Rotherham & the Poor Law
Towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the government of England became seriously worried about paupers, beggars and vagrants. There had been several years of bad weather and a series of disastrous harvests. Combined with the increasing enclosures of common land by landowners this caused a massive increase in the number of people in poverty. Many moved to the towns in hope of work or relief. I don't have any figures for Rotherham but in Stratford upon Avon, a town of similar size, it was reckoned that by the end of the century at least 25% of the population qualified for some form of poor relief. As you can imagine the rich people who paid the Poor Rates were not very happy about the situation.
The Elizabethan Poor Law Acts of 1597-1601 required local authorities to provide relief for paupers. The Act of 1601 introduced the local property tax (called the rates) that we still have today which is now called the Council Tax. The Feoffees planned to operate a workhouse to house and retrain paupers. The money to finance the project appears to have come from a gift of £40 given by Thomas Colte and a legacy of £100 left to Rotherham's poor by the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1616. It obviously took quite a bit of time before they got things properly organised as it was 1659 before the Feoffees used some of the money to lease and fit a cottage workhouse near the centre of town.