Bantry Board of Guardians
IE CCCA/BG/43
children with broken down constitutions, persons brought into the house in a dying condition and very old persons’. Resolution calling the PLC’s attention to £1700 owed to contractors, who will not continue to supply unless paid, and to the treasurer ’ s refusal to make advances without the guardians’ personal security, which they decline to give. ‘The board feel there is no alternative but to close the house and turn out 600 sick and infirm inmates to perish unless funds be advanced’ . [Guardians do eventually give personal securities. See, e.g., 25 May and 15 Jun 1847] 13 Apr 1847 Resolved, ‘that thre e or four shell coffins be provided for the conveyance of the deceased paupers to the burial place and that they be interred after they be got without coffins in the same manner as the poor persons who die who are not inmates of this house’. 20 Apr 1847 M edical officer’s report regarding the state of disease in the workhouse and ‘the very reprehensible conduct of the master and matron’ in ‘systematically opposing’ the effective discharge of medical duties. He refers to fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, and smal lpox. He notes ‘the infirmary is crowded almost to suffocation’ but has only one regular nurse. He also refers to poor milk and meat supplies and ‘errors in diet’ committed by patients. He describes one visit to the ‘miserable creatures’ in the probationary wards, accusing the master and matron of failing to supply water or to assist new inmates in washing before assigning them places. He also accuses them of creating insubordination against him, by claiming he has no authority. Resolution expressing surprise at a newspaper report that the board had determined to close the workhouse [to new admissions], though it was not crowded, the claim reportedly emanating from the Roman Catholic chaplain. Resolved, that tenders be sought for temporary wooden fever sheds. 18 May 1847 Resolution expressing strong disapprobation at ‘the gross neglect of the master in allowing bodies to remain unburied in the manner mentioned to the board’, and removing him and his wife [the matron] from charge of the house and placing the schoolmaster and mistress in their place while new candidates are being sought [the master and matron having previously been dismissed by the PLC]. [See also 25 May, where the medical officer reports on a visit to the dead house after learning a body had lain there for three weeks. Regarding the master ’s report book , see 20 Jul 1847]. 29 Jun 1847 Resolved, that refractory inmates be stopped a portion of their bread allowance; Resolved, that an inmate be expelled ‘for her ill conduct and for her endeavouring to seduce a young female pauper from the house for immoral purposes’. 27 Jul 1847 Clerk’s letter to PLC reporting that there are 240 vacancies in the house, ‘disease has almost latterly disappeared’, and that there were only five deaths in the last week. It is recommended that relief committees be asked to remove ‘from the lists for outdoor relief a sufficient number to supply the vacancies in the house’. [Relief loans are to be stopped on 15 Aug, the board to provide and pay for outdoor relief thereafter. See 6 July 1847].
7 Sep 1847 Master’s report stating that on 6 Sep a crowd of ‘between seven
© Cork City and County Archives 2011
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