Parishes of
the Union

• Aston Botterell
• Bayton
• Cleobury Mortimer
• Coreley
• Farlow
• Highley
• Hopton Wafers
• Kinlet
• Loughton
• Mamble
• Milson
• Neen Savage
• Neen Sollars
• Rock
• Silvington
• Stottesdon
• Wheathill
• Woodhouse



~ Paupers of the Cleobury Mortimer Union ~

What is a prosopography?	Map of the Union parishes	Record sources	Treatment of records	Query the database

This web page is the gateway to a prosopography, Paupers of the Cleobury Mortimer Union (POCMU).

The Cleobury Mortimer Poor Law Union was formed in 1837 of the seventeen parishes shown on the left (the Woodhouse was, at the time, an extra-parochial area) - all in south east Shropshire, except for Bayton, Mamble and Rock in neighbouring Worcestershire. It was responsible for the maintenance of the poor until the system changed in 1930, as a result of the Local Government Act 1929 and responsibility passed to the public assistance committees of local authorities.

This prosopography currently focuses on the poor of the union during the period 1770-1870, and those connected in any way with them.  It takes the form of a multi-faceted relational database, detailing factoids about everyone mentioned in the surviving records of the parishes which made up the union, the records of the poor law union itself, records of the Poor Law Commission and the Poor Law Board as well as correspondence of the Assistant Poor Law Commissioner. 

However, the recording of factoids covers wider groups.  For example, when looking at bastardy it is necessary to look generally at illegitimacy, from the parish registers for example, as well as the poor law records.  And to facilitate family reconstruction, census information is needed.  The prosopography therefore includes all those mentioned in the decennial census and the parish registers.

A great deal of original records survives, though they are by no means complete. For a listing of the records, with references and locations, click here. For a discussion of the records, click here.

This prosopography is a key part of the results of my continuing PhD research into “The Poor of the Cleobury Mortimer Union, 1770-1870" at the University of Birmingham. Work on the prosopography started in December 2014and will not be finished for some time (and will never be complete, due to the absence of records).  It is being made available during construction as it will undoubtedly be of use to anyone who has an interest in the area, the topic or the period.

Having created the framework, it would be rash to restrict the database to the poor only.  A great amount of information is already to hand - church court records, wills, inventories, land records, tax records, rate books etc.  As time allows, other information about people who lived in the area will be added, resulting in a greater prosopography, People of the Cleobury Mortimer Union area.

Robert HODGE