At the cutting edge of new social and demographic history, this book provides a detailed picture of the most comprehensive system of poor relief operated by any Elizabethan town. Well before the Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601, Hadleigh, Suffolk-a thriving woolen cloth center with a population of roughly 3,000-offered a complex array of assistance to many of its residents who could not provide for themselves: orphaned children, married couples with more offspring than they could support or supervise, widows, people with physical or mental disabilities, some of the unemployed, and the elderly. Hadleigh's leaders also attempted to curb idleness and vagrancy and to prevent poor people who might later need relief from settling in the town. Based upon uniquely full records, this study traces 600 people who received help and explores the social, religious, and economic considerations that made more prosperous people willing to run and pay for this system. Relevant to contemporary debates over assistance to the poor, the book provides a compelling picture of a network of care and control that resulted in the integration of public and private forms of aid.

About the Author
Marjorie Keniston McIntosh is a distinguished professor of history emerita at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She is the author of Poor Relief in England, 1350-1600; Working Women in English Society, 1300-1620; and Yoruba Women, Work, and Social Change. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Reviews
'I am exceptionally impressed by this splendid case study, the like of which barely exists for the well-documented Old Poor Law era and certainly not for the pre-1601 period. McIntosh's ability to reconstruct the family circumstances and other demographic attributes of those receiving relief is unparalleled in any study of Tudor poor relief. This remarkable local study will be of interest to a large number of both local and national historians.' Professor Richard M. Smith



Book Information
ISBN 9781907396922
Author Marjorie Keniston McIntosh
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint University of Hertfordshire Press
Publisher University of Hertfordshire Press
Weight(grams) 333g