CREED REGISTERS
Sue Wilkes explains why these neglected workhouse records are a rich source of information that you can’t afford to miss
Why these neglected workhouse records are a rich source of information that can reveal your family’s struggle
In 1859 the Poor Law board ordered that the creed of orphans under 14 years old should be noted in a register
When the new Poor Law of 1834 replaced the Elizabethan statutes that regulated parish relief, workhouse inmates’ religious rights were protected.
It was decreed that people should not be forced to attend religious services outside their own faith, and children must be brought up in their parents’ faith (or their godparents’, in the case of orphans). Religious ministers could attend the workhouse to give instruction to an inmate, or their child, if requested. In theory, people could also attend religious services outside the workhouse.
However, concerns grew that the rights of religious minorities, particularly poor Irish Catholics, were being ignored. Workhouse officials were sometimes reluctant to grant permission for a priest to visit Catholic inmates. In fact at St Olave’s in Bermondsey, Catholic residents were banned from attending divine service outside the workhouse until they were 60 years old!
So, in March 1847, the Poor Law Board ordered that the religion of all persons in the workhouse, including children, should be recorded in a book called the In-door Relief List. Only Poor Law officials would be able to access this information.
Religious instruction in workhouses was predominantly Anglican, but in 1859 the Poor Law Board ordered that the religious creed of orphan children under 14 years old should be noted in a register, and that workhouse masters should organise the appropriate religious instruction. However, several boards of guardians refused to cooperate. Rev John Morris gave evidence to a select committee that in London (1860) only 103 of the 1,000-plus Catholic children in metropolitan workhouses were visited by priests.
Morris reported the case of Catholic children Sabine and William McFadden, who were admitted to Bradford Workhouse by their grandfather after their parents abandoned them.
The workhouse master did not ask about the children’s religion; he just entered them in the creed register as Protestant. When the local priest heard that Sabine was dying, he had great difficulty persuading the board of guardians to change the register. Sabine’s godmother hurriedly travelled from Leicester and testified that she was Catholic. The child received the last rites as a Catholic.
Religious register
Eventually new legislation was introduced. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1868 stated that every workhouse master, and every master of a district or pauper school, must keep a register recording the religion of every inmate or pupil. The Act came into force on 1 January 1869, and applied to England and Wales – Ireland and Scotland had their own Poor Laws.
For workhouse children under the age of 12, the father’s religion was noted in the register; if this was unknown, then the mother’s religion was recorded. Illegitimate children were assumed to follow their mother’s religion. Creed registers were kept available for inspection by local clergymen of any denomination, as well as parish ratepayers.
These registers are incredibly useful for family historians. They were compiled in alphabetical order, so they are easier to use than the workhouse admission/ discharge registers, which were noted in chronological order. In fact creed registers were also used as an index to the admission and discharge registers.
Each creed register records several helpful biographical details including the date an inmate was admitted; their name; date of birth; religion; occupation; reason for admission; date of discharge, or death if they died in the institution; and the address of their next of kin. The name of the parish where the person was living previously is also recorded, enabling you to check the relevant parish register if you have not been able to trace your ancestor using civil registration records.
The register usually also notes who ordered the person to be admitted, whether it was the Poor Law Union’s relieving officer (“RO”); the local board of guardians; a magistrate (perhaps if the person had been caught begging); or a local doctor (if the person was sick or infirm).
Varied information
Although creed registers’ basic format was set out by the Poor Law Board, in practice each union printed its own creed registers. This means that the amount of detail recorded and the way the information was presented vary slightly. For example, the creed register for Leftwich Workhouse in Northwich, Cheshire, has multiple columns for admissions and discharges, making it easy to see how often a person was resident there.
When creed registers were introduced, the names of inmates already in residence were sometimes recorded, so do search them if your ancestor seemingly ‘vanished’ prior to 1869.
You can find workhouse registers (admissions, discharges
Creed registers were kept available for inspection by local clergymen of any denomination and parish ratepayers
and creed) in Poor Law Union collections held locally. Several archives have put indexes or transcripts of workhouse creed registers on the web.
For example, Bromley Archives and Museum has published free alphabetical indexes to Bromley Poor Law Union workhouse creed registers covering 1870 to 1894 at bit.ly/
bromley-indexes, while you can download a transcript of creed
registers from 1910 to 1953 for Billinge Infirmary at Wigan Archives’ website as a free PDF: bit.ly/billinge-infirmary.
Findmypast’s collections include images of Cheshire creed registers bit.ly/fmp-cheshirecreed-registers; Manchester Workhouse Registers 1800– 1911 bit.ly/fmp-manc-creedregisters; and transcripts of Bury Workhouse Creed Registers 1869–1901 bit.ly/fmp-bury-
Ancestry’s collections include creed registers held by London Metropolitan Archives
creed-registers. bit.ly/anc-lma
registers, and records for Medway, Kent, 1836–1937 bit.
ly/anc-medway-poor. Images of Norfolk Poor Law Union Records, 1796–1900, can be found on FamilySearch bit.ly/ fs-norfolk-poor. The workhouses’ long reign finally ended in 1948 with the birth of the National Health Service. Most workhouses and asylums became hospitals, although several institutions continued to maintain creed registers. You can find details of other archival resources at workhouses.org.uk.