Provisions for the elderly in north-western Europe: an international comparison of almshouses, sixteenth–twentieth centuries

Abstract

In Early Modern north-western Europe a unique form of charitable foundation developed – almshouses. These were inhabited by elderly men and women, who had led honourable middle-class lives, but had become unable to support themselves. In towns that were rapidly growing through immigration, many elderly people were without income or family support. The masses of the working-class poor had to resort to outdoor relief and other survival strategies or were confined in old people's homes and hospitals. Almshouses, in which residents could maintain their privacy, autonomy and honour, were a viable middle-class alternative. We argue that this type of provision could rise especially in relatively urbanised, monetised north-western Europe. Here, wage labour was the dominant form of income; nuclear families the prevalent family type, and rich citizens had great interests to invest in building religious and urban communities. Around the North Sea, dependent middle-class elderly could entertain early notions of individualism and privacy, which were not catered for by charitable institutions elsewhere.

Keywords:

• almshouses
• privacy
• community
• charity
• elderly care

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Henk Looijesteijn for his valuable comments on a draft of this introduction.

Notes

¹ Meier/Werding, ‘Ageing’ (2010).

² For Sweden, see Stolt et al., ‘Privatization’ (2011). For the Netherlands, see, for example, initiatives such as the Landelijke Vereniging Gemeenschappelijk wonen van Ouderen (LVGO, National Association of Living Groups for the Elderly) http://www.lvgo.nl/gemeenschappelijk-wonen/. For a more general analysis of the relationship between housing policies and European welfare, see van Gent, ‘Housing Policy’ (2010).

³ The literature on the elderly includes Ariès, ‘Une histoire de la vieillesse’ (1983); Borscheid, Geschichte (1989); Ottaway, Decline of Life (2004) and Thane, Long History (2005).

⁴ We would like to thank all those participating in this conference for their valuable comments; Frank Hatje and Henk Looijesteijn, who co-organised the conference with Marco H.D. van Leeuwen; and those organisations that supported the conference: Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Stichting Landelijk Hofjesberaad, Hofjes Codde en Van Beresteyn, Koninklijke Haagsche Woningbouwvereniging van 1854, Frans Loenenhofje, Rozenhofje, Hofje De Armen de Poth, as well as the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), which supported the Giving in the Golden Age (GIGA) research project.

⁵ Hufton, Poor (1974), 173–174.

⁶ Van Leeuwen, ‘Surviving’ (1993).

⁷ Harris/Bridgen, Charity (2007); Katz/Sache, Mixed Economy (1996); Grell et al., Health Care (2002).

⁸ Lindert, Spending (2004); Lindert, ‘Private Welfare’ (2014).

⁹ de Swaan, In Care of the State (1988), 31–32; see also 6–7, 30–31, 37–41, and 50.

¹⁰ Solar, ‘Poor Relief’ (1995); Boyer, Economic History (1995); Hindle, On the Parish? (2004); King, Poverty (2000).

¹¹ And at least in parts of Europe they might have been quite successful in achieving this; Floud et al., Changing Body (2011).

¹² Milanovic, ‘Inequality Possibility Frontier’ (2013); Milanovic et al., ‘Pre-industrial Inequality’ (2011).

¹³ van Leeuwen, ‘Amsterdam’ (1996); Levie Bernfeld, ‘Financing Poor Relief’ (2002); van Nederveen Meerkerk/Teeuwen, ‘Stability’ (2013); van Leeuwen, ‘Overrun by Hungry Hordes?’ (2013); Heerma van Voss/van Leeuwen, ‘Charity’ (2012).

¹⁴ Studies on contemporary philanthropy include Schuyt et al., Giving (2011); Bekkers, ‘Giving and Volunteering’ (2004); Wiepking, ‘Love’ (2008); Bekkers/Wiepking, ‘Literature Review’ (2011); van Leeuwen/Wiepking, ‘National Campaigns’ (2013). In addition to the articles mentioned in the previous and subsequent footnotes, historical studies include Marais, Histoire du don (1999); Cohen, Poverty (2005); Kocka/Lingelbach, ‘Vorbemerkung’ (2007); Zunz, Philanthropy (2012).

¹⁵ On the distinction between these larger and smaller types of gifts, see Looijesteijn, ‘Funding’ (2012); van Leeuwen, ‘Giving’ (2012); Teeuwen, ‘Collections’ (2012); van Nederveen Meerkerk, ‘Will’ (2012).

¹⁶ Heerma van Voss, ‘North Sea Culture’ (1996).

¹⁷ Laslett, ‘Family and Household’ (1982).

¹⁸ Laslett, ‘Family, Kinship, and Collectivity’ (1988); De Moor/van Zanden, ‘Girl Power’, 26.

¹⁹ As is clear from the contributions to Ammannati, Assistenza e solidarietà (2013).

²⁰ de Bruyne, Godshuizen in Brugge (1994); Schwarz, ‘Reforming Traditions’ (2011), 5; Hatje, ‘Institutionen’, (2008).

