Almost every parish church in the 1600s had a poor box. This rare surviving example is from St Vincent Church in Claythorpe, Lincolnshire and is currently positioned at the top of the nave. It displays a Biblical inscription from proverbs 19:17, which reminds the viewer of the importance of giving and charity for their own salvation.<br /> <br /> The text is inscribed into the oak using mastic, a common method of decorating wood cheaply without the need for skilful carving. It has a lock at the top to keep donations secure. Churchwardens, who were often middling tradesmen, controlled funds from the poor box. The vestry minutes of St Thomas’ Church, Salisbury, in 1637, record the churchwardens working with the overseers of the poor in order to provide for the ‘sicke and necessitous poore of this parish’ from the box’s funds.<br /> <br /> This object serviced the practice of short term, small donations to a parish and represents the authority middling officeholders held over the distribution of poor relief at a local level.
Poor box (Collection box), 1600s

Back to Charity Collection icon

Poor box

Poor box (Collection box), 1600s

Almost every parish church in the 1600s had a poor box. This rare surviving example is from St Vincent Church in Claythorpe, Lincolnshire and is currently positioned at the top of the nave. It displays a Biblical inscription from proverbs 19:17, which reminds the viewer of the importance of giving and charity for their own salvation.

The text is inscribed into the oak using mastic, a common method of decorating wood cheaply without the need for skilful carving. It has a lock at the top to keep donations secure. Churchwardens, who were often middling tradesmen, controlled funds from the poor box. The vestry minutes of St Thomas’ Church, Salisbury, in 1637, record the churchwardens working with the overseers of the poor in order to provide for the ‘sicke and necessitous poore of this parish’ from the box’s funds.

This object serviced the practice of short term, small donations to a parish and represents the authority middling officeholders held over the distribution of poor relief at a local level.

Object Type Collection box
Year 1600s
Material Wood and paint
Discovered St Vincent Church, Claythorpe, Lincolnshire
Keywords worshipping; praying; reading; displaying; self-fashioning; remembering; belief; charity; church; memorial; wood
Image Credit Poor box, 1600s. ST Vincent Church, Claythorpe, Lincs. Image by Michael Garlic © shared via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license on Wikimedia Commons.

Back to Charity Collection icon