Hopefully a very simple question

[Jane_Adams]

Looking at the 1871 Census of a family member, her occupation is listed as 'Parochial Recipient'.

I have tried Googling this but can't find out what it means.

She was 83 at the time - is it some form of pension payment?

Any info greatly received!

Thanks


Jane

[kazrbutler]

Hi Jane,

Parochial is defined in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as:
"Of, belonging, or pertaining to a parish, or parishes in general."

Essentially, she is on parish relief. Not a pension, but it will be related to the poor law and workhouses.
Hope this helps,
Karen

[Peter Goodey]

"is it some form of pension payment?"


No. "Income Support" if you want a modern analogy. But without the generosity.

There's an overview of the poor laws here
https://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/index.html

I rather thought that parishes were pretty well out of it by 1871 and the poor laws were administered by the unions. Perhaps the old terminology persisted among ordinary folk. You could always check to see if the union records have survived and look up her details.

[Jane_Adams]

Thanks for the info.

Interestingly, I had actually looked at some of that website previously, Peter, as it talks about the Workhouse near where they lived (Kilmersdon/Frome). I'll look at it a bit more in depth now!



Edited to add: that also explains a query on her 1861 Census. We couldn't work out what her occupation said, realise now that it was "Par. Relief".