The Woodbridge Poor Rate

In all parishes, the Poor Rate was initially collected to cover a parish’s expenditure on caring for its poor. Later it was also used to pay for maintaining highways and to provide street lighting. The Poor rate also include each parish’s contribution to the county Rate.

The Woodbridge Town Books and the Oversees Account Books held by the Suffolk Record Office give a comprehensive description of how the poor rate was collected up to the creation of the Poor Law Unions in 1834. The Poor Rate, paid by each household, was based on a valuation of the amount the land they occupied. During the mid-eighteenth century the poor rate was the average poor rate was 6d in the £ of the rateable value.

The rateable value of each household is listed in the Woodbridge Town Books and those judged to be too poor to pay the poor rate are identified.

The table to the left shows that from 1748 to 1807 the percentage of households considered to be too poor to pay the rate are identified. The Table on the right shows that from 1748 to 1807 the percentage of household considered to be too poor to pay the rate varied 9.5% to 14.8%.

Table showing the number of households in Woodbridge and the number of households which judged to be poor.

Some poor families would have been able to cope without assistance. Those who would not would have either been given money to live in their home or they would have been sent to the parish workhouse. These two options were respectively referred to as out-relief and as in-relief.  There is insufficient data to show how the number of families receiving either in-relief or out relief changed from year to year but, in the 1760’s, it is known that the average number of people in the Woodbridge workhouse was about 22 and that about 32 families were regularly receiving weekly payments out-relief.  On the basis of this evidence it would appear that most of the poor families in Woodbridge were receiving out-relief and could stay in their own homes.

During 1835, the last year that the parish workhouse was in use, the total expenditure on in-relief and out relief was £2,655. When the Woodbridge Poor law Union took over the responsibility for caring for the poor there was an immediate cost saving and this continued to grow. By 1859 the cost of caring for the poor was only 49% of that in 1835.

The ratio of the expenditure on in-relief and on out-relief varied considerably from parish.  In 1863, for example, 28% of the money Woodbridge paid to the Poor Law Union was used for in-relief whereas across the whole of the union the average was only 19%.

The finances of the Union were tightly controlled.  The amount that each parish paid per year was set at the average of the last three years expenditure on both kind of relief.  Any over or underpayments over the year were carried forward to the next year. The collection of poor rates from each parish was the responsibility of the Overseer in each parish and the Church Wardens.
 

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 Last edited 15 Sept 21