclosed Petition from My Own Hand. She has no right to refer to me for any further knowledge of herself and her husband, or his position of art - than that of my having understood him to be an artist in a state of much distress, labouring under loss or decay of sight, & that I for some years I might almost , I gave him occasional relief.

['Public Baths for the Working Classes' in Nicolson Square, Edinburgh.] Three items relating to the project, two in manuscript (long circular letter, and accounts with 'Remarks') and printed prospectus.

Author: 
'Public Baths for the Working Classes' in Nicolson Square, Edinburgh; Charles Gardner, Secretary to the Committee; D. McLaren and William Johnston]
Publication details: 
Printed prospectus dated Edinburgh, 14 July 1847. Circular letter from Committee Rooms, Cranston's Temperance Coffee House, High St, Edinburgh; 1 August 1844. Accounts at 12 August 1844.
£450.00

Surprisingly little appears to have been written about the public baths at 12 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh; with no references to it on the Scottish Archives Network. There is however an informative reference to the subject in Francis H. Groome's 'Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland' (1884): 'Good public baths, of various kinds and various extent, for the upper and the middle classes, are in several parts both of the city and its environs. Public baths for the working classes were long a desideratum, though earnestly desired by many of the working classes themselves.

[Isabelle Bogelot, nineteenth-century French women's activist.] Autograph Letter Signed [to the London bookseller Philip Stephen King and his wife]

Author: 
Isabelle Bogelot (1838-1923), French activist, whose Oeuvre des Libérées de Saint-Lazare assisted former inmates of the Paris prison [Philip Stephen King (1819-1908), London parliamentary bookseller]
Publication details: 
4 rue Perrault [Paris]. 19 April 1886.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Not having had 'la facilté de profiter de la bonne recommendation de Miss Louisa Hardy', she writes a letter of recommendation for her son, who will be passing through London for a few days: 'c'est lui qui vous portera nos compliments et vous remercira des articles des journaux que vous m'avez fait parvenir et qu'il m'a traduit'.

[Printed act of parliament.] Anno Regni Gulielmi III. Regis Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae & Hiberniae, Septimo & Octavo. At the Parliament begun at Westminster [22 November 1695]. [An Act for Relief of Poor Prisoners for Debt or Damages.]

Author: 
[British Act of Parliament: 'An Act for Relief of Poor Prisoners for Debt or Damages', 22 November 1695]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. 1695.
£180.00

[1] + 14pp., 8vo, with the text paginated 349-359. Disbound. Good, on aged paper. At the head of the title, in a contemporary hand: 'Relief of poor prisoners'. The title carries the royal crest, and reads in full: 'Anno Regni Gulielmi II. Regis Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae & Hiberniae, Septimo & Octavo. | At the Parliament begun at Westminster the Two and twentieth Day of November, Anno Dom. 1695.

Part of Autograph Letter Signed ('Olive Mackirdy') from the Anglo-Indian journalist and philanthropist Olive Christian Malvery, discussing her efforts to raise money for the building of shelters in London for homeless women.

Author: 
Olive Mackirdy [née Olive Christian Malvery] (1877-1914), Anglo-Indian journalist and philanthropist, who raised money for two shelters for homeless women in London
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated (but written after her marriage in 1904).
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. The final leaf of the letter only. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. A poignant letter, given its author's early death. Regarding 'the Shelter' Mackirdy writes that 'Lady Brassey the Duchess of St Albans Lady Radnor & others have been giving big dinner parties etc for me & I only go in order to meet people who will help with the Shelter. I am not very strong and have such heavy work that now I find I simply cannot indulge my own tastes & enjoy my firends if I am going to do definite work.

[Printed parliamentary paper.] Strand Union Workhouse. Copy of the Report made by R. B. Cane, Esq., Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton.

