Philanthropy and poor relief in 19th century Edinburgh. The example of a capital city without a national State government - article ; n°1 ; vol.111, pg 367-379

Morris Robertj.

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Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée - Année 1999 - Volume 111 - Numéro 1 - Pages 367-379
Robert J. Morris, Philanthropy and poor relief in 19th century Edinburgh. The example of a capital city without a national State government, p. 367-379. After the 1707 Act of Union with England, Edinburgh was a capital city without a government, but which retained many of the legal and cultural functions of a capital. Poor relief was a matter for the Parish Board of Management, which raised local taxes. After 1843, the official Scottish Poor Law came under the direction of the Board of Supervision based in Edinburgh and responsible to the London Parliament and Scottish Law. Other aspects of poor relief were undertaken by trusts and by voluntary societies. These were controlled by the professional, mercantile and artizan elites typical of the city. They produced a series of institutional buildings, which became a distinctive part of the cityscape. Poor Relief reflected many features of a parliamentless, presbyterian nation but in turn the development of poor relief under pressures of urban and economic growth influenced the governance and cultural assertion of 19th century Scotland.
13 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: MELANGES_DE_L-ECOLE_FRANCAISE_DE_ROME
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Robert J. Morris
Philanthropy and poor relief in 19th century Edinburgh. The
example of a capital city without a national State government
In: Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée T. 111, N°1. 1999. pp. 367-379.
Abstract
Robert J. Morris, Philanthropy and poor relief in 19th century Edinburgh. The example of a capital city without a national State
government, p. 367-379.
After the 1707 Act of Union with England, Edinburgh was a capital city without a government, but which retained many of the
legal and cultural functions of a capital. Poor relief was a matter for the Parish Board of Management, which raised local taxes.
After 1843, the official Scottish Poor Law came under the direction of the Board of Supervision based in Edinburgh and
responsible to the London Parliament and Scottish Law. Other aspects of poor relief were undertaken by trusts and by voluntary
societies. These were controlled by the professional, mercantile and artizan elites typical of the city. They produced a series of
institutional buildings, which became a distinctive part of the cityscape. Poor Relief reflected many features of a parliamentless,
presbyterian nation but in turn the development of poor relief under pressures of urban and economic growth influenced the
governance and cultural assertion of 19th century Scotland.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Morris Robert J. Philanthropy and poor relief in 19th century Edinburgh. The example of a capital city without a national State
government. In: Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée T. 111, N°1. 1999. pp. 367-379.
doi : 10.3406/mefr.1999.4620
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/mefr_1123-9891_1999_num_111_1_4620ROBERT J. MORRIS
PHILANTHROPY AND POOR RELIEF
IN 19th CENTURY EDINBURGH
THE EXAMPLE OF A CAPITAL CITY WITHOUT
A NATIONAL STATE GOVERNMENT
Edinburgh was and is one of the most distinctive capital cities in
Europe. The 19th century nature of the city originated in the Act of Union
of the Parliaments of England and Scotland of 1707. The Act did two
things. It abolished the Edinburgh parliament and created a 'free trade'
area within the new state, the United Kingdom. Little else was touched.
The Scots were guaranteed their own religious, educational and legal
systems1. In many localities, with the exception of some often bitterly
contested excise duties, ordinary Scots would have noticed little that was
different. The Union created one state with power concentrated at
Westminster but Scotland remained a nation within a nation. The result
for Edinburgh however was a capital city without a national state
government but which still retained many functions of a capital.
The law courts met there. The Kirk (the established Presbyterian Church of
Scotland) held its Annual General Assemblies there. The Scottish
educational system was recreated by Edinburgh initiatives.
property relationships were managed by lawyers from the 18th century
New Town. By the 1820s, Register House held the property deeds and
testamentary documents of Scotland, the National Gallery and Scottish
Academy held Scottish paintings and paintings for Scotland, the
Banks printed sterling bank notes ( a precedent the Euro makers
might ponder) and Walter Scott welcomed King George IV to his other
capital2. The political patronage which linked Scotland to London had long
1 C. A. Whatley, Bought and Sold for English Gold. Explaining the Union of 1707,
Glasgow 1994.
2 G. Morton, Scottish rights and 'centralisation in the mid-nineteenth century, in
Nations and Nationalism, 2, 1996, p. 257-279; R. J. Morris, Scotland, 1830-1914. The
Making of a Nation within a Nation, in H. Fraser and R. J Morris (ed.), People and
MEFRIM - 111 - 1999 - 1, p. 367-379. 368 ROBERT J. MORRIS
been dispensed from the aristocratic houses in the town and in the
countryside around Edinburgh3.
