{"id":2581,"date":"2021-09-24T08:30:37","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T08:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2581"},"modified":"2021-08-27T09:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T09:22:03","slug":"overseers-of-the-poor-account-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/09\/24\/overseers-of-the-poor-account-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Overseers of the Poor Account Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Milton Abbas Local History Group have transcribed 60,000 records of all the existing\u00a0 Overseers of the Poor Account books for Milton Abbas from 1771 to 1836, and are finding that the records are a fantastic resource for researching local and family history. The account book in the Dorset History Centre covers the years 1818 – 1830 for Milton Abbas, and many other Dorset parishes have similar records in DHC.<\/p>\n

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PE-MIL\/OV\/1\/1<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After 1836 outdoor relief was being replaced by the Union Workhouse, but Milton Abbas did retain some out relief with work on the roads which are recorded in the Surveyors of the Highways accounts.<\/p>\n

The Overseers records are unique in that each poor person is detailed with their names, and what things cost. Every aspect of life is covered – illness, doctors, medicines, treatments, nursing care, moving, funerals, lying in, travelling, old age, clothing, shoes, bedding, chimney sweeping, house rent, who is paying rates and how much. This information gives an insight into the social history of each parish. As just one example, this entry occurs in the Overseers accounts for Milton Abbas in April 1800 “Mr White for Extra Gristing \u00a37 8s 6d<\/em>“. This led us to explore the events around this time concerning the poor, and write an article and a presentation on the subject. It was possible to chart the price of grains, the amount spent by the Overseers, the amount received by each of the farmers and the amount of rates paid. This information, together with the mortality and birth rates for just this parish show just how tough the years around 1800 were, and how the tenant farmers, miller and overseers handled the situation.<\/p>\n

Transcriptions made by the Milton Abbas Local History Group are now in a spreadsheet which allows them to search for names. To deal with the various spellings, for example Vatjer, Vater, Vacher, Vatcher, we added a column to hold the ‘usual’ spelling, in this case we used Vacher. The History Group are very grateful to their volunteer transcribers who contacted them via their website and come from all round the world. Milton Abbas Local History Group can now tell the stories of the mostly agricultural labourers who worked in Milton Abbas for some of the lowest wages in the country. The group are using the records to tell the stories of life in a Dorset village.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

A guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Bryan Phillips of the Milton Abbas Local History Group.<\/p>\n

Should you or your organisation wish to contribute a guest blog, please\u00a0get in touch with us to discuss your idea.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Milton Abbas Local History Group have transcribed 60,000 records of all the existing\u00a0 Overseers of the Poor Account books for Milton Abbas from 1771 to 1836, and are finding that the records are a fantastic resource for researching local and family history. The account book in the Dorset History Centre covers the years 1818… Read more Overseers of the Poor Account Books<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[82,362,268,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2583,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581\/revisions\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}