Board of Guardian Minute Books
TitelBoard of Guardian Minute Books
SignaturBG/83/A
Datum
1840-1920
Form und InhaltA record of meetings and decisions made by the board of guardians in administering the workhouse and poor relief generally. At meetings, officers’ reports and committee findings were heard, correspondence read and considered, and applications decided on. Matters arising with regard to the workhouse, staff, provisions, bills, finance, the Poor Law, the Poor Law Commissioners, the Local Government Board and the Local Government Department, and other issues, were also discussed. The minutes also include weekly statistics of admissions, discharges, and deaths in the workhouse, and of outdoor relief.
Missing volumes/dates: A/37 (1 June 1865-5 Dec 1865); A/51 (7 Dec 1876-12 Jun 1877); A/54 (12 Oct 1878-8 Apr 1879) [Gaps supplied by rough minutes: BG/83/AA]
Includes (for example):
27 Feb 1841 Resolution calling for an act against mendicancy, expressing the view that the poor law will remain ineffective ‘while strolling beggars are allowed exercise the trade of begging and imposing upon the small farmers and industrious who are very little better situated than themselves’.
9 Apr 1842 Finance Committee report on the contractor’s bill for extra work on the workhouse. The board adopt the report and draw PLC’s attention ‘to the very negligent and extraordinary conduct of their officer, Mr Wilkinson’.
10 Jun 1843 Memorial to the PLC regarding the ‘pecuniary grievance’ the union is labouring under, owing to its small size in comparison to its neighbours. A table showing the comparative size and valuation of Bandon, Skibbereen, and Macroom unions is given, and ‘an equitable extension’ of the union is sought.
30 Mar 1844 Clerk directed to advertise a notice to farmers ‘that the guardians are desirous to place in their service, on advantageous terms to the farmers, both boys and girls of different ages, thus relieving the union of a burden, and benefitting all parties’.
1 Nov 1845 Resolution reporting to government that ‘the destruction of the potato crop through the rot’ has extended to a third of the crop, and is likely to extend to the remainder. They express satisfaction that ‘the government will take the most prompt and immediate steps to mitigate so fearful a calamity’.
Resolved, following the resignation of one vaccinator, that the services of the other be discontinued ‘as the several dispensary physicians are ready and willing to vaccinate in their several districts’.
13 Dec 1845 Resolution regarding the PLC’s determination to reduce the salary of the Protestant chaplain to less than that of the Catholic chaplain. It is noted that the Protestant chaplain attends the workhouse more often, and that the Catholic chaplain is ‘materially assisted’ by the school teachers, who are both Catholic ‘and in fact were selected on that very account’. The board ‘deem it our duty’ to lay the case before parliament, and to bring the case and other examples of the PLC acting ‘in defiance of the unanimous wishes of the board’ before the proposed committee on the Irish Poor Law.
15 Aug 1846 Resolution received from a meeting of ‘the parishioners, farmers, rate payers and labourers of the parish of Kilmeen’, requesting, in the context of ‘the appalling distress’ and ‘the total loss of the entire potato crop’, a reduction in union salaries and expenses, and ‘some means for the immediate relief of the labouring class... who are in the most destitute condition’.
3 Apr 1847 Medical officer’s report noting ‘fever much on the increase and becoming more fatal being attended with Dysentery’ and other diseases. He states requirements such as furniture, dietary, and staff, and advises that the board ‘ought not to admit more’. [A PLC Order imposes a limit of 500. See also 7 Apr, referring to Temporary Relief Act, and later minutes].
Reply to PLC letter regarding charges against the RC chaplain, stating that Fr Doheny excited his congregation ‘to a contest for the election of guardians and calling upon them to support the candidate of his choice’. It is also noted that he used ‘certain expressions to injure the character of some of the present guardians’. The board consider him unfit to continue as chaplain.
22 Jan 1848 Resolutions (1) calling a meeting of all land and property holders to discuss destitution, employment, and relief in each ED; (2) explaining the taking of houses in the town to be boys dormitories; (3) Out-door relief to ‘about 130 persons’ to begin on Monday (depots at Dunmanway, Inchageela, Ballygurteen, Balnacarriga, and Inchacurkey); (3) that such relief be ¾ lbs per adult and ½ lb per child per day of Indian meal; (4) that the PLC sanction out-door relief ‘to widows with one child and to married women whose husbands have gone to England and to America’; (5) that additional accommodation be taken; (6) that PLC assent ‘to making taxation an electoral charge, as... an additional stimulus to land-holders to avail themselves of the provisions of the Land Improvement Act’.
