Essex Pauper Letters, 1731-1837
- ISBN-10
- 0197263488
- ISBN-13
- 9780197263488
- Category
- Business & Economics
- Pages
- 772
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2006-03-09
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- Thomas Sokoll
Description
The immensely rich archives from the administration of the English poor law before 1834 include letters to the overseers of the poor that came from the poor themselves. As personal testimonies of people claiming relief, which are often written in a stunningly 'private' tone, pauper letters allow deep insights into the living conditions, experiences and attitudes of the labouring poor in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This edition contains some 750 of these letters, all those presently known to survive in the county of Essex. The Introduction demonstrates the immense importance of this neglected source, both for the social historian and for the comparative study of literacy.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Being Poor in Modern Europe: Historical Perspectives 1800-1940
By Steven King, Andreas Gestrich, Lutz RaphaelThis book brings together authors working on some of the most significant poverty and welfare research projects on the European stage. The contributions focus broadly on the experience of being...
-
1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era
1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era
-
Agreement Patterns in English: Diachronic Corpus Studies on Common-number Pronouns
By Mikko LaitinenAgreement Patterns in English: Diachronic Corpus Studies on Common-number Pronouns
-
The Experience of Urban Poverty, 1723-1782: Parish, Charity and Credit
By Alannah TomkinsThis comparative study of urban poverty is the first to chart the irregular pulse of poverty's encounters with officialdom. It exploits an unusual methodology to secure new perspectives from familiar...
-
The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-century England
By John StylesThis inventive and lucid book sheds new light on topics as diverse as crime, authority, and retailing in eighteenth-century Britain, and makes a major contribution to broader debates around consumerism,...
-
The Diocesan Population Returns for 1563 and 1603
By Alan Dyer, David M. PalliserThis comprehensive edition makes available two of the most important sources for population studies in the early modern period. The bishops' returns of 1563 and 1603 represent the earliest census-type...
-
Prisoners' Letters to the Bank of England, 1781-1827
By Deirdre PalkIn British gaols and on hulks, awaiting transportation to New South Wales, prisoners convicted of forged paper currency offences wrote to their influential prosecutor, the Bank of England. This volume...
-
The Birth of Industrial Britain: Social Change, 1750-1850
By Kenneth MorganThe companion volume to The Birth of Industrial Britain: Economic Change, together they provide a comprehensive guide to Britain's development as the first industrial power. This volume focuses on...
-
Parents of Poor Children in England 1580-1800
By Patricia M. CrawfordParents of Poor Children is the first sustained study of the mothers and fathers of poor children in the England of the early modern and early industrial period. Although we...
-
Letters of the Catholic Poor
By Lindsey Earner-ByrneIt is important to hear as much as possible of what the letter writers were saying, in other words, ... See, A. Digby, 'Poverty, health, and the politics of gender in Britain, 1870–1948' in A. Digby, and J. Stewart (eds.) ...