²¹ Mackeith, ‘Christopher Boone's Charity’ (2011); Bruggeman, Hofje de Zeven Keurvorsten (2009); Leermakers/Donkersloot, Wonen (2007); Vels Heijn, Hofjes van Amsterdam (2005).

²² Bernhardt, Armenhäuser (2012).

²³ Looijesteijn, ‘Funding’ (2012), and this issue.

²⁴ Mackeith, ‘Christopher Boone's Charity’ (2011).

²⁵ Caffrey, ‘Fabric’ (2011); see also Looijesteijn, ‘Funding’ (2012), 218–219.

²⁶ A similar case in The Netherlands was the Leiden almshouse of Eva van Hoogeveen; Looijesteijn, ‘Funding’, 218–219.

²⁷ Caffrey, ‘Fabric’ (2011); Hentschel, ‘Almshouses’ (2011); Wilms Floet, ‘Social Missions’ (2011). The latter description is based on Veblen, Theory (1899); cf. Bourdieu, Distinction (1979).

²⁸ Tierney, Medieval Poor Law (1959); Chiffoleau, Comptabilité de l'au-delà (1980); Rosenthal, Purchase (1972).

²⁹ Biéler, Pensée économique (1961); McGrath, Reformation Thought (1999).

³⁰ See van Leeuwen, ‘Giving’ (2012), for The Netherlands with references to other European countries. This point is also stressed by Hansen (this issue) for Denmark and Bull (this issue) for Norway. In her forthcoming PhD thesis, Daniëlle Teeuwen will be demonstrating the same for The Netherlands.

³¹ See also Boulton, ‘Almswomen’ (2011).

³² As stressed by Looijesteijn and van Leeuwen (this issue) for various Protestant dissenters in The Netherlands. For other efforts to build communities in this way, see Lees, Solidarity (1998); Levie Bernfeld, Poverty (2012); Lynch, Individuals (2003); van Nederveen Meerkerk, ‘Will’ (2012); van Leeuwen, ‘Giving’ (2012); Bruggeman, ‘Residents’ (2011); Mangion, ‘Catholic Almshouses’ (2011). Van Nederveen Meerkerk, ‘Will’ (2012), 261–262, and Lambert, ‘Seventeenth century almshouses’ (2011), 2 give examples of people who left money to charitable institutions both in the town they lived and the town they originated from, or the town in which close relatives lived. See also Beyer, ‘Donations’ (2013).

³³ Nicholls, ‘Stipends’ (2011), 4–6.

³⁴ McIntosh, Poor Relief (2012), 65.

³⁵ Nicholls, ‘Stipends’ (2011), 4–6, 38–40.

³⁶ Lynch, Individuals (2003); Lees, Solidarity (1998); Levie Bernfeld, Poverty (2012); Parker, Faith (2008); van Leeuwen, ‘Giving’ (2012); van Nederveen Meerkerk, ‘Will’ (2012).

³⁷ Bernhardt, Armenhäuser (2012), 321–324. In light of this the fact that some Dutch almshouses did cross religious divides (Looijesteijn in this issue) has a certain significance.

³⁸ Boulton, ‘Almswomen’ (2011).

³⁹ Looijesteijn, ‘Funding’ (2012), 204–205.

⁴⁰ Boulton, ‘Almswomen’ (2011).

⁴¹ An example for rural Westphalian Münsterland is offered by Bernhardt, Armenhäuser (2012).

⁴² A comparable development took place in Hamburg: Schwarz, ‘Reforming Traditions’ (2011).

⁴³ Jütte, Poverty (1994).

⁴⁴ Caffrey, Almshouses (2006), and Caffrey, ‘Fabric,’ (2011), make the point that the architectural form of the almshouse itself reflects the desire to create a peaceful and respectable community.

⁴⁵ Stockholm in 1625, Trondheim initially in 1630 but not definitively until 1732. Heerma van Voss, ‘Poor Relief Institutions’ (2013), 65–66, 74.

⁴⁶ van Leeuwen, Republiek (2000).

⁴⁷ McCants, Civic Charity (1997), 200.

⁴⁸ van Leeuwen, ‘Guilds’ (2012).

⁴⁹ Hufton, Poor (1974), 156; Trexler, ‘Charity’ (1975); Spicciani, ‘“Poveri Vergognosi”’ (1981); Woolf, Poor (1986), 20; van Leeuwen, Logic (2000), 131–132; van Wijngaarden, Zorg (2000).

⁵⁰ Heerma van Voss, ‘Poor Relief Institutions’ (2013).

⁵¹ Macfarlane, Origins (1978); Perrot, Histoire de chambres (2009).

⁵² Paludan et al., Københavnernes historie (1987), 61–73; Lindberg, Sirenernes stad (1996), 298–299.

⁵³ Heerma van Voss, ‘Embarrassment’ (1997).