During the 15^th and 16^th centuries the number of jobs available to people had not kept pace with the growth of the population. Bad weather had led to harvest failures which in turn had led to food shortages and high prices. The growth in sheep farming brought about an increase in unemployment for rural labourers. Whilst agricultural enclosures did not have a great effect in Herefordshire until the 17^th century (and parliamentary enclosures until the 19^th century), Herefordshire did not have a thriving handicraft industry, nor were there mineral or mining industries. Bad roads and transportation made it difficult for people to sell goods outside the county at competitive prices. As a result there were many very poor people.

Tudor people believed there were three types of poor people:

1. Those with just enough to live on.
   
2. The "deserving poor", those who could not work, eg. the very young, the very old, and disabled people - these should be looked after as an act of charity.
   
3. Sturdy rogues: vagrants and people who moved about looking for work. People felt this type should be punished. However, there was not enough work. In 1485 unemployment was not a problem, but by 1530 there were many more people than jobs.

Sometimes attitudes change more slowly than economic reality. Some people did not recognise that there were not enough jobs for everyone and accept that an increasing number of people would need help.

Parishes were legally bound to look after their own poor people. However, many poor people left their parishes to look for work. Some of these unemployed people, called vagrants, joined others and moved around in groups. Town and village authorities were frightened of them, afraid they would intimidate citizens, cause trouble or start riots. Even though some were looking for work, others were more interested in stealing or begging for a living. Sometimes people were so desperate that crime was their only means of surviving.

The number of poor people had become so large that special laws were introduced to deal with this problem.

The Tudor Poor Laws:

I : The Deserving Poor:

II: Vagrants:

In Herefordshire the lack of employment opportunities was as bad as in other parts of England. In 1556, for example, the Justices of the Peace for the county received an application from the mayor and citizens of Hereford for licenses to be granted to 27 poor men and women (and children) to go abroad to beg. That means that these families would be given a passport to allow them to beg in other parishes, because Hereford itself could not support them anymore.

Unless you had a passport for a specific journey or a license to beg in certain areas, you would find it difficult finding a place to stay. People were fined for letting vagrants stay in their homes. In Leominster, for example, people were fined 11 shillings in 1633 "for suffering strangers late come to towne to dwell in their houses…".

A case documented in the Leominster Court Leet shows that some people showed considerable ingenuity in trying to make ends meet. In 1628 the court charged a Margaret Bridges, "a late comer to inhabite in the Lower Marsh within this Borough, for usinge of Charmes and taking upon her to tell fortunes, to the dishonnor of god, and contrary to the Lawes of this Land."

Poverty and unemployment remained a problem in Herefordshire. In October 1658 an inquest urged the council to find work for the unemployed:

" (I) humbly desire that there might be some care taken for putting of the poore at worke & not suffering them to walke the streets as they doe wch would tend to the glory of God & Credit of this Cittie & all such as will not worke and are able it is needfull that there should be a bridewell provided for them." A bridewell is a prison/workhouse.

People sometimes had to give up their children because they could not afford to keep them. Many desperate people travelled abroad as indentured servants in search of a new and perhaps better life in the new colonies. Some families were split up among different masters with little hope of reunion. Sometimes parents sold their children into this type of service or the children were talked into transportation by the false promises of unscrupulous men.

A fascinating Herefordshire case involves slavery and the West Indies. A John Seaborne of Canon Pyon was accused of abducting children for slavery in 1670. The accuser, a Thomas Blythe of the parish of Weobley, asserted that the said John Seaborne had inveigled and carried away poor children, including his own child, to be sold for slaves into Barbados.

Several appeals to the civic authorities for support are recorded:

As we have seen poor relief was the responsibility of the parishes and the appointed overseer of the poor. However, some people needed more care than this system could provide for. In the past, monks, nuns and friars often cared for those most in need.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, however, it was necessary to find an alternative way of looking after the most needy element of the population.

Almshouses and "hospitals" were founded in an attempt to contain the problem of poverty. During this period a hospital was the name for an institution which cared for the poor and elderly, rather than ill people.

In the 17^th century, for example, Philip Markye gave an almshouse in Edde Cross Street for the "use of the poor of Ross." This particular almshouse had become so dilapidated that it was taken down in 1961. However, the Tudor-fronted Rudhall almshouses in Church Street were renovated and are still inhabited. Sometimes even people who were not wealthy left money for the upkeep of almshouses. An Alice Spencer, servant at Rudhall, for example, left money to the Rudhall almshouses in 1677. Thomas Webb, a successful carpenter, endowed Ross with an almshouse in Copse Cross Street in 1612.

23 almshouses are listed on the HSMR database for Herefordshire. Many of these attractive buildings can still be seen today and are often still used as accommodation. The Coningsby Hospital in Widemarsh Street, Hereford, was founded in 1614 by Sir Thomas Coningsby and is still in use today. Part of the site houses the St.John Medieval Museum which has an interesting display explaining the history of these almshouses. The servitors (the men who lived here) wore special red coats and followed special rules. In fact, it is said that Nell Gwynne influenced the design of the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital in London (built in 1682) after seeing the red-coated servitors in Hereford.

It must be kept in mind that almshouses, however useful, provided help for only a tiny number of those in need. The Coningsby Hospital, for example, housed only 11 men and a chaplain and Webb's almshouses in Ross-on-Wye provided for only 7 people.

Widespread poverty remained a problem in Herefordshire. What had started with the closing of the woollen mills by Henry VIII and had been compounded by the end of the pilgrimage trade due to the Reformation, was completed with the devastation brought about to the county by the Civil War. The poor condition of the roads as well as the lack of mineral resources held back the development in trade and manufacturing. As a result, Herefordshire became an economic back water and was unable to provide employment for the growing number of inhabitants.

TFM