Before the Welfare State: Poor Law removal orders

If you could not prove settlement, you would be removed from the parish and sent elsewhere.  Because removal orders had to be signed by two Justices of the Peace, copies form part of Quarter Sessions records.

This database is an index to removal orders in Derbyshire Quarter Sessions archives in Derbyshire Record Office.  It will help you to trace Derbyshire ancestors. More data will be added over coming months.

How did you prove settlement?

Settlement was allowed to:

• A legitimate child (who took his/her father's settlement, irrespective of the child’s place of birth)
• A wife (took her husband's settlement)
• A widow who remarried (took her husband's settlement). Children from her first marriage retained their father's settlement.
• Children from the age of seven and upwards in the parish where they were apprenticed, providing they lived there for more than forty consecutive days.
• Servants who stayed one year from date of hiring, and left with full wages, could claim settlement in the place where they were in service.
• A married man who rented a farm or smallholding, or set up as a tradesman in a new parish, providing he stayed twelve months, paid parish rates and £10 or more in annual rent, could gain a new settlement there.
• A person who inherited an estate of land and lived on the estate for more than forty days could claim a settlement there.

Currently, the period 1710-1865 is available to search and data about records can be viewed using the Removal Search function on the left toolbar. We will be adding to this database over the next few months. Note the names and dates of interest and the staff at Derbyshire Record Office will be pleased to advise you about the possibility of obtaining copies of the original entries subject to preservation and conservation requirements.