Author: 
[R. B. Cane [Richard Basil Cane], Poor Law Inspector; Matilda Beeton, Head Nurse at the Strand Union Workhouse, Cleveland Street, London]
Publication details: 
Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 25 June 1866.
£220.00

28 + [1] pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. P. 1 has the drophead title: 'STRAND UNION WORKHOUSE. | RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons, | dated 25 June 1866; - for, | COPY "of the REPORT made by R. B. Crane, Esquire, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton, in reference to the Treatment of the Sick in the Strand Union Workhouse." | Poor Law Board, 25 June 1866.

Printed satirical circular 'To the Ratepayers of this Borough', from 'Wm. Buster, Junr.', concerning his supposed election as a Poor Law Guardian.

Author: 
'Wm. Buster, Junr.', pseudonym [English Poor Law Guardians]
Publication details: 
'Dated, May 1, 1851, Castle Villian.'
£95.00

1p., 12mo. In small type. On aged and creased paper. Signed in type: 'Beggar and Flames! | Gentlemen, | If I am not your Bum Bailiffe, [sic] | For any dirty work, | WM. BUSTER, JUNR.' The circumstances surrounding this spoof are unclear. It begins: 'In fact, I feel it a duty devolving upon me, to return you my sincere thanks for the honour you have done me, in electing me one of your Guardians.' The next paragraph concerns 'the slanderous assertion, which certain persons have industriously circulated, detractive of this honour, in fact, that I am the nominee of my own workman'.

Original photograph of the 'First group of boys for Canada from the Hampton Home' [the Hampton Training Home for boys], run by Joseph Merry and his wife Rachel Merry (sister of Annie Macpherson), with George Thom.

Author: 
[The Hampton Training Home for boys [Hampton Home]; George Thom; Joseph Merry and his wife Rachel Merry (sister of Annie Macpherson [Annie Parlane Macpherson]); Home of Industry; Canadian emigration]
Publication details: 
Circa 1870.
£280.00

Landscape photograph, 19.5 x 14.5 cm, laid down on a piece of thin card cut from an album, 18 x 21 cm. Around sixty boys are posed in four rows in front of a grand house, with two masters to the right and two to the left, and with a fifth in the centre of the group. The group are surprisingly fat-faced, posing sulkily in jackets, with some waistcoats and tam o'shanters. Five more boys look out of a downstairs window, three from an upstairs window, and one peeks out from behind the front door.

Autograph Letter Signed from Charles Gilpin, Liberal MP for Northampton, to James Wyld, MP for Bodmin, putting the position of the Poor Board in the case of 'Mr Mayall', Relieving Officer.

Author: 
Charles Gilpin (1815-1874), Liberal MP for Northampton and Quaker [James Wyld (1812-1887), MP for Bodmin and cartographer; Poor Board, Whitehall]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Poor Board, Whitehall. 31 October 1860.
£56.00

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines. Fair, on aged paper, with a few ink spots caused by clumsy blotting. He has 'gone through the papers referring to the case' in which Wyld is 'kindly interested', and finds 'that the decision of the Board is in accordance with its uniform rule in similiar cases. | Mr. Mayall received his appointment as Relieving Officer on the express stipulation that he should reside in Bodmin'. Mayall's 'removal would have been objected to by this Board without any adverse representation from Guardians of the District'.

The Rules and Constitutions for Governing and Managing the Maiden-Hospital, founded by the Company of Merchants, and Mary Erskine, in Anno 1695.

Author: 
[The Maiden Hospital; the Company of Merchants of the City of Edinburgh; the Mary Erskine School; the Merchant Maiden Hospital; Robert Fleming and Company]
The Rules and Constitutions for Governing and Managing the Maiden-Hospital
Publication details: 
Edinburgh: Printed by Robert Fleming and Company, 1731.
£125.00
The Rules and Constitutions for Governing and Managing the Maiden-Hospital

12mo, xi + [vi] + 46 pp. Stitched as issued, in original marbled-paper wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The title leaf is followed by a nine-page preface, taking the pagination to p.xi. The page following p.xi (on the verso of the leaf) is blank, and this is followed by three unpaginated leaves carrying a six-page 'Act of Parliament in Favours [sic] of the Maiden Hospital, Founded by the Company of Merchants and Mary Erskine.' This 'Act', which precedes the 46 pages of the 'Rules and Constitutions', would not appear to be present in all copies.

National Society, No. 29. Sunday School Lessons. Fourth Sunday after Trinity.

Author: 
National Society [for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (Great Britain)]
National Society, No. 29. Sunday School Lessons.
Publication details: 
N.d.
£20.00
National Society, No. 29. Sunday School Lessons.

Four pages, 12mo, edges dusted, mainly good, not bound. No copy found on COPAC (one with similar title said to be at Cambridge is not this).

[Printed.] Rapport Général fait a Mr. le Maire de Gand, Chambellan de sa Masjesté, par les Commissaires chargés des secours extraordinaires, accordés aux Indigens de cette Ville, depuis le commencement du mois de Decembre 1816 jusqu'au 2 Août 1817.

Author: 
C. Dellafaille; P. J. De Smedt, Commissaires de la Ville de Gand [Ghent]
Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard (
Publication details: 
A Gand, Chez C. J. Fernand, Imprimeur de la Régence, Place du Lion d'or. [1817.]
£56.00
Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard (

8vo, 15 pp. Disbound. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The opening paragraph makes clear the theme: 'Les pluies continuelles venaient d'enlever au cultivateur ses plus chères espérances; la récolte avait entièrement manquée, et ce désastre était commun à presque toute l'Europe: dèslors il fut facile de prévoir les malheurs qui affligeraient le continent et particulièrement la classe pauvre et sans travail jusqu'à la récolte prochaine.' Scarce.

Autograph Letter Signed John Manners to an unnamed woman (Madam), concerning his support of the Mendicity Society.

Author: 
Lord John Manners [Mendicity Society]
Autograph Letter Signed John Manners
Publication details: 
[Headed] Belvoir Castle, 13 Jan. 1885.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed John Manners

Three pages, 12mo, black border, some smudging and other marking and minor damage, text clear and complete, as follows: I am not acquainted with Lord Effingham, and cannot undertake to write to him on the subject of the Mendicity Society. | I have for years belonged to, & made use of the machinery of that Society not only to detect imposture, but to relieve real distress, and I never heard before of anybody being deprived of lodgings on account of enquiries being made by that Society - | That you should wish to sell your work ought to meet with your landlady's approbation.

[printed Government circular, Poor Law, 1845, with seal and facsimile signatures] (Audit Districts.) Officers' Salaries. To the Guardians of the Poor of the several Unions and Incorporations [...] Churchwardens and Overseers [...] Clerks or Clerks.

Author: 
[The Poor Law Commissioners, 1845; George Nicholls, G. C. Lewis, Edmund W. Head]
Printed Government circular, Poor Law, 1845
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George E. Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 1845.
£125.00
Printed Government circular, Poor Law, 1845

Folio, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper.

A Letter to the Protestant Dissenters of England & Wales. [Education: and recent educational publications.]

Author: 
Rev. Robert Ainslie (c.1802-1876), Secretary of the Congregational Board of Education
Publication details: 
London: John Snow, 35, Paternoster-row. [Dated, p.53: 'Mornington Road, Regent's Park, February 1st, 1847.' Printed by J. Unwin, Bucklersbury.]
£180.00

8vo: 55 pp. Disbound. Tight, on aged, grubby paper, with wear to the title-leaf, which has a 7cm closed tear along the spine. Inscribed at head of title-page: 'Rev. S. Martin wh ye Authors Affec regards'. An informed discussion, with footnotes, tables and statistics, of the desirability of the education of the poor, by a correspondent of Charles Darwin. Excessively scarce: no copy at the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at King's College, London.

Printed Covering Letter, signed by steward 'A Bazzoni', intended to enclose a ticket to the Society's Anniversary Dinner.

