Negotiating a Living: Essex Pauper Letters from London, 1800–1834

Abstract

Research undertaken over the last generation has greatly enhanced our understanding of the survival strategies of the labouring poor in early modern Europe. Under economic conditions where poverty was endemic, most families were forced to take to various forms of work and to draw on whatever forms of income were available. Whether among small peasants, proto-industrial producers, landless labourers or casual workers, their mere subsistence depended on the effort of as many family members as possible. Women's and children's work were the norm well into the nineteenth century, and their contribution to the family income greater than previously assumed. There were, nevertheless, many who could not make ends meet. The reasons for which people had to turn to others for help are legion: structural, cyclical or seasonal unemployment and underemployment; insufficient earnings and debts; illness and accidents; death within the family. A lot of assistance was informal and went through networks of kinship, neighbourhood and local community. Friendly societies provided rudimentary forms of collectively-organized support. Some state or municipal agencies supplying poor relief and charitable institutions offered assistance of various types, but most of it was meagre and combined with social control of the clients. It is no wonder, therefore, that many people took to begging, prostitution or petty crime. 1While there is ample evidence, then, that the labouring poor were forced to engage in a broad spectrum of activities and to draw on numerous resources in order to gain their subsistence, the strategic decisions involved in this remain less well understood. Strategic action implies choice. Ideally, it involves the rational choice between alternative opportunities and the assessment of the pros and cons of a particular course of action against other possible courses. It also involves a notion of the possible consequences of the alternative options to hand. But considerations of that kind are scarcely documented for labouring people before the middle of the nineteenth 1. Jean-Pierre Gutton, La sociiti et Ies pauvres en Europe (xrve-xville siecles) (Paris, 1974); Olwen

Regional patterns in the experiences and treatment of the sick poor, 1800–40: rights, obligations and duties in the rhetoric of paupers

“…(NRO 325P/194, letter 17; note this is a loose letter) William King from Braintree never used the language of rights. Indeed, such language is rare amongst Essex paupers, who seem to have assumed acknowledged rights, something that Sokoll concurs with (Sokoll 2000). By contrast, the implicit and sometimes explicit language of rights comes through strongly in the Thrapston letters, particularly when it came to paupers writing about sickness.…”

“…(NRO 325P/194,letter 5) There are many ways to read this letter. The bargaining strategy (which moves from a trifle to a specified amount), the threat to come home (and thus increase costs) and the eliding of sickness or some other problem with an inability to pay a substantial bill, are rhetorical and strategic devices found in pauper letters everywhere (Sokoll 2000). For this article the importance of the letter lies in the precision with which Curchin specified the medical problem of his wife and what will be needed to cure it.…”

Testifying for the Poor: Epistolary Advocates and the Negotiation of Parochial Relief in England, 1800–1834

“…22 Others, too, have noted that pauper letters were "strategic pieces of writing," designed to gain competitive advantage within the relief relationship. 23 Yet to acknowledge that pauper letters were rhetorical in their construction and strategic in their intent is not to imply that they were documents intended to deceive. Indeed, parishes satisfied themselves of the veracity of out-parish paupers' claims through formal or informal surveillance methods which ranged from personal visits by the home overseer or another vestry member through to surveillance by proxy, using the agency of a trusted or nominated person from the host parish itself.…”

The Sheremetev Almshouse in 1810-1812: Arranging a Modern Institution in a Pre-Modern Urban Society

“…represented an integral part of the family budget. 78 Needlework fulfilled by femalesknitting stockings, sewing and embroidery -was not left unnoticed by Murav'ev. Needlework was the only activity which elder daughters could fulfill to earn some money for the family, likewise, the needlework justified their staying unmarried at their parents in the opinion of the latters.…”