The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is pleased to announce that a new collection – Corofin Board of Guardians Records – has been published in the Repository through Clare County Archives and Library Service.
Clare County Archives are custodians of a wide range of archival series, including the records of a number of predecessor groups of the present local government system including the grand juries, poor law unions, rural district councils and boards of public health and assistance.
The Poor Law was extended to Ireland by an Act of 1838, based on the English Poor Law Act of 1834 and operated until 1923. The country was divided into poor law unions, each of which built a workhouse. Every union was administered by a board of poor law guardians, and ex-officio guardians. Ex-officio guardians were elected yearly at meetings of local magistrates and were composed mainly of Justices of the Peace.
These guardians were the first representative local bodies in Ireland, elected by owners and occupiers of property. The system was funded by cess payers, assessed originally on District Electoral Divisions according to the numbers of paupers.
In this collection of Board of Guardian Records, Clare County Archives have ingested minutes documenting statistical information on the financial administration and maintenance of the workhouses under their control – including details of the workhouse population as well as a record of those determined to be, ‘sick and lunatics’. Other minutes list notices of marriage, cess payments, costings of provisions and necessaries including clothes as well as many other valuable pieces of information relating to sanitary functions, improvements to water supplies, school inspections and construction.
The collection includes an abstract of letters received from the Local Government Board with a note of decisions reached and orders made. These deal with the general running of the workhouse, tenders and contracts for maintenance, workhouse staff recruitment, remuneration and disciplinary matters.
Ranging from the 1800s into the early 1900s, this collection depicts the responsibilities of the Poor Law Guardians as they provided relief to the poor and gathered other functions over time. For example, in 1846, the Poor Law Guardians became responsible for providing and equipping hospitals and dispensaries for the sick poor; in 1856 they operated as the burial board for the rural parts of the union and from 1863, they were responsible for the registration of births and deaths.
“Corofin Board of Guardians Records” can be viewed and downloaded in the DRI Repository.
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