Journal Article

Poor families, removals and ‘nurture’ in late old poor law London

Abstract

The consideration of the removals aspect of settlement law – that is, the moving on of paupers or potential paupers to the parish where they ‘belonged’ – has focused almost exclusively on working-age adults and labour migration. This article focuses on how removal law affected families with children in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in two large London parishes. It finds that children were a sizeable presence among the removed population but that there were notable differences in family type between the two parishes. Furthermore, while most young children were kept with their mothers even if they did not share a settlement, others were removed alone, even after a change in settlement law in 1795 that should have assured their common claim in certain cases. The study sheds light on attitudes to poor children and their families, as well as on the exigencies brought about by economic circumstances and employment opportunities in the parish.

Attached files

Authors

Levene, A

Oxford Brookes departments

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences\Department of History, Philosophy and Religion

Dates

Year of publication: 2010
Date of RADAR deposit: 2012-10-31

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Related resources

This RADAR resource is a version of Poor families, removals and ‘nurture’ in late old poor law London