Daily AncestorVendue of the poor
A vendue of the poor was a public auction where a town placed each pauper for a year with the lowest bidder, who was paid to house and feed them.
Before poor farms spread in the 1830s, many New England and New Jersey towns auctioned their paupers. The winning bidder agreed to keep the person for a year, feeding, clothing and nursing them, and could put them to work. Records call it vendue, bidding off or farming out the poor.
The lists name each pauper, the weekly price and the person who took them, so they show where a poor relative lived each year. Complaints of harsh treatment and the reform ideas of the 1830s led many towns to buy poor farms instead.
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Daily Ancestor. "Vendue of the poor." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/poor-relief/vendue-of-the-poor. Last checked 2026-10-03.