The Obligation to Support the Widow: Settlement, the New Poor Law and the Scottish Local State

Abstract

Although the New Poor Law was passed by the Westminster Parliament, it was implemented at the most local level through newly established parochial boards. By tracing the case of a Paisley widow in need of poor relief through the changing landscape of the Scottish Poor Law in the 1850s, this article analyses the changing interpretation of the law regarding widows’ settlements and highlights the interplay between local bodies and higher courts in interpreting the law. Individual experience and practice in localities worked together to create a national system that reflected Scottish understandings of gender, marriage, and independence.