Tuam Poor Law Union, Board of Guardian Minutes, 1848-1849
Odd Binding. Includes:
-Ongoing resolutions relating to tenders for and arrangements relating to stone breaking.
-‘The Visiting Committee recommend the commencement of the Boundary wall immediately as the property of the House cannot be safe without it…’ (17 Jan 1848, p5).
-PLC letter ‘ relative to a report they received from Mr Burke, their Inspector, stating that destitution exists to a very great extent in various part of the Union and that persons of rank and station were in arrear of their rates amongst whom Dr McHale and they see the facts deeply disclosed are discreditable to the Tuam Board of Guardians and calling on the Board to discharge their duties, and stating distinctly that unless the (sic) adopt vigorous measures in accordance with the spirit of their suggestions they are prepared to exercise their powers under the 18th Section of the Irish Poor Relief Extension Act and appoint a paid Board to administer Relief (17 Jan 1848, p7; there were 980 inmates in the workhouse which could accommodate 800 together with a shed to accommodate 100).
-‘Read letter from Doctor Turner, Medical Officer, informing the Board that there were more in the house than which it is calculated to hold without injuring the health of the inmates (17 Jan 1848, p7).
-‘Tender for the erection of a Fever Hospital having been opened Mr Andrew Egan’s proposal was accepted of for building the Fever Hospital for the sum of six hundred and ninth six pounds and ten pence sterling, to be completed withing four months…. (24 Jan 1848, p9).
-Transcript of letter from Dr Thomas Blake Turner, Medical Officer, to the Board, advising that ‘the female children have been moved to the auxiliary Workhouse on the Mall, by which me and the Schoolroom, occupied entirely by them may be made available for further accommodation to the amount of about 100 persons, which with the 1150 on the Books, on Saturday night, will make up a number beyond which it will not be prudent to pass’
‘I have to remark that if you admit any this day you have not a bed to put them on or a blanket to throw over them, and that it would risk the lives both of the present inmates and of these you admit if you mix together these [wretched] objects without, cleanliness, classification, or covering. In conclusion I have to state that the Board will have to take into their serious consideration the propriety of admitting any this day as it is well authenticated that your doors are so crowded more from the belief that coming into the workhouse is a step towards outdoor relief than from any intention of staying within its walls’ (24 Jan 1848, pp13-14).
-‘The Clerk reported that he had John Gibbons, a pauper brought before the Magistrates at Petty Sessions and charge of absconding from the Workhouse in Nov last, taking with him the Union clothes, and leaving a child of his under 15 years of age in the House.
The Court ordered that he should be committed to prison and stand his trial at next quarter Session of Galway 10 April next (31 Mar 1848, p5; subsequently sentences to 4 months imprisonment at hard labour, 14 Apr 1848).
-Letter from PLC to the Vice Guardians ‘relative to emigration of female paupers to Australia’ (18 Aug 1848, p6).
-Letter from PLC to the Vice Guardians ‘relative to transmission of pauper emigrants’, and ‘Resolved: That Mr Morris, Master be directed to proceed to Dublin on Monday 28th in charge of 25 emigrants and that the sum of fifty pounds be advanced to him, for which he will account upon his return to defray the expense incurred in the transport and subsistence of these emigrants’ (25 Aug 1848, pp6-7).
-‘Resolved that Malachy Hession’s proposal to carry the emigrants’ boxes from here to Ballinasloe be accepted for 12/1’ (25 Aug 1848, p6).
-‘Resolved that the tenders of Thomas Palmer from Galway be accept for supplying the outdoor relief depots in the following Electoral Divisions with good yellow Indian meal for 3 months at £11.13.6 per ton: Headford, Cummer, Downapatrick, Monivea, Annaghdown (15 Sept 1848, p7) (1614 inmates in the workhouse that week, and 3,933 in receipt of outdoor relief).
-Letter from Mansergh St George, Headford ‘declining to set his House in the town of #Headford as an auxiliary Workhouse, but offering to sell Headford Castle.
The Clerk was directed to lay the letter before the Commissioners requesting to know should the Vice Guardians take any further steps in the matter’ (26 Sept 1848).
-‘The Master having laid before the Board the expense attending to the transmission of paupers to Plymouth amounting to £45.13.9 and handed the balance amounting to £4.6.3 to Clerk who was ordered to lodge it with the Treasurer’ (26 Sept 1848, p8).
-‘The Medical Officer reported that that great number of the deaths [46] during the last week was caused from the very exhausted state of the paupers when admitted to the Work House, and that they were principally among them children. He also reported that Fever was on the decease, and that the children were becoming much more healthy…’ (2 Jan 1849).
-Pat Molloy and John Cannon left the workhouse; Pat Melvin absconded (2 Jan 1849).