In this book, Shave advocates a re-emphasis of the need to invest more effort in understanding the administrative processes of the Old Poor Law’s last fifty years and the New Poor Law’s first twenty years (c. 1780–1850). She views scholars’ recent focus on the experiences of those in receipt of poor relief, particularly that making exclusive use of overseers’ accounts, as inclined to neglect what she terms the “policy process.” She seeks to remedy this neglect through focused consideration, in Chapters 2 and 3, of two sets of enabling Acts of Parliament and their manner of adoption by parishes. The intent behind Thomas Gilbert’s Act of 1782 was to move vulnerable sections of the population (children and the elderly) within those parishes that adopted it to a workhouse for employment while focusing outdoor relief on the able-bodied poor. The Sturges Bourne Act of 1819 permitted parishes to employ an assistant...

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