27 Jan 1849 Total inmates: 1640. Deaths: 23. The medical officer reports outbreaks of measles and dysentery, with ‘the great majority [of deaths] from dysentery among the class of persons very recently admitted’. [See 3 Mar, (deaths: 45), when the guardians note ‘the mortality was principally amongst those who have recently come into the house in such an exhausted state as to render all food and medicine useless’].
5 Oct 1889 Resolution, ‘that we, the guardians of Dunmanway Union, consider that Mr Goschen’s, Chancellor of the Exchequer, arrival in Bandon stimulates evictions as is instanced by the evictions of the property of Col Shuldham at Coolkelure on yesterday’.
Rate books signed for each ED (poundage and breakdown of rate noted).
Clerk reports that he attended petty sessions for prosecution of labourers who refused to pay rent for cottages occupied by them.
25 Jan 1890 Resolution protesting at the LGB’s ‘arbitrary action... in dissolving the Cork Board of Guardians, as a ridiculous attempt to stifle the expressions of opinion on matters concerning our most vital interests’.
9 Jul 1907 Resolution condemning Stephen Grehan’s action in serving writs on tenants in Ballingeary and Inchigeela districts, tenants having agreed to abide by prices fixed by the Estates Commissioners or Congested Districts Board. ‘As the management of this estate is a menace to the peace of mid-Cork’, they call on the Chief Secretary to move a bill to expropriate Grehan.
20 Mar 1917 Resolution expressing ‘great disappointment’ at the LGB’s refusal to sanction Mrs Crowley as nurse ‘owing to her being married’. They note ‘married women have been found to be most assiduous and attentive to the patients entrusted to their care and are now successfully nursing in many big hospitals in the Empire’.
10 Jun 1919 Letter from solicitor stating he has received no reply from two women who deserted their children in the workhouse. The board direct they be threatened with proceedings, but call attention to the expense and ask the LGB ‘whether any other means could be adopted to comply with the law’.
Letter from solicitor stating he has not heard from the foster mother of a boarded out child [who has been missing school]. He adds that the woman’s husband states she ‘is prepared to keep the child without any payment’.
30 Sep 1919 Resolution condemning the keeping of political prisoners in Cork prison in solitary confinement ‘which is a means of forcing them to hunger strike... we call on the public at large to watch the treatment meted out to John Murphy, Ardcahan, Dunmanway, and his brave comrades’.
29 Jul 1920 Letter from clerk to LGB reporting that a meeting to be held on 27 Jul was adjourned in protest owing to the presence of the military.
Missing volumes/dates: A/37 (1 June 1865-5 Dec 1865); A/51 (7 Dec 1876-12 Jun 1877); A/54 (12 Oct 1878-8 Apr 1879) [Gaps supplied by rough minutes: BG/83/AA]
Includes (for example):
27 Feb 1841 Resolution calling for an act against mendicancy, expressing the view that the poor law will remain ineffective ‘while strolling beggars are allowed exercise the trade of begging and imposing upon the small farmers and industrious who are very little better situated than themselves’.
9 Apr 1842 Finance Committee report on the contractor’s bill for extra work on the workhouse. The board adopt the report and draw PLC’s attention ‘to the very negligent and extraordinary conduct of their officer, Mr Wilkinson’.
10 Jun 1843 Memorial to the PLC regarding the ‘pecuniary grievance’ the union is labouring under, owing to its small size in comparison to its neighbours. A table showing the comparative size and valuation of Bandon, Skibbereen, and Macroom unions is given, and ‘an equitable extension’ of the union is sought.
30 Mar 1844 Clerk directed to advertise a notice to farmers ‘that the guardians are desirous to place in their service, on advantageous terms to the farmers, both boys and girls of different ages, thus relieving the union of a burden, and benefitting all parties’.
1 Nov 1845 Resolution reporting to government that ‘the destruction of the potato crop through the rot’ has extended to a third of the crop, and is likely to extend to the remainder. They express satisfaction that ‘the government will take the most prompt and immediate steps to mitigate so fearful a calamity’.
Resolved, following the resignation of one vaccinator, that the services of the other be discontinued ‘as the several dispensary physicians are ready and willing to vaccinate in their several districts’.
13 Dec 1845 Resolution regarding the PLC’s determination to reduce the salary of the Protestant chaplain to less than that of the Catholic chaplain. It is noted that the Protestant chaplain attends the workhouse more often, and that the Catholic chaplain is ‘materially assisted’ by the school teachers, who are both Catholic ‘and in fact were selected on that very account’. The board ‘deem it our duty’ to lay the case before parliament, and to bring the case and other examples of the PLC acting ‘in defiance of the unanimous wishes of the board’ before the proposed committee on the Irish Poor Law.
