pauper of the parish

[sigma]

If a person or family was being supported by the parish, would the details be kept in the parish records or a separate volume.

[dot.haukes]

If it was parish Relief then the record would be with the Parish Records which would have been archived with the Doicesan Rercord Office which would now be the County Record Office that covered that Diocese.
Parish Records and different to Parish Registers, the Parish Records records all the meetings of the Vestry Committee, the Parish Constables Accounts (which would include records of dealings with the poor) Overseers of the Poor (which also contained poor relief records) and Parish correspondence.
The Overseers of the Poor in a Parish would be responsible for setting and collecting the Parish tax, and there will be lists of those collections containing names and amounts of the individuals who were liable. Then there would be records of examinations, where someone falling on the Parish is questioned about their circumstances and proof of their entitlement is ordered, everyone had a Parish of Settlement and would have a settlement certificate giving them the right to live and work in a parish and also if they became destitute the parish had to support them, this is why there were the settlement examinations, because a parish wanted proof that the person was eligible for support, if someone was living and working outside ofnthe settlement parish and fell on the parish, but were not in their home parish, they were escorted to the parish boundary and sent on their way with a removal order, that meant thet should return to their parish of settlement for relief, however, if their home parish was contacted and agreed to re-imburse the new parish for the poor releif, the person could stay where they were and the Churchwardens would re-charge the support to the persons parish of settl;emtn, creating even more parish records to be researched,

[dot.haukes]

other records that are held in the 'Parish Chest' are filiatiuon orders, which were when a man was charged with being the father of an ilegiyimate child, (B a s ta rdy order) and examinations, which is when a woman is questioned about who the father of her child is, when the woman and child would be a burden on the parish, which is why many pregnant women would be sent from the parish, to avoid the financial burden after the child was born.
Also in the records and apprenticehsips organised by the Churchwardens, who would offer children 9as young as 6) as apprentices to get them out of the poor house and off the Parish Relief, these apprenticeships were harsh with very strict rules that meant the children were really slaves.

Churchwardens accounts are interesting and show alot of detail of the journeys and workings of the Parish and it's administration.

All of these should be available to search, in many cases it is the original documents that you get to order up to look at in the CROs. Most CRO's have an index in filing card form to all the surnames mentioned in all the different types of records.

They are not in volumes as such, as the system used loose leaf documents for alot of the orders, the churchwardens accounts and vestry minutes may be in book form but not always, they would be stored in bundles.

[dot.haukes]

sorry for all the typos it's still early!!!
What record have you found the family being supported by the Parish? In towns and cities there were Poor Law Unions from 1824 but in rural communities the relief was usually from the Parish.

[sigma]

Thanks dot, they lived on the outskirts of Rugely in Staffordshire so I assume they would be supported by the parish.