Life in the suburbs: health, domesticity and status in early modern London

Lead Research Organisation: University of London
Department Name: Inst of Historical Research

Abstract

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Description Four main findings have arisen from analysis of the study area's parish registers:



1) Infant mortality was high but largely invariant by occupation (and, by implication, social status) and geographical areas within London



2) The epidemiological regime changed following the last plague of 1665, with a reduction in the volatility and shifts in the age structure of mortality



3) The suburb's occupational structure saw a stable sectoral distribution across the period, but also the development of many new types of manufacture. European migrants played a significant role in these new industries, such as gunmaking.



4) Age at first marriage varied considerably over time although the age gap between the sexes remained relatively stable. Clandestine marriage was especially popular among younger men and women, and appears to have siphoned off these couples from their home parish registers.



The main findings relevant to the area's housing and inhabitants were threefold. First, the low ground rents charged by the numerous institutional freeholders often enabled lessee landlords to provide housing at low rental charges, whilst still ensuring that they invested in amenities and the build quality of the housing stock. This dynamic probably explains the ability of lessee landlords to meet the demand for cheap, high density housing, without apparently resorting to the poor quality structures that characterised much of the low rent housing in other areas of early modern London.



Second, despite pockets of extremely poor quality housing with a high density of occupation, particularly in East Smithfield, the overall character of the topography and housing stock of the suburb was mixed. Larger 'mercantile' type dwellings were present across the period, as were smaller artisanal houses.



Finally, information from the sample property histories and related sources indicates that the duration families and individuals could occupy their dwellings was often considerable, regularly spanning decades. This questions somewhat previous assumptions regarding the inherently transient nature of suburban dwelling.



Investigations into the health of the area's inhabitants focused on the issues of poor relief and nursing provision. Through detailed biographical reconstructions it was possible to establish that the local authorities made no distinction between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' resident poor throughout the period when it came to the provision of relief. This approach was not simply the result of an attempt to preserve the stability of the community but was also founded on a strong sense of neighbourly responsibility. Research also suggested that the extensive seventeenth-century, parish-financed system for boarding and nursing the poor and the sick represented the formalisation, to some extent, of earlier private practices that were visible from the sixteenth century.



In terms of methodologies, the project had two principal outcomes:

1. Family reconstitution techniques have been adapted and updated for use with large urban populations with rapid population turnover, and fully explained for use by other researchers.

2. A 'London-specific' methodology has been developed for studying domestic groupings in the 1695 Marriage Duty returns, a substantial, Census-like source extant for many locations nationwide.
Exploitation Route The research findings and data have the potential for use by a range of non-academic groups. These include local and family historians, for whom the outputs will provide valuable context as well as information about particular neighbourhoods, families and occupations - especially in the East End of London. The digital publication of the Parish Clerk's Memoranda Books of St Botolph Aldgate will bring to public attention a unique source which sheds light on everyday life in early modern London. In terms of relevant future research, the project's demographic data will be used in a new project to be funded by the Wellcome Trust. This will investigate shifts in the epidemiological regime throughout England, by examining variations in short term mortality in urban areas, market towns and rural parishes. Two current GIS mapping projects associated with the Centre for Metropolitan History will also be using the project's data-sets in their outputs.
Sectors Environment
URL http://www.history.ac.uk/projects/research/life-in-the-suburbs