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The workhouse or poorhouse, the most-feared institution in Ireland, is an important part of Irish history and something many families had a connection to. Irish workhouses are mostly associated with the suffering of the Great Famine but predated it by a number of years and lasted until the 1920s. Workhouses were designed as a place of last resort. To discourage overcrowding, conditions had to be seen as inferior to what was available outside. Upon entering the workhouse, families were segregated (children separated from adults and to female / male-only units) unlikely to ever see each other again. Whatever grim reputation the English workhouses had; conditions were even worse in Ireland.[1]
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History of the Workhouse in Ireland
A "House of Industry" for the employment and maintenance of the poor was a 17th-century English concept. The able-bodied were expected to work and could be imprisoned for refusing to do so. First introduced to Ireland in 1703, it was also known here as the poorhouse or Poor House.[2]
The Act for the effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland was passed in July 1838.[3] The Irish Act was heavily influenced by an English Act of 1834, dividing the country initially into one hundred and thirty poor law unions each with a workhouse at its centre.[4] The Poor Law Act placed the workhouse building as a central component in every Union in Ireland. Its purpose was to provide for those who could not provide for themselves. These people were the most vulnerable in society, the old, sick, orphans, and those who had no job, money, or food. Each workhouse was managed by a Board of Guardians, consisting of elected and ex-officio members.
The first workhouse to open in Ireland was built in Cork and began to admit paupers on 1 March 1840 and could accommodate 2,000 residents.[5] Portumna Workhouse opened in 1852, though Portumna Poor Law Union, the area within which the Workhouse operated, was declared on 22 February 1850. The building was constructed to accommodate 600 people and like other workhouses was designed by architect George Wilkinson. It cost £7,875 to build and occupies just over 8 acres of land outside the town.
In all, there were 163 workhouses operating in Ireland until the 1920s built in two phases. The first 130 opened prior to 1850 and the latter 33 were provided in the aftermath of the Great Famine.[6] It is often assumed that once a family or an individual entered the workhouse, that it was impossible to escape. While overcrowding was a major problem and disease rife, workhouses were not prisons. Entrance was voluntary, though often as a last resort, and residents could choose to leave. It wasn’t unusual for an individual to leave and then re-enter on multiple occasions. In some cases, wealthy benefactors created assisted emigration schemes for those in workhouses. The most famous of these schemes was the Earl Grey Scheme. Proposed by Henry George Grey, the 3rd Earl Grey, and named in his honour, this scheme would take young girls, who were seen as a burden on the overcrowded workhouses of Ireland, to Australia where there was a severe shortage of women. A total of 4,114 girls aged 14-18 were sent from Ireland to Australia under this scheme between 1848 and 1850.[7]
Workhouse records
The full archival collection pertaining to a particular Poor Law Union and its workhouse could include indoor relief registers, admission and discharge registers, registers of births, deaths and marriages, inventories, punishment books, dietary books, the masters’ journals, minute books, medical registers, hospital records, vaccination registers, lunatic registers, outdoor relief registers, dispensary notices, account books, supplier contracts, receipts and correspondence (especially with the Poor Law Commissioners).
For genealogical purposes, the indoor relief registers, along with the admission and discharge registers are probably the most useful. They will include details on when individuals entered the workhouse and when they were discharged. It should be noted that death within the workhouse was noted as a discharge. The registers record a number for each person entering the workhouse, their name, their gender, their age, whether they are single, married or widowed if they have reached adulthood i.e. usually 15 years of age and whether they are orphaned, deserted or a bastard, if they are children. They also included details about their occupation and religion and more columns headed ‘if disabled, description of the disability’; ‘name of wife or husband’; ‘number of children’; ‘observations on condition of pauper when admitted’; ‘electoral division and townland in which resident’; ‘date when admitted or born in workhouse’; and finally, ‘date when died or left the workhouse’.[8]
Unfortunately, the preservation of workhouse records has been a rather haphazard process, and the extent of preservation is variable from one union to the next. Much has been lost and many of the surviving collections are incomplete.[9] In the majority of cases, the only surviving records for a workhouse will be the Board of Guardians minute books or possibly one or two registers. Some of these registers will include an index of names, either arranged chronologically or alphabetically.
Some Irish workhouse records, primarily those for Dublin, have been digitised and are available online in commercial websites. However, the vast majority of workhouse records which survive are not online and can only be accessed through the National Archives of Ireland or local repositories.[10] A comprehensive guide to which workhouse records survive for Irish Poor Law Unions is listed on the Workhouse Records and Archives website, created by Peter Higginbotham.[11]
References
- ↑ https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/news/ten-facts-about-irish-workhouses
- ↑ https://ulsterhistoricalfoundation.com/irish-parliament/background-to-statutes/the-workhouse
- ↑ https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1838/act/56/enacted/en/print.html
- ↑ https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/guide-archives-poor-law/
- ↑ https://iar.ie/archive/cork-board-of-guardians/
- ↑ https://irishworkhousecentre.ie/about/
- ↑ https://skibbheritage.com/irish-famine-orphan-story/
- ↑ https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/tag/indoor-relief-registers/
- ↑ https://irishheritagenews.ie/was-your-ancestor-in-a-workhouse/
- ↑ https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/guide-archives-poor-law/
- ↑ https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ireland/UnionsIreland.shtml
Explore more about the Irish workhouse records
- 1911 England & Wales Census record collection at MyHeritage
- 1891 England & Wales Census record collection at MyHeritage
- The People, the Places, the Life Behind Doors: the world of the workhouse (England and Wales) webinar at Legacy Family Tree webinars
- How to Trace Your Irish Genealogy on the MyHeritage blog
- Guide to the archives of the Poor Law
References