European University Institute Library

Almshouses in early modern England, charitable housing in the mixed economy of welfare, 1550-1725, Angela Nicholls

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-260) and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Almshouses in early modern England

bibliography

954270928

Angela Nicholls

People, markets, goods: economies and societies in history, Volume 8

charitable housing in the mixed economy of welfare, 1550-1725

This book is an examination of early modern English almshouses in the 'mixed economy' of welfare. Drawing on archival evidence from three contrasting counties - Durham, Warwickshire and Kent - between 1550 and 1725, the book assesses the contribution almshouses made within the developing welfare systems of the time and the reasons for the enduring popularity of this particular form of charity. Post-Reformation almshouses are usually considered to have been places of privilege for the respectable deserving poor, operating outside the structure of parish poor relief to which ordinary poor people were subjected, and making little contribution to the genuinely poor and needy. This book challenges these assumptions through an exploration of the nature and extent of almshouse provision; it examines why almshouses were founded in the late-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who the occupants were, what benefits they received and how residents were expected to live their lives. The book reveals a surprising variation in the socio-economic status of almspeople and their experience of almshouse life. --, Provided by publisher

Prologue -- Introduction -- Housing policy -- Chronology and distribution of Almshouse foundations -- Almshouse founders and their motivations -- Almshouse residents and the experience of Almshouse life -- The material benefits of an Almshouse place -- Case study : a seventeenth-century welfare republic -- the Parish of Leamington Hastings and its Almshouse -- Conclusion