family history and poor relief 1800's style

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Leicester for a short break was to fit in a trip to the Leicester records office. Originally I had found an ancestor of mine working as a kitchen assistant in an old rectory in Muston, a beautiful old Georgian house which has been converted into a B&B and we did hope to stay there. Just my luck, no vacancies.We did find this lovely old hotel though in the historic village of Rothley. It had been converted to a B&B in the 1960's but has a historic past dating back centuries.William Wilberforce  and Thomas Babington are believed to have drafted the Abolition of Slavery act here over 200 years ago. If you go to www.Leicestershirevillages.com/rothley/rothleyandtheabolitionoftheslave.html (sorry I cant seem to do the link, but its a really good website) you will be able to find out all about it.This photo below is our bedroom. The panelling gave the smallish room a dark eerie feel, I half expected ghosts clanking about in the middle of the night.

There was a beautiful old chapel attached to the side of the hotel, these are some of the interior photos.

They actually still perform weddings in this chapel

We got to the records office on a very snowy, cold day, best place to be really, lovely and toasty inside.I requested the copy of the Poor relief records which I knew they had. Amazingly they let us have the original book dating from 1783. The leather cover was unsurprisingly a bit battered but inside was the most beautiful  writing.

It hasn't come out very clear in my photo but it was so clear to read. I actually got more information than I had thought I would. There is a large entry about how my 3x grandfather had been apprehended in Nottingham and detailing how the constable had to hire a horse and obtain a warrant for his arrest. Both my 3x grandfather Alfred and his wife Mary were dependant on poor relief from their parish throughout the period 1816 to at least 1824 (the end date in the book, no other books survive sadly for me). Luckily for them there was such a thing but it must still have been barely enough to get by on or else I reckon he wouldn't have gone on to commit the offence for which he was transported to Australia. We were shocked at some of the entries in the book not just for my relatives but for other poor in the parish. Life must have been a real struggle for most people.
I felt humbled that we had been allowed to touch and read such an important book detailing a part of social history from over 200 years ago and most importantly for me the knowledge that my ancestors would have more than likely seen the same book all those years ago. What would they have thought if they had known their 3x granddaughter would have been able to see it 200 years into the future? Despite the fact that times were hard, Mary and her son Thomas survived after Alfred's transportation and of course the rest is history.The family history experts always reckon that you are lucky if you can find either a famous person or a criminal in your family because they usually leave a trail behind them. Alfred certainly has. I will probably never find out any more about Mary because she had a common surname and formal records weren't kept at that time. She was born in Shoreditch, if census details are to be believed. Why she came to Leicester from there I have no idea, nor how she got there. I can only speculate.
Have any of you out there got any famous or infamous ancestors? If you have I would love to hear about them.

P.S. Last but not least a big hello to my new followers! I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and I fully intend to pop along to visit you soon!