Agricultural History Review, Volume 52 Part 1 (2004), pp. 56–82

The debate on whether poor law allowance payments to the families of agricultural labourers 'encouraged' early marriage and large families is still far from resolved, partly because the exact geographical prevalence and timing of such allowances has not been adequately established. A case study of two communities in Bedfordshire provides evidence on the timing, duration, and value of such allowances, as well as detailed information of the family circumstances of labouring families. The study finds that allowances were largely restricted to periods of particular economic hardship and that they were a necessary response to increasing family size rather than a cause of such shifts in demographic behaviour. 

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