Financial Records

Notice requesting tenders for supply

Notice issued by Letterkenny Board of Guardians stating that tenders are sought for the supply of goods such as bread and meat to Letterkenny Union Workhouse. Signed by Union Clerk, John Storey.

Copyright of Donegal County Archives. No reproduction without permission

Notice requesting tenders for supply
Copyright of Donegal County Archives. No reproduction without permission

Notice requesting tenders for supply

Notice issued by Letterkenny Board of Guardians stating that tenders are sought for the supply of goods such as bread and meat to Letterkenny Union Workhouse. Signed by Union Clerk, John Storey.

Copyright of Donegal County Archives. No reproduction without permission

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The financial workings of the local Union were recorded in what were basically two sets of ledgers with a range of supporting documentation. The general ledgers contain all money transactions noted in the minute books. Each District Electoral Division has its own account for outdoor relief and dispensary matters. There are separate accounts for the various activities of the workhouse. These included a maintenance account for the workhouse, a provision account for supplies, a clothing account to provide paupers with clothes when they entered the workhouse, an establishment account for salaries and wages and a building account for construction. Other matters, such as any dealings with the Exchequer Loan Commissioners were noted separately as the occasion demanded. In cases where the general ledgers no longer exist there are sometimes rough ledgers that can be used as substitutes.

The second set of ledgers are the personal ledgers. They set out the weekly payments to officers of the Board and contractors for goods and services. These are usually indexed making it easy to trace the supply of goods or services. The information is basically the same as that provided in the general ledgers but arranged under the name of the person receiving the money. This can be important in tracing the impact of the workhouse on the local economy.

These two sets of ledgers were used in the preparation of the financial statements of the Union and in calculating the financial demands necessary for the following year. These financial statements and budget projections survive for only a few Unions. They were backed up by a range of other documents that occasionally survive. They include daybooks, bank passbooks, petty cash journals, invoices and vouchers and ledgers.

Soup Depot, Cork

This is an engraving that was used in The Illustrated London News 13 March, 1847. It shows a crowd at the central soup depot on Barrack Street in Cork during the famine. This depot was the first establishment of the kind opened in Ireland for the distribution of food to the poor. It is believed that approximately 1300 poor persons were relieved here daily. http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/FAMINE/index.html

Views of the Famine: Vassar College NY USA

Soup Depot, Cork
Views of the Famine: Vassar College NY USA

Soup Depot, Cork

This is an engraving that was used in The Illustrated London News 13 March, 1847. It shows a crowd at the central soup depot on Barrack Street in Cork during the famine. This depot was the first establishment of the kind opened in Ireland for the distribution of food to the poor. It is believed that approximately 1300 poor persons were relieved here daily. http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/FAMINE/index.html

Views of the Famine: Vassar College NY USA

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Statistics

The Victorian mania for collecting statistics to measure how systems worked extended to the Irish Poor Law. Unions were required to make statistical returns to the Commissioners in Dublin and those returns were printed in abbreviated form in the annual report of the Commissioners. Thus, if the statistical returns do not survive at local level they can be reconstructed to some extent from the summaries in the Board of Guardians minutes and in the Commissioners published reports. The statistical returns were mainly concerned with two things: the collection of poor rates and the number of paupers to be relieved. Thus surviving returns deal with the number of inmates in the workhouse and the number being relieved outside (sometimes referred to in these returns as 'destitute poor').