Category Archives: Early Modern

Gender, institutions and the changing uses of petitions in 18th-century London

Posted on 23 April 2019 by

An extended version of my paper for the April 2019 workshop held by the AHRC Research Network on Petitions and Petitioning from the Medieval Period to the Present, on the theme Petitioning in Context: when and why do petitions matter? … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital History, Early Modern, London Lives Petitions, Women/Gender | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Civil War Petitions in Denbighshire

Posted on 27 March 2018 by

I note that the website for Civil War Petitions: Conflict, Welfare and Memory during and after the English Civil Wars, 1642 – 1710 is up, with the first batch of petitions (I think) due later this year. And there are … Continue reading →

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Settlement and Removal: Poor Relief and Exclusion in 18th-century London

Posted on 20 May 2017 by

From the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1662, or so-called “Settlement Act” onwards, various pieces of 17th- and 18th- century legislation formally codified entitlement to parochial poor relief by “settlement“. The main ways of gaining a settlement … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Modern, London Lives Paupers, Plebeian Lives, Women/Gender | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Women’s History Month 2017: Afterthoughts

Posted on 31 March 2017 by

To wrap up this month, this post is just a few notes – half-formed thoughts, not ‘conclusions’ – on some recurring themes that struck me as I was writing and researching posts (and shaped some of my choices as the … Continue reading →

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Women Petitioners: Belinda Sutton, an ex-slave in Massachusetts

Posted on 29 March 2017 by

In February 1783, Belinda Sutton petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a pension from the estate of Isaac Royall Jr, her late master. (In this petition she names herself simply ‘Belinda, an Affrican’, but in later documents she gave the … Continue reading →

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Women Petitioners: London Servants

Posted on 26 March 2017 by

I’m going to round off WHM2017 with a couple of posts indulging my current interests in petitions. Today I have two petitions from the London Lives Petitions Project: both are from working women who petitioned London magistrates for help after … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime/Law, Early Modern, London Lives Petitions, WHM, Women/Gender | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Journey of Sarah Knight (1666-1727)

Posted on 24 March 2017 by

In October 1704, Sarah Knight left her home town of Boston, MA, for a five-month journey on horseback to New York, which she recorded in a travel diary which is memorable for its descriptions of the perils and people she … Continue reading →

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Mary Saxby (1738-1801), an 18th-century vagrant and memoirist

Posted on 21 March 2017 by

Mary Saxby’s Memoirs of a Female Vagrant was published posthumously, with the twin goals of raising some money for impoverished relatives and ‘prompting the active beneficence of the present age, to regard the wandering classes of the poor, with that attention … Continue reading →

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