Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601
The Poor Relief Act 1601 43 Eliz 1 c 2 was an Act of a Parliament of England. The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601, popularly invited as the Elizabethan Poor Law, "43rd Elizabeth" or the Old Poor Law was passed in 1601 in addition to created a poor law system for England as well as Wales.
It formalised earlier practices of poor relief distribution in England and Wales and is broadly considered a refinement of the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 that instituting Overseers of the Poor. The "Old Poor Law" was non one law but a collection of laws passed between the 16th and 18th centuries. The system's administrative ingredient was the parish. It was non a centralised government policy but a law which filed individual parishes responsible for Poor Law legislation. The 1601 act saw a advance away from the more obvious forms of punishing paupers under the Tudor system towards methods of "correction".
Several amending pieces of legislation can be considered part of the Old Poor Law. These include: