| Collection Description | The workhouse in Gorey was constructed on a seven acre site to the south-west of the town at a cost of
£5,675 (with an additional £1,025 for fittings &c). Built to accommodate 500 persons, its first admissions
took place on 22 January 1842. At the height of the famine in mid-1847, admissions had risen
significantly to 715 inmates. The minutes of the weekly meetings of the Gorey Board of Guardians
include statistical data on the weekly number of admissions, discharges, births and deaths. They also
record the dietary provision of the paupers and brief reports from the Master and from the Visiting
Committee. The Earl Grey assisted female emigration scheme (1848-50) will be of particular interest...
In addition to each prospective female emigrant’s name, age and qualifications (i.e. their ability to read,
write, spell, knit, sew, wash), the Gorey minutes include the length of time that each girl had been an
inmate in the workhouse – this is particularly valuable given that the registers of admissions and
registers of discharges for this union have not survived. The minute books for Gorey poor law union
(1840-1919) are being digitised on a phased basis over a three-year period. [Wexford County Archive] |
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