Folios 230-231. Letter from Thomas Day, Clerk to the Guardians of the Bromsgrove...

Folios 230-231. Letter from Thomas Day, Clerk to the Guardians of the Bromsgrove Poor Law Union, to the Poor Law Commission. At a meeting on 30 October 1843, the guardians decided to give 20s outdoor relief to James Wall, an able bodied man. Wall had been short of work for a long time, and wanted to emigrate to New South Wales [Australia]. A public subscription raised just enough for him to get to Liverpool [Lancashire] and to pay the charges of £1 each for him and his wife and 10s for each of his children, but he needed the extra money to support his family until the boat sailed on 2 November 1843. Without this they would probably have been inmates of the workhouse. The family consists of Wall, 38, Stonemason, Dinah Wall, 35, his wife and his children Elizabeth Wall, 13, William Wall, 12, James Wall, 10, Sarah Wall, 7, Henry Wall, 5, Mercy Wall, 3, and Joseph Wall, 1. He asks the board to sanction the payment.

Annotation addressed to Mr Lumley [William Golden Lumley, Assistant Secretary to the Commission]: is it worth noting the disadvantages of these migration transactions to the emigrant?

Annotated by Lumley: this appears to be a government emigrant and as there was no call on the poor rates, it appears to be simply a case of relief given to a non-resident pauper.

Annotated: act upon the direction of the 6 November 1843.

Paper Number: 14905/B/1843.

Poor Law Union Number 526.

Counties: Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.