Author: 
Aged Poor Society, London [Augusto Bazzoni; Roman Catholic; philanthropy; charity]
Publication details: 
London, December, 1831.'
£45.00

4to: 1 p. Printed on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of paper watermarked 'R BARNARD | 1828'. Fifteen lines of text. Text clear and complete on aged, creased paper with chipping to extremities, and the two leaves of the bifolium nearly detached. Docketed in contemporary hands '819' at the head of the printed page, and 'No. 72' on the reverse of the second leaf 'No. 72'.

Folio sheet of statistics, by 'G. Hervey, General Inspector', headed 'Eastern District. Return shewing the Total Number of Vagrants relieved during Years ended 31st December mentioned below [i.e. 1902 to 1909].'

Author: 
G. Hervey, General Inspector [Edwardian poverty; vagrancy; workhouses; poor law]
Publication details: 
Dated at foot '6/10. [June 1910] D & S.' Covers the English counties ('County and Union') Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
£120.00

Printed on one side of a sheet roughly 395 x 250 mm. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Text clear and entire. At foot: '(16611-21.) Wt. 6705-99. 325. 6/10. D & S.' Fifty-two entries, beginning with 'Cambridgeshire, Wisbech', each with columns for the years 1902 to 1909 of 'Numbers of Casuals relieved in the Workhouse', and with a final column headed 'Two Nights' Detention System enforced or not.' Totals given for each county, and a final 'Total of the District'.

Secretarial Letter Signed ('W. Blanchard Jerrold') to 'Wm. <Raikes?> Esq'.

Author: 
William Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884), English journalist and playwright
Publication details: 
30 June 1864; 11 Maddox Street, Regent Street, London.
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. Very good. 'The Association for establishing depots of cheap food for the poor' has been formed, 'under the auspices of Lord Brougham, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Sir John Villiers Shelley, and others,' and Jerrold asks whether Raikes would 'permit us to add your name to the list of patrons', a position which 'entails no pecuniary responsibility whatsoever.'

Autograph Letter Signed [to 'Mr Procter, Islington'].

Author: 
David Bogue (1750-1825), British nonconformist minister, whose academy at Gosport was 'the seed from which the London Missionary Society grew'
Publication details: 
Gosport 6th April 1825'.
£125.00

Three pages, 12mo. Good, on aged paper, but with the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium covered by previous brown-paper mount. 'Mr Cecil' has passed on Procter's letter. 'The object of your Society is highly commendable, & I wish it much success.' He is 'promoting the same end, by giving what [he] can spare, to Ministers in the neighbourhood'. Praises 'Gentlemen in London' for their 'liberality in assisting poor Ministers at a distance'. '[I]n the country we have as many in our neighbourhood as we are able to relieve'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Walter L. Clay') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Walter Lowe Clay, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Victorian social scientist
Publication details: 
1 November 1866; on letterhead of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1 Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C. [London].
£45.00

Two pages, small octavo. Good, on lightly aged paper and ruckled paper, with some staining to the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium. His correspondent's 'paper on the high death rate in Liverpool' was not returned to Clay after being read at Manchester, 'nor can the Secretary of the Department (Captain ) obtain any intelligence of it from the reporters'. One of the reporters has sent the Captain an abstract prepared by the author. Clay asks whether he has the manuscript in his possession, and if so, whether he will send it to him.

Document headed “Subscriptions to the Society for bettering the condition of the Poor"

Author: 
Mathew Carey
Publication details: 
Philadelphia, 1829
£250.00

And others. Philad[elphia] manuscript 1829. Single leaf 7.75 x 6.25 inches, variously signed, recto only, in ink and pencil. Folded twice, edgeworn with tears that long ago were reinforced verso with several strange tape-products, none of which have bled through. The designated recipients of any donations include: Stephen H. Tyng [pencil], G.C. Potts, Robt. Ralston, Jackson Kemper , G. T. Bedell [pencil, with flourish],Matthew S. Bevan, James San-- [?], Matthew Carey, Ezra Stiles Ely, G. W.Ridgely, E.

Autograph Signature on slip of paper.