15 Aug 1846 Resolution received from a meeting of ‘the parishioners, farmers, rate payers and labourers of the parish of Kilmeen’, requesting, in the context of ‘the appalling distress’ and ‘the total loss of the entire potato crop’, a reduction in union salaries and expenses, and ‘some means for the immediate relief of the labouring class... who are in the most destitute condition’.
3 Apr 1847 Medical officer’s report noting ‘fever much on the increase and becoming more fatal being attended with Dysentery’ and other diseases. He states requirements such as furniture, dietary, and staff, and advises that the board ‘ought not to admit more’. [A PLC Order imposes a limit of 500. See also 7 Apr, referring to Temporary Relief Act, and later minutes].
Reply to PLC letter regarding charges against the RC chaplain, stating that Fr Doheny excited his congregation ‘to a contest for the election of guardians and calling upon them to support the candidate of his choice’. It is also noted that he used ‘certain expressions to injure the character of some of the present guardians’. The board consider him unfit to continue as chaplain.
22 Jan 1848 Resolutions (1) calling a meeting of all land and property holders to discuss destitution, employment, and relief in each ED; (2) explaining the taking of houses in the town to be boys dormitories; (3) Out-door relief to ‘about 130 persons’ to begin on Monday (depots at Dunmanway, Inchageela, Ballygurteen, Balnacarriga, and Inchacurkey); (3) that such relief be ¾ lbs per adult and ½ lb per child per day of Indian meal; (4) that the PLC sanction out-door relief ‘to widows with one child and to married women whose husbands have gone to England and to America’; (5) that additional accommodation be taken; (6) that PLC assent ‘to making taxation an electoral charge, as... an additional stimulus to land-holders to avail themselves of the provisions of the Land Improvement Act’.
27 Jan 1849 Total inmates: 1640. Deaths: 23. The medical officer reports outbreaks of measles and dysentery, with ‘the great majority [of deaths] from dysentery among the class of persons very recently admitted’. [See 3 Mar, (deaths: 45), when the guardians note ‘the mortality was principally amongst those who have recently come into the house in such an exhausted state as to render all food and medicine useless’].
5 Oct 1889 Resolution, ‘that we, the guardians of Dunmanway Union, consider that Mr Goschen’s, Chancellor of the Exchequer, arrival in Bandon stimulates evictions as is instanced by the evictions of the property of Col Shuldham at Coolkelure on yesterday’.
Rate books signed for each ED (poundage and breakdown of rate noted).
Clerk reports that he attended petty sessions for prosecution of labourers who refused to pay rent for cottages occupied by them.
25 Jan 1890 Resolution protesting at the LGB’s ‘arbitrary action... in dissolving the Cork Board of Guardians, as a ridiculous attempt to stifle the expressions of opinion on matters concerning our most vital interests’.
9 Jul 1907 Resolution condemning Stephen Grehan’s action in serving writs on tenants in Ballingeary and Inchigeela districts, tenants having agreed to abide by prices fixed by the Estates Commissioners or Congested Districts Board. ‘As the management of this estate is a menace to the peace of mid-Cork’, they call on the Chief Secretary to move a bill to expropriate Grehan.
20 Mar 1917 Resolution expressing ‘great disappointment’ at the LGB’s refusal to sanction Mrs Crowley as nurse ‘owing to her being married’. They note ‘married women have been found to be most assiduous and attentive to the patients entrusted to their care and are now successfully nursing in many big hospitals in the Empire’.
10 Jun 1919 Letter from solicitor stating he has received no reply from two women who deserted their children in the workhouse. The board direct they be threatened with proceedings, but call attention to the expense and ask the LGB ‘whether any other means could be adopted to comply with the law’.
Letter from solicitor stating he has not heard from the foster mother of a boarded out child [who has been missing school]. He adds that the woman’s husband states she ‘is prepared to keep the child without any payment’.
30 Sep 1919 Resolution condemning the keeping of political prisoners in Cork prison in solitary confinement ‘which is a means of forcing them to hunger strike... we call on the public at large to watch the treatment meted out to John Murphy, Ardcahan, Dunmanway, and his brave comrades’.
29 Jul 1920 Letter from clerk to LGB reporting that a meeting to be held on 27 Jul was adjourned in protest owing to the presence of the military.
Umfang105 volumes
PersonenschlagwortDunmanway Board of Guardians
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LevelSerie, Aktengruppe
RepositoryCork City and County Archives