<P> With the decline of feudalism in 16th century England, the indigent poor came to be seen as a more direct threat to the social order . As they were often not associated to a particular feudal manor, the government moved towards the formation of an organized poverty relief system to care for them . </P> <P> The origins of the English Poor Law system can be traced as far back as late medieval statutes dealing with beggars and vagrancy but it was only during the Tudor period that the Poor Law system became codified . Monasteries, the primary source of poor relief, were dissolved by the Tudors Reformation causing poor relief to move from a largely voluntary basis to a compulsory tax that was collected at a parish level . Early legislation was concerned with vagrants and making the able - bodied work, especially while labour was in short supply following the Black Death . </P> <P> The first complete code of poor relief was made in the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 and some provision for the "deserving poor" was eventually made in the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 . It created a system administered at parish level, paid for by levying local rates on rate payers . Relief for those too ill or old to work, the so - called' impotent poor', was in the form of a payment or items of food (' the parish loaf') or clothing also known as outdoor relief . Some aged people might be accommodated in parish alms houses, though these were usually private charitable institutions . Meanwhile, able - bodied beggars who had refused work were often placed in Houses of Correction or even subjected to beatings to mend their attitudes . </P> <P> As populations grew in Colonial America, almhouses were built to house vulnerable people with no other support, including people with a long term illness or older people without families . The first recorded Almshouse was built in 1713 near Philadelphia by William Penn, and was only open to Quakers . A second one was built nearby in 1728, this time with public money . In 1736 New York opened the Poor House of the City of New York (later renamed Bellevue Hospital) and in 1737 New Orleans opened the Saint John's Hospital to serve the poor of the city . </P>

Development of social work in post independence era