| Description Of Item | From the collection of Richard Poole.
In 1739 proposals were published for founding a hospital or workhouse for the employment and maintenance of the poor, the care of orphans and foundlings and the support of out pensioners. A contract between the Town Council and kirk sessions was agreed in 1740 setting the terms of the foundation of the Edinburgh Charity Workhouse. The Workhouse was funded by donations and subscriptions, from an assessment levied on householders and an annual grant from the Town Council. It was to be managed by an executive committee of 15 managers. The Workhouse opened on 20 June 1743 at Bristo Port next to the Bedlam for lunatics. The original Bedlam was used as an infirmary for the sick and as a children’s hospital. A new Bedlam was built in 1746. The Bedlam was partly demolished in 1836 and the lunatics were moved to the Children’s Hospital. The children were moved to the old Orphan Hospital under the North Bridge. As the city boundaries were extended the Town Council entered into agreements with other parishes regarding provision for their poor. In 1821 the Charity Workhouse Managers received a demand from the Town Council for sums paid to St Cuthbert’s Workhouse since 1809, amounting to over £6000. This in addition to the cholera epidemic of 1832 led to an eventual debt of over £14000. These debts became bound up with the quarrel concerning the refusal of the Charity Workhouses’s managers to transfer their lunatic poor to Morningside Asylum in 1842. The Council raised an action in the courts for a reduction of the 1740 Workhouse contract. The Workhouse Managers withdrew their opposition to the action in return for the council relieving them of their responsibility for the debt. A private bill was passed in 1843 giving the Council power to rate for the extinction of the workhouse debt. The Court of Session pronounced the
reduction of the 1740 agreement in 1844. Edinburgh Town Council then took over the general management of the Workhouse. The pauper lunatics were transferred to Morningside Asylum. The passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1845 led to the foundation of Edinburgh Parochial Board. The Parochial Board assumed responsibility for the Charity Workhouse, which became the Edinburgh.
[Source: Edinburgh City Archives]
The file contains Royal Bank of Scotland summons and defences regarding the non-payment of debts by the workhouse. One of the named defences is Richard Poole. |