Where Did Poor People Live Before Pensions? In Houses Somebody Left Them

A founder endowed a building containing a number of small dwellings, together with land or rents producing an income to maintain them and to support the occupants. Residents were chosen according to conditions the founder laid down, typically requiring that they be old, poor, of good character and from the parish or trade concerned, and they received accommodation rent free along with a small regular payment, fuel and sometimes clothing in a distinctive form. In exchange they were expected to attend the chapel, to pray for the founder's soul, to behave respectably and to accept supervision. Breaking those conditions meant expulsion, which was enforced.

The motives were mixed and all of them were normal at the time:

• •Genuine religious obligation to relieve the poor
• •Prayers for the founder's soul, which mattered enormously before the reformation
• •Permanent visible commemoration, since the buildings carry the founder's name
• •Obligation to a trade or a company whose members had fallen on hard times
• •Local standing, since founding one was a conspicuous act
• •Provision for former servants and dependants specifically

The dissolution of religious houses in the 1530s destroyed most institutional charity in England, and these survived in numbers, which is worth explaining. Many were founded by laypeople and by trade companies rather than by religious houses, so they were not monastic property and were not seized. Their endowments were in land and rents held by trustees. Those whose purpose was principally to secure prayers for the dead were vulnerable and several were suppressed, and those framed as relief of the poor survived. Founding them continued steadily afterwards, so the buildings that survive span six centuries, from medieval examples through substantial numbers built by Victorian industrialists and companies.

Residents in many foundations wore a distinctive gown in a stated colour, frequently blue or black, bearing the founder's badge, and the requirement appears in the founding documents alongside everything else. That served several purposes at once. It identified a recipient of charity publicly, which was regarded as appropriate rather than shameful in the period. It advertised the founder continuously, since anybody seeing the gown knew who had paid for it. It obliged residents to appear in public as representatives of the foundation, which reinforced the requirement to behave respectably. Rules governed attendance at services, absence overnight, receiving visitors, drunkenness, quarrelling and in several cases remarriage, and expulsion for breaches is recorded in the surviving minute books.

Around two thousand such charities still operate in England, housing tens of thousands of people, which makes this among the oldest continuously functioning forms of social provision anywhere. They are regulated as charities, and residents hold a licence rather than a tenancy, which is a distinction with real consequences for security of occupation and which has been the subject of legal argument. Original endowments have generally been overtaken by inflation, so most now charge a weekly contribution towards maintenance. The buildings are frequently listed, which makes adapting them to modern standards expensive and difficult. And the selection conditions laid down by founders centuries ago sometimes have to be varied by the courts to remain lawful and practicable.

A founder endowed dwellings and an income, and residents meeting stated conditions received accommodation rent free along with a small payment, in exchange for attendance, prayers and respectable behaviour. Religious obligation, prayers for the founder's soul and permanent commemoration were all normal motives. Lay and company foundations survived the dissolution, and around two thousand such charities still house tens of thousands of people.