Poor Law Official - Eccleshall Guardians

In 1901, Joseph Rathbone is a "Poor Law Official and Bootmaker"

A newspaper article written for his Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1932 says of him:-
"He retired in July 1925 from the port of charge band
with the now defunct Eccleshall Guardians"

(They were Eccleshall Bierlow people)

What would his job have entailed?

And is it feasible that he could have arranged for his sister to "adopt" a baby in 1919?

Thank you for any ideas

Joan

[Olde Crone]

Are you sure it doesn't say "Post of charge hand"?

Poor Law Guardians served the town or parish and stuck their noses in, lol, mostly where they WERE wanted but often where they weren't.

They would be responsible for visiting the poor who claimed poor relief and checking up on what they did and didn't have as assets.

They arranged admissions to the Workhouse - you had to get a ticket of admission which entailed an interview to make sure you weren't just fancying a free holiday in the workhouse.

They arranged adoptions and fosterings of babies and children who were either in the Workhouse, or who came to their attention through gossip or other means.

So yes, ideally placed to arrange an adoption (informal then of course, although some paperwork was completed). If they were unscrupulous enough, they were also ideally placed to "encourage" some young woman to give up her illegitimate baby by possibly withholding any help. However, most were decent men who did their job properly, so perhaps that's not a fair remark to make.

OC

Thanks OC

It could say "Post of charge hand" - (I've only seen a transription of the report) - what would that mean?

This is getting very interesting!

I wonder whether there would by any chance be any surviving paperwork

Thank you very, very, much

[kiterunner]

My dictionary says "charge hand" means "the leader of a group of workmen, but lower in rank than foreman".

Thank you Kite

I've been Googling, and it looks as though there may be records at Sheffield Records Office...so I will contact them

[Olde Crone]

Many of these Poor Law Guardian papers do survive - I have seen a set for a distant relative of mine, who was Overseer of the Poor and a Poor Law Guardian.

Mine didn't appear to do a lot, but he was landed gentry fallen on hard(ish) times and the post of Poor Law Guardian was often an inherited one, down many generations.

What he did do though, and this caused me much puzzlement until I worked out what was happening AND I saw the papers - he took on workers to his farm from the Workhouse, all of whom had the surname Holden! Whether he did this because he felt strong kinship to anyone named Holden, who can tell.

They were all listed on the 1881 as his sons and daughters by a careless transcriber. A look at the image said "other" in the relationship column.

The Minutes of the Poor Law Guardians books detailed the circumstances of all these poor Holdens, and the date on which they were taken into his "guardianship". He got a weekly allowance for each of them. They were all middle aged or older and as far as I have been able to establish, not his near relations.

OC

Thank you OC - what an interesting story.

I don't want to build my hopes up, but I will see what I can find out.

I wonder what, if any, checks were made on prospective "adoptive" parents.

The child in question ended up having a very unhappy childhood with a violent alcoholic "father"

Thanks again

I am so glad I have started trying to "do" my tree again - apart from anything else, I am learning so much.

[Olde Crone]

Muggins

No checks at all made on prospective parents I don't think - as long as they looked respectable, that would be fine by the Poor Law Guardians, who were always very anxious to shift the financial responsibility onto anyone who would take it.

OC

Thanks again OC

I think the "mother" was fairly respectable, even if the father wasn't - and in any event she was the sister of the Poor Law Official !

I wonder whether the new "parents" would be given the baby's birth certicate

This is a description of Joseph Rathbone from a newspaper cutting in 1932 on the occasion of his Golden Wedding -

"He retired in July 1925 from the port of charge band
with the now defunct Eccleshall Guardians" - or at least that is a transcription of it that I have found.

What does it mean - Should it be "charge hand" as opposed to " charge band"?

And how influential would a charge hand/band have been ?

This is the cutting from the paper - which is not easy to read http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....eGoldenWed.jpg

Thanks