RECORDS OF THE GUARDIANS AND TRUSTEES OF THE POOR OF THE PARISH OF ST. NICHOLAS, ROCHESTER

GTNR

1819-1850

fonds

2 volumes

The Guardians and Trustees of the Poor of the Parish of St. Nicholas, Rochester, were established under the terms of a special Act of Parliament passed in 1809 (49 King George III chapter 40). This organisation should not be confused with the Medway Board of Guardians who administered the Medway Poor Law Union from 1835-1930. The Guardians and Trustees comprised the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish (elected at annual vestry meetings) and others appointed or elected as prescribed by the Act. They met in the parish workhouse (now demolished) in The Common and in later years in the nearby Sir John Hayward's Charity Almshouse or House of Industry. The functions of the Guardians and Trustees corresponded closely to those of the Chatham Local Board of Guardians established in 1802 and the later Strood Parish Trustees (1812) (for whose records see collections LBG and SPT). They included the administration of poor relief and the financing of this service by the levying of rates and income from loans and apparently also rents and charitable sources, transferred from the parish's portfolio. Difficulties in levying the original parish poor rates were largely responsible for the 1809 Act (see P306/24/8). The Poor Law Reform Act of 1834 created uncertainty over the respective jurisdictions of the Guardians and Trustees on the one hand and the Medway Board of Guardians on the other. The Medway Board of Guardians subsequently purchased the workhouse, which was then extended and modified to serve as the Medway Union Workhouse School. The Guardians and Trustees continued to act as a rating authority in order to finance their independent provision of out-relief, accounts of which were however submitted to the Medway Board of Guardians. The Guardians and Trustees lapsed in 1927 following the Rating Act of 1925 which transferred the onus of rate assessment and collection locally to Rochester City Council, thus ending the period of collaboration between the Guardians and Trustees and the Medway Board of Guardians in administering poor relief.

For other records of the Guardians and Trustees, please see the records of St. Nicholas’ parish (in particular P306/24/1-11) and the Medway Poor Law Union or Board of Guardians records (G/ME).