Food Glorious Food?

We know that several of the families involved in our story, had some experience with the workhouse. (More on that in a future article!)

Poor relief records and workhouse records from this period in York and surrounding parishes, are sparse. We were unable to find any extant workhouse hospital records for the 1870s, which meant we were unable to find John Fisher there, although we know from Fulford Cemetery records and his death certificate, John certainly died in the York Union Workhouse, in December 1879, aged 87. We were able to study the few extant records regarding Stillingfleet (specifically Stillingfleet village itself - not including the other villages in the parish, Acaster Selby, Moreby and Kelfield), as some sections of the Out-Door Relief records are available for 1843 and '4 - but even these are not complete years. [York City Archive, ACC. 2:523 and 524].

Within a year of the accident on the river, the Poor Laws were reformed, and suddenly the poor were treated more harshly than ever. The lucky might get Out-Door relief, some help from the parish in the form of alms, and in the case of the most lucky, a place in an almshouse, like the Cawood one pictured above. Others, if deemed able bodied, would be sent to the Union Workhouse ('Union' referring to a union of different parishes who clubbed together to house and feed their poor). In the Workhouse, conditions were grim. Families were split up. Orphaned, abandoned and illegitimate children were set to work.

Very few of the records from the rural parishes around York survive for this date. The York Archive does hold the 'Abstract of Applications and Report Book' for the year quarter ending March, 1843, which covers Stillingfleet - and that is most instructive.

For example, in the 1843 records, quarter ending March, Elizabeth Buckle, 'widow', 50 and her daughter Jane, 11 were awarded 4 shillings per week. Six months later, only Elizabeth is claiming from the parish, and her payment is now 2/- a week. It is possible that her daughter was sent away into service, or maybe to the workhouse. Also in the quarter ending September, 1843, Jane Spencer 'orphan' is temporarily granted 2/-, but it is noted Jane is "able to earn her own livelihood" [sic].

According to the IGI, a Jane Spencer was born to victim Henry Spencer in 1830. (Apart from Turner and Bristow, all the male victims and survivors had very young children in 1833).

Traditionally, families during hard times had been forced to live 'on the parish'. The parish might provide bread for its poorer churchgoers, and some money on which to subside (See 'Haulers and Turners' for more about poverty, prior to the Poor Law Act of 1834). My own relative, and John Fisher's great-niece, Bella Cleveland, was still baking the church bread every Sunday in neighbouring Cawood, as late as the early 20thC. ['Memories of Cawood in the early 1900s', text transcribed from tapes, John Bernard Kettlewood].

Elderly paupers like John Fisher's Kelfield parents, John and Elizabeth Fisher, seem to have remained at home. The 1841 and 51 Censuses describe them as 'paupers', but they are still in Kelfield. (In John and Elizabeth's case, they were unlikely to have been totally desperate, as their daughter Elizabeth lived at Auburn Hall, Kelfield, as the 'lady' of the old manor house, with a farm, fish ponds, orchards, pastures, gardens and fields, so it's probable they didn't rely on the parish too much).

In the 1843 records, for Stillingfleet we find:

"Fisher, John, 25. Labourer out of employ.

Fisher, Hannah , his wife, 23

Fisher, Sabina, 2 years

Fisher, Emma 6 mth "

On a page filled with people being allowed small sums of money on which to subsist, John Fisher's eldest son is the only one who, with his wife and two babies is summarily "ordered to the Workhouse". The others all receive outdoor relief (that is, they are given the dole and allowed to stay put).

John Fisher Jr appears in Censuses in Stillingfleet village, not the York Union Workhouse, after this date; so we can assume the Fishers' stay in York Union Workhouse was a short one, but it would have been a recurrent threat hanging over any Labourer's family.

Then, we may have found one of the jurors:

"Thomas Simpson, 66, single, aged and infirm. 2-/ Allowed weekly."

Thomas Simpson is the juror about whom I have discovered the least, so this was quite a find.

The Minutes for the York Union Workhouse date from 1837, when the workhouse was newly built. From an examination of them, we can piece together a surprising amount of information about life in the York Union Workhouse, in the 1830s and 40s. Particularly instructive is the response to a complaint about the workhouse food. After eating some soup, a number of the inmates became violently ill, and the Governors decided to send off a sample of soup for analysis.

From the Minutes for 29.8.1839:

"Report of Mr White, Chemist, dated the 27th and relevant to the analysis of the said soup, read as follows: -

'- Having carefully analysed the soup placed in my hands on Saturday the 10th inst by the Masters of the York Union Workhouse, I can confidently declare it free from any extraneous matter usually classed under the term poison.

'On the subsequent Monday...accompanied by Mr Bell of Goodramgate, (a Guardian), I called at the Workhouse to inspect the culinary utensils...

'... In a room, however, in my opinion as a Chemist, ill adapted for the purpose of preserving meat, we found a Beast's Head at that time offensive to the smell, and in answer to a question from Mr.Bell who expressed disapprobation at the state in which the Meat then was, the Master informed us it would not be cooked until the following Wednesday. This room adjoins and opens into a short and very narrow yard considerably tainted with all the effluvia rising from some privies at one end...The head not having been previously cleaned , a quantity of unwholesome mucus was attached to it.

'... Whilst therefore calling the attention of the Board of Guardians to the statement relative to the Beast's head, I should decline averring that the soup contained any injurious quantity of putrefaction....

W White, Chemist

Monk Bar, York.'"

Despite Mr White's concern re. the mucus and putrefaction, the Governors of the Workhouse found (conveniently) that in fact the soup had made inmates ill because "...the usual quantity of Potatos [sic] had been omitted making the soup too strong and rich..."

This conclusion no doubt justified thinning the soup down, using less meat and more potatoes! One can't help being reminded of the opening chapters of 'Oliver Twist', contrasting the sumptuous meal of the Board of Workhouse Governors, with the food served to the inmates. Elsewhere in the Minutes, we see the tenders for contracts for various supplies to the Workhouse, and the butcher sells the Workhouse 'Beasts head' [sic] at 1 shilling and 5d each. The brimstone and treacle of Dickens' Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby may be no exaggeration, either, as amongst the list of provisions, it's apparent they bought treacle by the stone!

Photo; Cawood Alms Houses. John Fisher's niece, Eliza Thompson ended her days here. Infinitely better than the Union Workhouse!