Poverty in the Parish

Great Packington was a parish of a social divide, with the Earls of Aylesford at Packington Hall and poor farm labourers living alongside each other. Whilst the Finch family seem to have been charitable landlords, individuals could still fall on hard times due to illness or a lack of employment.

1500s - Burials of the Poor.

The early Great Packington parish registers include the burials of unnamed poor individuals:

1581 – a poor child.
1587 - a poor old man.
1587 - 'a poor wandering boy who was about 16 years old'.
1613 - a poor woman.

Image credit: Ancestry.

1715 - Poor Law Records

The earliest surviving records for Great Packington date from 1715. They show payments made to widows, to working men/their families when they were unwell (such as with smallpox), to purchase shoes for children, and to make rent payments on behalf of impoverished parishioners.

Image Credit: Ancestry.

1795 - Guidance for poor relief.

A pamphlet was published in 1795 titled: Rules & orders, for the relief and employment of the poor of the parishes of Great Packington, Little Packington, Meriden, and Bickenhill, in the county of Warwick. United by virtue and under the authority of the statue of the 22. Geo. III. Cap. 83. And for the Government of the Poor House, belonging to the said Parishes, erected in the year 1793.

Image credit: Internet Archive.

1836 - Poor Law Union established

Great Packington becomes part of the Poor Law Union of Meriden, which was established on 26th March 1836. The local Union Workhouse in Meriden had been built on Maxstoke Lane in 1793 and was enlarged in 1836 following the new Poor Law Act of 1834.

No child under the age of seven was to be accepted without the permission of their parents and the Guardians of the poor. Children who did reside in Meriden Workhouse were taught to read, but not to write unless the Poor Law guardians wanted this to happen. They were only to have two hours of schooling per day, so they could work for most of the day. When old enough they were to be apprenticed to a trade or placed as servants.

Meriden Workhouse paupers had to be clean and decently clothed, with a change of clothes provided by their parish of origin. Men and boys were employed spinning and the goods they made were sold for the benefit of the workhouse.

Women and girls in the workhouse were to be employed in washing, cooking, cleaning and mending clothes as well as their work of spinning for profit.

Plans to turn the workhouse into an isolation hospital in 1930 were cancelled; it became a Public Assistance Institution then a County Welfare Institution and finally ‘The Firs’ old people’s home and hospital. The building has been demolished.

Image Credit: Mary Ann Evans Library.

1800s - Great Packington woman and her illegitimate descendant born at the workhouse in Coventry, Warwickshire.

Ann Terheege was born in 1836 at Great Packington, to William Parker Terheege and Eliza Terheege nee Fisher, and was baptised on 6 March 1836 at St. James Church. She spent her early life in the parish, and was living at the Squirrel's Nest property when both the 1851 census and 1861 census was enumerated.

Anne gave birth to a son named Thomas Terheege on 28 February 1858 at Great Packington, and he was baptised on 15 January 1860 at St. James Church. She also gave birth to a daughter named Mary Terheege on 13 July 1860 at Great Packington. and she was baptised on 3 Feb 1861 at St. James Church. Anne was unmarried and her children's birth certificates and baptismal records are left blank for the father's name.

Anne's daughter Mary Terheege went on to have 4 illegitimate children, all with no fathers named on their birth certificates:

Percy Ingram Terheege, born 19 February 1886 at Meriden, Warwickshire, reputed son of William Ingram. Mary was married to William Ingram on 21 June 1913 at St. Thomas Church, Coventry, Warwickshire, after she had given birth to all of her children.
Albert Terheege, born on 14 August 1892 in Coventry Workhouse, father unknown.
Reginald Tracey Terheege, born on 21 May 1896 in Coventry. According to his marriage certificate Reginald's father was Arthur Terheege (deceased), but this information is likely to have been falsely given so that he seemed legitimate and not the son of an unwed mother.
Lawrence Cecil Terheege, born on 4 May 1897 in Coventry and died in infancy on 21 June 1897.

1700s and 1800s- Overseers of the Poor.

Overseers of the Poor were annually elected and unpaid officials who were responsible for their parish's expenditure on poor relief, including workhouse charges. The law required that there were two each year. The appointment of local overseers was confirmed by the Justices of the Peace at the Quarter Sessions and their accounts were audited at Easter. Known Overseers of the Poor for Great Packington were:

William Adcock (1897, 1898, 1899)
Lawrence James Arnold (1905)
William Henry Bates (1883, 1885, 1886, 1887)
Thomas William Booth (1905, 1916)
Thomas Burbidge (1802, 1803)
William Burbidge (1795, 1796, 1800)
Frederick Comber (1919)
John Dodwell (1797, 1798)
Thomas Dodwell (1804)
Charles Gilbert (1878, 1888, 1897, 1898, 1899)
Luke Hurst (1895)
Charles Ridley (1883)
Luke Riley (1880)
Benjamin Shuttleworth (1880, 1881)
John Shuttleworth (1830)
Walter Thomas Sidwell (1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896)
Thomas Smith (1885, 1887, 1888, 1890)
William Smith (1830)
Henry Thompson (1878)
Ann Thornton (1881)

Further names will be added when identified.

1862 - Communion Charity.

By a declaration of trust on 15th October 1862, the Reverend George Barrington Legge gave £100 (representing collections made at Holy Communion in the parish), the interest to be distributed in food, fuel, or clothing among the poor of the parish.

1899 - Bankruptcy.

George Terheege, an Assistant Gamekeeper, was declared bankrupt.

Image credit: Our Warwickshire.

1901 - Union Workhouse and Asylums

The Meriden Union workhouse housed four inmates born in Great Packington when the 1901 census was taken, including George Terheege, born on 1 March 1873, the illegitimate son of Harriet Terheege of the Great Packington parish.

George Terheege was one of the younger workhouse inhabitants at 26 years old. He was a Farm Labourer and it is recorded in the census that he had epilepsy, which may have accounted for why he was resident in the workhouse as a young man, to access medical care. George was admitted to Warwick County Lunatic Asylum at Hatton, near Warwick, Warwickshire, later in the year on 21 December 1901. By the time of the 1911 census, he was still a patient in the Asylum and his infirmity was now listed as lunatic. He died on 14 July 1919.

Sources:

Ancestry: Census Returns of England and Wales; England & Wales, Death Index: 1916-2005; Church of England Overseers Accounts 1794-1836; UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1921; Warwickshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812; Warwickshire, England, Baptisms, 1813-1906.
FindMyPast: British Newspapers Collection, 1710-1965.
Higginbotham, Peter. (2012). The Workhouse Encyclopaedia. United Kingdom: History Press.
Internet Archive.
Mary Ann Evans Library.
Our Warwickshire.