Settlement certificate signed by the Overseers of the Poor for Heanor in Derbyshire and addressed to the officials in Eastwood concerning Ralph Walker and his wife, Martha.
Archival
National Archives
There is a helpful guide to Poor Law records held by National Archives:
Southwell Union Workhouse (1834 - 1871)
A team of twenty volunteers has taken five years to complete the transcription and digitisation of all the Southwell Workhouse and Poor Law Union records and correspondence for the period 1834–1871.
The online collection holds the correspondence between the union and the central authorities and includes letters, memos, reports and accounts bound from the loose correspondence. The material provides "details of individual paupers and workhouse staff as well as source material to study indoor and outdoor poor relief, education, building work, public health, local politics and labour history, such as trade unions, Chartism and friendly societies."
Search the online documents here:
Nottinghamshire Archives
Nottinghamshire Archives holds Poor Law Records for the eight Nottinghamshire Poor Law Unions:
- Basford
- Bingham
- East Retford
- Mansfield
- Newark
- Nottingham
- Southwell
- Worksop
The main groups of documents include:
- Guardians' minute books
- Workhouse plans
- Admissions and discharge registers
- Indoor relief lists
- Outdoor relief lists
- Creed registers
- Registers of casual vagrants
- District medical relief books
There are a couple of useful articles on records from the Nottingham Union Workshouse:
- Hammond, P. J. 'The Registers of Nottingham Union Workhouse', Not Fam Hist SJ, 4, 8 (1984), 20-24, ill.
- Nottinghamshire Archives Office. Nottingham Union Workhouse Registers (Nottinghamshire Archives Information Sheets, [Archive Topics, 2]). [Nottingham], 1987. 4 p.
See the Poor Law Records section of the Nottinghamshire Archives website for further information on records of the eight Nottinghamshire poor law unions:
Pre-1834 records such as settlement certificates, apprenticeship indentures, workhouse account books, overseer's account books, removal orders and distress warrants survive for some Nottinghamshire parishes.
Nottinghamshire Archives' online catalogue, 'Nottinghamshire Archives Worldwide', has been made available. The catalogues of a growing number of archival holdings can be searched here: