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21
Extract from an account of a charity for assisting the female poor, at
the period of their lying-in. by Rev Robert Holt. pp 163-165 Dated 6th Dec 1797.
Fifteen sets of childbed linen and clothes are distributed in parcels at Stowe,
Wotton, Buckingham, and Aylesbury in the county of Buckingham and at Gosfield
Hall in Essex, under the care of persons at those places, who receive
applications and inquire into the characters of the persons applying. The sets
are lent out for a fortnight, three weeks, or a month, according to the
circumstances, and consist of the following articles each :- 3 sheets, 2
blankets, 1 leathern sheet, 2 bed-gowns, 2 night-caps, 3 bed-shifts, 3
children's caps, 3 children's shirts, 1 cotton wrapper, 1 flannel wrapper, and a
sufficient quantity of small articles.
The woman, who has the use of any set, is allowed to retain a cap, a shirt,
and some flannel for the child; the rest are returned clean, and five shillings
allowed her for washing them; which, as that is generally done by the kindness
of her neighbours, is so far an additional charity to her. - During her
confinement, broth and beer caudle are occasionally sent her, and medical aid in
particular cases. T
his charity was instituted by the Marchioness of Buckingham, about 10 years ago.
The benefit of it has been accepted by the poor in the most grateful manner; and
there occurs no instance of its having been abused, by their damaging or
purloining any of the articles. Almost every article is spun, woven and made up
at the schools for poor children, which have been of late years established at
Stowe, Wotton, and Gosfield; and, when made of coarse materials, which will
answer the purpose, need not cost more than 30 shillings a set. The annual
expence in keeping them up may be about 10 shillings a set.
Observations.
The advantage of this charity is, that it affords the poor, at a small expence,
much more relief and comfort, than they could provide for themselves with the
same sum, even if they possessed it; for one set of articles may in the course
of a year, serve a dozen families successively,
who either might not have the means of purchasing them, or, if they had, would
be obliged to buy them merely for temporary use, and then sell them again at a
disadvantage. Besides this, there is a saving in the purchase of the articles by
wholesale, and an advantage in thus
furnishing work for a village school. Tho what has been done, in this instance,
is at the expence of one person, it is quite as well suited to be established by
subscription, and conducted by a committee of subscribers. I
understand that this charity has been administered many years at Audley End, in
Essex; and that it has been adopted, on a smaller scale, in some other places.
dated 6th Dec. 1797.
Source:
The Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the
Comforts of the Poor. Vol 1 1798 446 pp
Submitted by Alan Longbottom
Page updated August 06, 2007
by Rossbret
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21 Female Lying In