In the seventh online series of workhouse lives seminars (organised jointly by Nottingham Trent University and The National Archives) we focus on the concept, practice, utility and rhetoricisation of kinship amongst the poor and officials in the nineteenth century poor laws of England, Wales Ireland and Scotland. Historians largely neglect the sense that workhouse inmates left relatives behind and might go back to them when they then left the workhouse gate. In the same way, those on outdoor relief were likely to have relatives behind the workhouse walls. And many of the staff who people the workhouse estate were themselves local or became local through long residence, building up many kinship ties. How did the existence of kinship or kinship-like ties affect the way the poor law was navigated and experiences? How did kinship influence the running of workhouses? How did knowledge and resistance wash around kinship networks? Did officials and guardians worry about such networks? These and many other questions add up to the peopling of the workhouse and its locality, and we consider the theme largely for the first time here.
Seminars take place online via Teams at 17:00 on the dates indicated. Papers generally last 45 minutes with time for questions thereafter. Please do sign up for some or all of the seminars, and a Teams link will be sent to you on the day before the paper is due to take place.
To book some or all events use this link for pasting to a brower:
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/events/upcoming-events?query=workhouse
Or search ‘Workhouse lives and Nottingham Trent University
The individual sessions are:
6 October 2026, ‘The afterlife of the workhouse pauper, 1800-1920s’, Professor Steven King, Nottingham Trent University.
3 November 2026, ‘The Ballad of Bethnal Green: women’s voices, workhouse dynasties and whistleblowing in the 1860s’, Dr Peter Jones, Nottingham Trent University.
1 December 2026, ‘The Irish Question? Administering the Anatomy Act in St Giles Workhouse, c.1832–1850’, Dr Julie Ann Mathias, Queen’s University Belfast.
5 January 2027, ‘The Family’s Voice: Advocating for the Disabled and Infirm Poor’, Dr Carol Beardmore, The Open University.
2 February 2027, ‘Kinship, friendship and neighbourliness: the poor within and without the Victorian workhouse’, Dr Paul Carter, The National Archives.
2 March 2027, ‘Peopling Pauper Stories: Workhouse Protest and Poor Law Resilience’, Professor Elizabeth Hurren, University of Leicester.
6 April 2027, ‘The Visiting Hour: Family Visitation, Regulation and Less Eligibility in the Victorian Workhouse’, Dr Lewis Darwen, The National Archives.
4 May 2027, ‘Pauper Palaces or Pauper Bastilles? Material Life in Workhouses of the Old Poor Law, c. 1690-1834’, Dr Joe Harley, Anglia Ruskin University.
1 June 2027, ‘In the Poor House Vicinity: Inspector J.S. Brown, his family, and the Paisley Poor House’, Dr Wendy Gordon, State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh.
6 July 2027, ‘’Keeping it in the Family: Familial Networks between Poor Law Union Staff’, Dr Matthew Bayly, University of Lincoln.