Hi again, Joe.  As to Southside VA, references and records revealing activities, funding, and who was sent there, though not well known, are available by the dozens.  Particularly for your area and doubtless in your local libraries is the "Vestry Book Of The Upper Parish,Nansemond County, VA, 1743-1793" (Library of VA, Richmond, 1969) see Index generally.  I suspect you will recognize some of those names, and find some VERY interesting reading.

In short, till and even after the Revolution, the Vestry of the Parish took care of and provided survival and meager facilities for the poverty stricken and destitute.  At those facilities, in order to help the parish with the costs, the inmates/committed (don't call them that in public) gardened and raised not only some of their food, but also often raised additional produce in small quantities to sell at market.  After the Rev. when the Church of England lost its authority, the tasks became those of the county, and the local courts, to a greater or lesser degree (usually the latter) continued the practice.  When I was a boy - before SS and such as aid for the poor, there was one in our county, and by driving by on any spring or fall day, one could see the young and old alike plowing and planting their "truck crops" or harvesting the same.  The reference above also will reveal to you (because of your knowledge) where those poor farms were.           
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joe H. Drake 
  To: Paul Drake 
  Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 10:51 PM
  Subject: Re: Martha of Drury - revisited


  ....I know very little about how the poor houses were run........That's a lie, I know nothing of how the poor house was run.  What did 
  they do?  How did they do it?  What was their source of funding?  How did people get in?  How did they get out?  How long 
  did they stay?  How did the poor houses in the U.S. differ from the infamous work houses, parish poor houses, and debtors
  prison of England?..................Don't want to know much, do I.

  Joe

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