‘By the charitie of good people’: poverty and neighbourly support in seventeenth century Lancashire

Abstract

Historians of early-modern poverty have emphasized the ways in which the poor ‘made shift’, reducing or even preventing their dependence on formal poor relief. This article looks at one aspect of that ‘economy of makeshifts’: the casual support of the poor by their neighbours. It uses evidence from a uniquely extensive archive of pauper petitions from Lancashire (1626–1710), many of which contain incidental information about strategies of making shift. The petitions suggest that neighbourly support for the needy was common in Lancashire, both through localized begging and in more stable supportive relationships. Nonetheless, the charity of neighbours could easily be exhausted, leaving those in poverty forced to call upon the more formalized support of the Poor Law.

Keywords:

• poverty
• poor relief
• kinship
• family
• charity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Healey

Jonathan Healey is Associate Professor in Social History at the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education, and is a Fellow of Kellogg College. He has published articles on early-modern poverty, rural and demographic history. His book, The First Century of Welfare: Poverty and Poor Relief in Lancashire, c. 1620–1730 was published by The Boydell Press in 2014. Email: [email protected]