Workhouse Minute Book entries and sources on Elizabeth Glover
This page includes our sources on Eliza Glover's life and the scholarly work we used to write her biography. We described Eliza as an orphan or illegitimate child because it was indicated that her grandmother is her guardian when she approves of the apprenticeship. There is little information about the incidence and treatment of black paupers in Workhouses in the early 18th century, however in 1782, after Britain's defeat in the American revolutionary War, the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was formed to provide for the large number of Black Loyalists coming into England. This indicates that black paupers also had the opportunity to receive welfare through the workhouses. (Ali and Siblon, "The Black Poor")
We thought that Eliza’s grandmother may be a widow because she is mentioned as the sole guardian, and it seems that if her husband was alive he might have been asked instead of her. We also wrote that "she might have been lucky to secure her spot" because she was one of the first paupers admitted to St. Andrew Undershaft. The early Committee Minutes from St. Andrew consists of many people seeking entry to the workhouse. Given this influx of inmates, Eliza may have secured a highly-sought place in the workhouse.
Though we are not sure to what degree Eliza and other black paupers would have been discriminated against, we can assume that she faced hardships and prejudice as a member of a minority group. In the mid 18th century, slightly later than Eliza’s time in the Workhouse, Blacks made up some 1 to 3 percent of the London population. As some 18th century court cases suggest, their legal status as free or emancipated was often debated, and “they were not necessarily treated significantly more humanely than they were on the plantations.” (Ali and Siblon, "Introduction: Arriving in Britian")
1. Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, New York, Anchor Books: 1961.
2. Linda Ali and John Siblon. “Introduction: Arriving in Britain” Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500-1850. The National Archives.
3. Linda Ali and John Siblon. “The Black Poor” Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500-1850. The National Archives. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm.
4. Paul A. Fideler, Social Welfare in Pre-Industrial England: The Old Poor Law Tradition, New York, Palgrave Macmllan: 2006.
