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Caption: County Home,
Belleville, Ontario |
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NOTES FROM READERS:
| The following note was
submitted by Jacobus [Jim] Whalen
who lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Mr. Whalen, as a MA
student at the University of New Brunswick in the late 1960s, researched
the nineteenth century Poor Laws of the Province of New Brunswick. Since
then, he has had several articles published based on his research. At
the end of this communication, is a list of the titles of the ones that
he feels are the most pertinent to our interests. We are grateful to him
for sharing his knowledge with us. PHL |
"In New Brunswick, the smallest
administrative units within the various counties of the province are
called "parishes." Overseers in each of these parishes were
responsible for looking after their resident poor. They carried out
their duties in ways similar to like officials in various parts of the
United States. This was especially so in New England where the laws
pertaining to the poor were almost the same as New Brunswick. For
example, it was customary for parish overseers of the poor to provide
outdoor relief to paupers or to contract with persons in the community
to care for paupers for a period of one year. Another method was to
auction off the keep of the poor to the lowest bidder. It was this
latter more infrequently used method of public pauper auctions that
attracted the most attention mainly because of the involvement of one
George Francis Train. Late in 1887, Train, a flamboyant American moral
crusader, was in New Brunswick on business.
Apparently,
he heard that a public pauper auction was about to take place in the
Parish of Sussex, Kings County, so he made an arrangement to join the
editorial staff of the local Sussex newspaper - the Weekly Record .
Train wanted to expose the injustices and abuses suffered under this
system that to him differed little from how slaves were treated in the
southern United States. His diatribe against public pauper auctions
appeared not only in the local Sussex weekly but in newspapers
throughout North America. Train carried out his crusade in Sussex for
only the first three months of 1888. In fact, things reached such a
fever pitch that he was forced out of New Brunswick because of public
opposition to his controversial views. Public pauper auctions continued
after he returned to the United States but more often than not parish
authorities tried to avoid publicity by making private arrangements with
residents to care for the poor. Finally, in 1899, Kings County opened a
municipal home for its poor and by then about half of the fifteen
counties of the Province had an almshouse. Although Train had left the
Province long before then, there is no doubt that some of credit for the
demise of the celebrated public pauper auctions in New Brunswick was due
to the intervention of this eccentric American."
J M Whalen e-mail address: JacobusWhalen@aol.com
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| The titles of some articles by James M
Whalen on the Poor Laws in New Brunswick are as follows:
"The Nineteenth Century Almshouse
System in Saint John County," Historie Sociale/Social History,
April 1971, pp 5-27. (Reprinted as "Institutional Care of Paupers
in Saint John City and County, 1784-1900," Social Development
Readings in Canada, Open Learning Institute, Richmond, British Columbia)
"Social Welfare in New Brunswick,
1784-1900," Acadensis, Autumn 1972, pp. 54-64
"Poor for Sale" Atlantic
Advocate, Sept. 1976, pp. 50-51 (in collaboration with W A Oppen) |
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LOCAL NOTES:
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Last
resort for the poor: The Almshouse, 1843- 1900
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By
James M Whalen
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from "The New Brunswick Reader"
(a
Saturday insert to the Telegraph-Journal, Saint John)
September 14, 2002
copied with permission |
This is a wonderfully comprehensive article
about the history of the Saint John County poorhouse.
But it will be of value also to those interested in the history of poor
relief throughout Canada. PHL |
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RECORDS:
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CEMETERIES:
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DOCUMENTATION:
ADVERTISEMENT
FOR THE TENDERS FOR CONSTRUCTION
of the Saint John City and County Almshouse
from
(The New Brunswick Courier, 15 June 1839)
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We are hoping to build this base of information about poorhouses in CANADA
through the helpful participation of readers. All are requested to submit items of interest by sending e-mail
to The Poorhouse Lady.
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