Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

Removal Orders in Doncaster Archives

Parishes and townships were only obliged to relieve the poor who were legally 'settled' in their areas. Anyone else who applied for poor relief could be sent back to their place of lawful settlement. The legal process to do this involved a formal questioning of people about their past movements so that the magistrates could determine, by reference to the complex rules of settlement law, where a person was 'settled'.

This process is described on the webpage on Settlement Certificates and Examinations. Once it had been decided by the overseers of the poor and the magistrates that a person applying for poor relief was legally settled elsewhere, the magistrates issued a 'removal order'. This authorised the removal of the non-settled person and his or her dependants to their place orf lawful settlement. 

Doncaster Archives holds 344 removal orders dating from 1679 to 1849. These have been indexed in Pamela Lindley, Ordered Home: Removal Orders 1679-1849, published by the Doncaster and District Family History Society in 2001.