This unusual history as a national capital explains much of the
economic context as well as the institutional and cultural resources which
the people of Edinburgh brought to the provision of philanthropy and aid
to the poor. True, Edinburgh had lost the economic benefits of a
parliament, the economic needs of the process of legislation and the
spending power of legislators, but there was still the law courts and the
annual assembly of the Kirk. Printers and stationers served the courts and
to a lesser extent the university and the annual assembly. By 1800,
Edinburgh had a substantial printing and publishing industry which
expanded in the 19th century. Brothers William and Robert Chambers
made their fortune in the mass production of educational and popular
periodicals4. Edinburgh was at the centre of one of the richest and most
technically advanced grain growing areas in Europe. The result was a
brewing industry which served an increasing portion of Scotland as well as
a growing export trade. To the lawyers, the merchants, the small and number of university professors must be added the large rentier
population, widows, landowners in town, retired military people and
others who lived on rents and the income of the national debt, most
notably in the new town. They created a double demand typical of many
capital cities, first for high quality luxury crafts, silversmiths, engravers,
carriage makers, furniture makers, dressmakers, and secondly for low
income service occupations porters, seamstresses, washerwomen and
above all domestic servants5.
Edinburgh was both a medieval and a modern city. The guilds retained
more power than they did in England6. Property law [la loi foncier]
continued with a quasi feudal tenure7, but the direction of economic
Society in Scotland. II. 1 830-1914, Edinburgh, 1990; L. Paterson, The Autonomy of
Modern Scotland, Edinburgh, 1994.
3 M. Fry, The Dundas Despotism, Edinburgh, 1992.
4 W. Chambers, Memoir of Robert Chambers with Autobiographical Reminisc
ences, Edinburgh, 1876.
5 R. Rodger, Employment Wages and Poverty in the Scottish Cities, 1841-1914, in
G. Gordoon (ed.), Perspectives of the Scottish City, Aberdeen, 1985; D. Bremner, The
Industries of Scotland, their rise, progress and present condition, Edinburgh, 1869.
6 D. Robertson and M. Wood, Castle and Town. Chapters in the History of the
Royal Burgh of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1928.
7 R. Rodger, The Law and Urban Change, in Urban History Yearbook, 1979, p. 77-
91. AND POOR RELIEF IN EDINBURGH 369 PHILANTHROPY
markets' and the development was guided by the competition for 'distant
disciplines of trade within the United Kingdom. The insecure craftsmen,
the poor and the casual labourer had little protection from seasonal and
cyclical variations in demand or the periodic increases in food prices.
Edinburgh was a service and trading centre but it also gathered a
significant industrial sector. Its engineering industry was based upon
printing and paper making machinery. Its brewers made industrial
fortunes to outmatch the printers. A wide range of household equipment
was manufactured for home and export. At the back of the Canongate half
the gas meters for the British Empire were manufactured. Edinburgh was
an important centre for the knowledge industries the church, university,
medicine, finance and insurance as well as publishing8.
The history of the 17th and 18th centuries provided Edinburgh with a
rich multi layered inheritance of 'bienfaisance'. The 1843 Inquiry into the
Scottish Poor Law reflected some of this complexity. Since the reformation,
the official legal state sanctioned care of the poor under the Poor Law had
been the responsibility of the Kirk Session (a body formed from the
heritors or property holders of the parish). The impotent poor (the old and
the sick) were provided with doles in their own homes and the able bodied
poor treated with great harshness. There was considerable resistance to
any compulsory rate (or tax) for the poor9. Indeed, the 19th century debate
on poor relief was deeply influenced by the myth that the Scots cared for
their poor by the voluntary collections of a Christian people made at the
Kirk door. In fact by the mid 18th century, most towns and many rural
areas depended upon a compulsory rate on property owners10. In the
central area of Edinburgh, the legal responsibility for the poor was a
matter for the City Parish. The Charity Workhouse had been built in 1743 -
it could house nearly 500 adults. On the gate was a strong box inviting
voluntary contributions, and inscribed ' He that giveth unto the poor
lendeth unto the Lord'11. Nearby was a Bedlam for the insane poor and by
1800 these had been joined by two other houses and a children's hospital.
There was also a Charity Workhouse (fig. 1) for the two suburban parishes
8 Bremner, op. cit., p. 136-138.
9 Poor Law Enquiry Commission for Scotland, British Parliamentary Papers,
1844, vol. 20; A. Paterson, The Poor Law in Nineteenth-century Scotland, in D. Fraser
(ed.), The New Poor Law in the Nineteenth Century, London, 1976, p. 171-192.
10 R. Mitchison, The Making of the Old Scottish Poor Law, in Past and Present,
63, May 1974, p. 58-93.
11 J. Grant, Old and New Edinburgh, II, London, 1882