Parish and workhouse records
Parish records can be a rich source of information as they include apprenticeship indentures, school records, settlement papers, bastardy bonds, workhouse and charity records.
Settlement certificates, examinations and removal orders
Under the Poor Law Act of 1601, every parish was made responsible for its own poor.
An Overseer of the Poor was elected each year to levy a poor rate on all householders and to hand out sums of money for the upkeep of the parish poor.
Since some parishes had better job opportunities than others, it was inevitable that people would leave their home parish when times were hard to search for employment elsewhere.
However, if they later became paupers needing parish relief, it seemed unfair that their new parish should be expected to support them.
This led to the Settlement Act of 1662 which declared that your Legal Place of Settlement could change. People could obtain a settlement in any parish through marriage, apprenticeship and domestic service for over a year or occupying property worth more than £10 per annum.
Anyone not fulfilling these criteria could be removed to their original parish. Until 1743, when a child acquired its mother's place of settlement, vagrant pregnant women can be found being hurried from one parish to another so that the baby would become the responsibility of another.
When paupers moved after 1697, they needed to carry a settlement certificate with them to show that their parish of legal settlement would take them back if necessary. If they requested poor relief, the parish they had moved into would examine them to see where their legal right of settlement lay.
Examination books contain many interesting biographies of paupers and, thanks to a volunteer indexing project, an index of 60,000 names from St Martin-in-the-Fields settlement examinations for 1732 to 1775 is available online.
Bastardy bonds
Parish registers generally will not name the father if a child is illegitimate.
When a woman didn't marry, she and her child were liable to become a burden on the parish and officials were consequently anxious to trace the father.
The pregnant woman would be questioned about the father of her child. Once his identity had been established, he would then be required to pay for the woman's lying-in and to support the child, so saving the parish expense.
An index is available in the searchroom for St Margaret, Westminster bastardy depositions 1711 to 1752.
Apprentice records
If your ancestor were in trade, a craftsman or professional person, the chances are that he or she would have been an apprentice.
The 1563 Statute of Apprentices forbade anyone to practise a trade or craft without first undergoing a period of apprenticeship.
This usually lasted 7 or 8 years, commencing at the age of 12 or 14, unless sponsored by a parish or charity when it might begin much earlier, and continuing until 21 or marriage.
The terms of apprenticeship contracts were written up in documents called indentures. We do not hold many records of ordinary trade apprentices because this was a private arrangement between parents and master.
However, there are many records for 'Poor Law' apprentices. Pauper children who lived on the charity of the parish were sent out to employers to learn a trade and cease to be a financial burden on the local community.
An apprenticeship indenture or entry in a register of parish apprentices normally includes the name of apprentice, date of indenture, age, parents' names, name of person to whom they were assigned, their trade and term of apprenticeship. Some Westminster children were sent to work in mills in the Midlands and north of England.
London Apprenticeship Abstracts, 1442 to 1850 and Apprentices of Great Britain, 1710 to 1774 are available online for a fee at London Origins. We also hold the archives of a number of charities which do include apprenticeship registers within their records.
Charities and almshouses
Until the late-19th century most charities were specific to the local area and tend to have been established by an individual's bequest.
They were administered by the parish and typically aim to assist the poor of the parish, help apprentices or provide pensions etc. Charitable homes for the poor can include almshouses.
The Charity Commission was established in 1853 and has been responsible for the supervision of charities since then.
Workhouse
Outdoor relief was limited after 1834 and the use of the workhouse became more widespread.
The administration of the poor law was transferred from the parishes to boards of guardians after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act or the 1867 Metropolitan Poor Law Act.
Parishes could then join together into poor law unions and the exact date each union was formed is indicated in our information on workhouse locations.
Records of the boards of guardians are held at London Metropolitan Archives and any records held at the City of Westminster Archives Centre after that date only deal with the collection of rates.
A list of the locations of the various workhouses in Westminster, St Marylebone and Paddington can be found in our information sheet on workhouse locations.
A useful website on the subject of workhouses can be found at Peter Higginbotham's Workhouses website.
Vaccination registers
The Vaccination Act of 1871 required registrars to make a monthly return of births and infant deaths to the vaccination officer.
The vaccination registers, when they have survived should list the children's names, ages, parishes and dates of vaccination.
The registers have a 50 year closure period on them. We hold the City of Westminster Union vaccination registers, 1919 to 1936.
Militia records
From Anglo-Saxon times, able-bodied men between the ages of 16 to 60 might be called up to perform military service. The term refers mainly to a non-professional force.
After the Civil War, the militia was in absence, but was revived in 1757 when the Militia Act of 1757 established Militia Regiments in all counties of England and Wales.
Records can be found in the National Archives.
Militia records can also be found among the parish records as each year, the parish was supposed to draw up lists of adult males, and to hold a ballot to choose those who had to serve in the militia.
When they survive, the records can be very informative, giving details about individual men and their family circumstances. Details of the Militia records we hold can be found in our information sheet on pre-1841 censuses and lists of inhabitants.