Author: 
Sir Edwin Chadwick
Publication details: 
Without name or date.
£18.00

English social reformer and essayist (1800-90), Jeremy Bentham's literary assistant. Dimensions of paper roughly three-quarters of an inch by two and a half. Signed 'E Chadwick' over light traces of stamps in red and green, on foxed paper discoloured with age. Small portion at head of 'E' trimmed away.

Autograph Letter Signed to unknown male correspondent.

Author: 
Maria Acland [Sir Charles Abraham Elton; POOR LAW]
Publication details: 
Gloucester Row Clifton Feby 10th 1823'.
£56.00

Docketed in pencil at foot of page 'Authoress of book on Poor Laws &c'. One page, quarto. Creased, discoloured and stained, with the rear repaired with tape. Interesting letter, referring to the publication of an essay. She is gratified by her correspondent's approbation of her 'attempt' and accepts his offer. Had the essay been published she would have asked for proof-sheets. 'I believe I have made a mis-quotation about the 8th or 9th page, & have written "Whosoever hath not &c" instead of "If any man have not".

A Letter to the . . .Lord Bishop of Durham . . . on the Principle and Detail of the Measures now under consideration of Parliament for promoting and encouraging Industry and for the Relief and regulation of the Poor.

Author: 
Thomas Bernard.
Publication details: 
London, Printed for J. Hatchard, 1807.
£250.00

See DNB for Bernard's activites on behalf of the Poor. Half-title, blank, titlepage, imprint, pp. [1]-62, 8vo. Disbound, poor condition, frayed, soiled, worm-holed in parts, some pages detached or semi-detached, but text clear and complete. INSCRIBED "Geo. Vansittart Esq. from the author" i.e. Bernard. Note: see DNB for George Vansittart, nephew of theSecretary to the Treasury to whom Bernard addressed "Letter to the Right Hon. N. Vansittart on Repeal of the Salt Duties". A scarce pamphlet.

Printed handbill headed 'TABLES TURNED; | OR THE | Tories reduced to the Workhouse, | Being the First Examination of Paupert before the Commissioners of the New Poor Law'

Author: 
POOR LAW
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but circa 1834; printed by 'BIRT, Printer, 39, Great St. An- | drew St. Seven Dials. [London]'.
£100.00

In 3 columns on a sheet of thin unwatermarked wove paper, 10 inches by 7. Creased and grubby, but in good condition overall. Lightly attached at head to a sheet of paper. Satirical report of examination of a Beadle, Bob Orange Peel [Sir Robert Peel], Old Nosey [Wellington?], Cumberland Griffin from Kew [?], Jack Cobley [?], Winchester Rat (a mayor) [?], Sailor Bill [William IV], and Madame Addle-head [?].

Two Autograph Letters Signed to Charles B. Walker of Thirsk.

Author: 
Reverend Doctor T. Newton, Wesleyan Minister, on the administration of the poor law
Publication details: 
Both from Coxwold, the first 3 May 1824 and the second 10 March 1825.
£50.00

A newspaper cutting attached to the white paper folder in which these items are placed carries a short obituary of Newton, who died 30 April [1854]. The first letter is 1 page, 4to, addressed on reverse, and the second 1 page, 12mo, with address on reverse of second leaf of bifolium. Both grubby but in good condition. Letter 1: 'I am sorry the very stormy morning will not allow me to join my Brother Magistrates in answering the enclosed Queries.

Autograph Note Signed to Miss C. rachenburg, Lady Harding, The Terrace, Anglesey, Gosport.

Author: 
Gathorne Gathorne Hardy
Publication details: 
30/07/66
£30.00

Earl of Cranbrook. [On 2 July, Hardy was appointed to the Poor Law Board.] Statesman. One page, 8vo, laid down with envelope (stamped and addressed and counter-signed by Hardy, good condition. He thanks her for her "pamphlet on Cholera and its cure. I will submit it ot some more competent judge of the matter than I am." [Pamphlet not traced but a BLC search incovers over 100 titles involving cholera for the year 1866 alone.]

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