Board of Guardians

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act divided England and Wales into around 650 Poor Law “Unions” responsible for a single workhouse to look after the poor of the district who were not able to look after themselves.  Each Union would be run by a Board of Guardians, overseen by the Poor Law Commissioners (Local Government Board from 1871). Guildford Poor Law Union was created in 1835, and a custom built Workhouse opened in Stoke Next Guildford in 1836.  Guardians were elected annually from prominent men, and latterly women, of the district.  The members of the Guildford Union Board of Guardians at the time of the 1881 census, and some of their stories, are below :

Officers
    Chairman :  Edward Joseph Halsey (gentleman, magistrate)
    Vice Chairman and Guardian for Ockham :  Arthur Lambert (farmer)
    Vice Chairman and Guardian for Godalming  : Edward Eager (gentleman)
    Treasurer : Dodsworth Hayden
    Clerk to the Board of Guardians :  Mark Smallpeice
    Auditor :  FD Boggis-Rolfe
    Chaplain :  Rev F Paynter

Ex-Officio, Assessment Committee
    Hon F Scott : ex-officio Chairman
    Major General Marshall : ex-officio Vice Chairman
    Major Tredcroft :  ex-officio Vice Chairman

Guardians
    Albury :  Thomas Botting (farmer)
    Clandon East :  Philip Arthur (farmer)
    Clandon West :  John Harmsworth (farmer)
    Compton : Hugh Gillitt (clergyman)
    Godalming, Rural :  Thomas Charles Peachey (farmer);  Henry Plummer (farmer); Arthur Spicer (papermaker)
    Godalming, Urban :  Edward Eager (gentleman); Thomas White (brewer)
    Guildford, Bowling Green :  George White (solicitor)
    Guildford, Friary :  Richard Nye (builder)
    Guildford, Holy Trinity :  Gilbert John Smallpeice (banker); Charles Gates (grocer)
    Guildford, St Mary : William Triggs (gentleman); George Holt (upholsterer)
    Guildford, St Nicholas Rural : William Smith (builder)
    Guildford, St Nicholas Urban : Thomas Taunton (gentleman)
    Horsley, East : Ashton Haine (farmer)
    Horsley, West : Daniel Hooker (farmer)
    Merrow : John Rashleigh Rodd (retired Rear Admiral, Royal Navy)
    Ockham : Arthur Lambert (farmer)
    Pirbright : William Bruce Armstrong (retired Army Major)
    Puttenham : James Lane Hewett (farmer and auctioneer)
    Send & Ripley : Edward Pilcher (farmer, shopkeeper); Edgar Dimmock
    Shere : Richard Coe (watercress farmer) :  Miss Augusta Spottiswoode
    Stoke, Rural :  Aaron Wells (farmer)
    Stoke, Urban : William Swayne (builder); John Baptiste Ichet (tutor)
    Wanborough : Denzil Onslow (gentleman, MP for Guildford)
    Woking : William Evershed Carter (farmer); Newland Edwin Brothers (farmer); Edward Ernest Hilder (farmer);
                    Edmund Prior (merchant)
    Worplesdon :  William Wells (gentleman); Robert Ferguson (farmer)

More information on Workhouse Board of Guardians can be found on Peter Higginbottom’s excellent Workhouses.org.uk site.