Peterhead Almshouse

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:41 pm

I have found two nephews of an ancestor at Ugie Street in Peterhead in the 1851 census. I believe Peterhead did not have a Workhouse but did have an Almshouse, does anyone know if it was on Ugie Street. The head of the household is described as Matron/ Lodging house keeper and as well as her family there are a couple of dozen paupers listed at the address. Can i take it this was the almshouse?

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:44 pm

Hi Andrew

I would say it was a fairly safe bet.

The combination of titles for the Matron/Lodging house keeper seems to imply that she would offer board to those who could still afford it but possibly had Parish supplementary support for those folk approved by the Board to receive Parish hand-outs.

Russell

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 10:47 pm

Hi Andrew
The Almshouse is menioned here:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html ... land.shtml
It says there that Peterhead Almshouse could house 40 people and had a Governor and Matron. Unfortunately the address is not mentioned.

Best wishes
Lesley

nelmit · Post by **nelmit** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 12:52 am

When one of mine died there it was called Poors House.

I checked out the Governor at the time and yes it is Ugie Street (coincidently the street where some of mine lived).

Dwelling: Poors Lodging House Ugie Street
Census Place: Peterhead, Aberdeen, Scotland
Source: FHL Film 0203464 GRO Ref Volume 232-1 EnumDist 8 Page 22
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
Richard NOBLE M 45 M Fraserburgh, Aberdeen, Scotland
Rel: Governor (Head)
Occ: Governor Poors Lodging House
Mary NOBLE M 50 F Peterhead, Aberdeen, Scotland

Regards,
Annette M

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:44 am

It's not generally realised that the Poor Relief legislation introduced in Scotland in 1845 did not require a parish, on its own, or in combination with other parishes (hence the frequent use in the name of the term "combination") to set up a poorhouse. All that was required was that relief be supplied. This could be in two forms, - "in-relief", or "out-relief", i.e. residential or support in terms of money and/or food etc., while the person or family remained at their home. Even in a parish with a poorhouse "out-relief" was also supplied when considered appropriate by the Inspector of Poor, and it's generally accepted that most recipients of poor relief benefit received out-relief.

Many parishes did not choose to build, or participate in the building of a poorhouse, and it looks like Peterhead was one of these. The extent to which the Peterhead Almshouse continued beyond 1845 and was used in a poor relief mode is open to question.

In the 1881 census, there are two Inspectors of Poor in Peterhead, Thomas Lawrance, and Alexander Aiken. There is also a "Poors Lodging House" in Ugie Street with around 30 inmates (see Annette's post with the details of the governor). It appears to be the case that the parish of Peterhead chose not to join the Buchan Combination, which consisted of 26 parishes in NE Aberdeenshire and one in the County of Banff, totally surrounding Peterhead!

I suspect that there is a good number of similar situations not covered by http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/index.html .

Like many similar "UK" resources, it must be realised that this site was originally written for an English audience, witness, for example the heading for the Scottish section of "The Workhouse in Scotland (Note — workhouses in Scotland were more usually termed 'poorhouses'.)"

Ehh?!, - no, there were never Workhouses in Scotland, only ever Poorhouses

Fortunately, this site does have at least reasonably good coverage of the Scottish situation, but some of the proof reading is not that brilliant, e.g. "Methlic" for "Methlick", "Benhol" for "Benholm", and that's only after looking at the parish listings for 2 combinations !

David

PS On the "Highlands" 1881 CD, searching on the basis of ' "Inspector Poor"/3 ', which means "find all occurrences of these two words but only where they are separated by no more than one word", i.e. in the space of maximum 3 words, there are 226 entries for "Inspector of Poor".

It would be a fascinating wee project to summarise the many other posts and occupations shown, - teacher, minister, collector of rates, farmer, carpenter, etc., etc......... apart from those for whom it was a full-time occupation.

I then just had to do the same search in the "Lowland" CD, the answer being 206. Unless I'm missing some search term that is also appropriate, I guess that this means that many inspectors in the rural areas were appointed to carry out the function for more than one parish.
dww

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 10:46 am

Thanks for that, informative as ever. If I may ask another naive question. The two persons I was looking (Alexander and William Cowie) were aged 10 and 8 with no signs of either of their parents. Would it be common for young children to be in this sort of institution without any parents or guardians. The really sad thing is, if I am right they seem to have close relatives a few doors away also on Ugie Street, and they say families were closer then.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:02 am

Andrew C. wrote:Thanks for that, informative as ever. If I may ask another naive question. The two persons I was looking (Alexander and William Cowie) were aged 10 and 8 with no signs of either of their parents. Would it be common for young children to be in this sort of institution without any parents or guardians. The really sad thing is, if I am right they seem to have close relatives a few doors away also on Ugie Street, and they say families were closer then.

Hmmm..... I'd have said that this was unusual at this time, in the sense that back then the extended family could have been expected to look after such kids, but then, if the extended family was experiencing economic problems, there was maybe no alternative but to seek poor relief support.

David