Honourable dwellings: almshouses as estate-consistent charity in Copenhagen, c. 1700–1850

Abstract

The main focus of this article is the connection between the social hierarchies and charities like almshouses in Danish urban society between 1700 and 1850. The almshouses and a whole range of other charities were exclusively targeted at those of the upper and middle classes who had fallen on hard times and could not be supported by their families. They were offered better material conditions than the poor of the lower classes. Thus, this kind of charity was both based on, and reinforced, a division of society in distinct social layers. At the same time, the exclusion of the lower-class poor shows that almshouses played an important role in shoring up social boundaries as well as social markers.

Keywords:

• almshouses
• estate society
• middle classes
• honour

Notes

¹ Andersen, The fairy tale (2000), 14.

² As one of the few, the Eilschou Almshouse has survived until the present. Today it can be visited in Den Gamle By, Open Air Museum in Aarhus where the almshouse was rebuilt in 2005.

³ These questions are more exhaustively investigated in: Hansen, ‘Den skjulte fattigdom’ (2013).

⁴ A presentation of the multiple studies of Copenhagen poor relief can be found in Henningsen/Mikkelsen, ‘De fattige’ (2005), 207–211. Jørgensen has contributed with two broader works on Danish poor legislation, namely Studier (1940, 1975) and ‘Fattigvæsen’ (1983). In recent years Henningsen has published a number of articles on the Copenhagen poor relief system, the most important being ‘Misericordia’ (2005) and ‘Tiggernes by’ (2008). For an English-language account of poor relief in Copenhagen see: Henningsen, ‘Copenhagen poor relief’ (2008). At present the multi-volume work Dansk Velfærdshistorie is being published. In the first volumes the roots of the Danish welfare state are analysed from a political and ideological angle. Thus it is the political and ideological background of the formation of the twentieth-century welfare state that is in focus, while the poor and poverty itself are subject of little or no attention. Petersen et al., Dansk velfærdshistorie 1 (2010). Only a few works examine the poor, poor relief and poverty from a viewpoint of cultural history, most notably Lützen, Byen tæmmes (1998); Hansen, ‘Miraklernes tid’ (2008); Hansen, ‘Den skjulte fattigdom’ (2013) and to some extent Henningsen in his works on the Copenhagen poor relief system.

⁵ Henningsen, ‘Misericordia’ (2005), 40–41.

⁶ Bro, ‘Stiftelsesvæsenet’ (2005). For a general account of the poor relief in the provincial towns of Denmark see: Mikkelsen, ‘Poor relief’ (2008), 365–410. Here the main conclusions of Tine Bro's account on Danish provincial almshouses are repeated.

⁷ Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 1 (1894); Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 3 (1897); Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 4 (1898).

⁸ Looijesteijn, ‘Land’ (2011), 7–8.

⁹ Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 1 (1894), 397–404.

¹⁰ What follows is based on an analysis of the following two overviews of Copenhagen poor institutions and foundations: Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 1 (1894), 3–93; Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 216–228. Data on the distribution of almshouses in the Danish provincial towns of Aarhus and Odense have been extracted from Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 3 (1897) and Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 4 (1898). For an account of Danish provincial almshouses, see Bro, ‘Stiftelsesvæsenet’ (2005).

¹¹ In the following, the term ‘middle classes’ should be understood in its broader sense, which is sometimes referred to as ‘the middling sort’: A diverse group which included everybody from burghers like artisans and merchants to officials, clergymen, officers, and their families. In spite of many differences and distinctions between these subgroups, they did, to a certain extent, share views on honour and respectability and not least on their superiority to the common people of peasants, day-labourers, soldiers and workers. Hansen, ‘Den skjulte fattigdom’ (2013), 49–64.

¹² van Leeuwen, ‘Guilds’ (2012), 61–90.

¹³ Matthiessen, Danske byers folketal (1985).

¹⁴ Petersen et al., Dansk velfærdshistorie 1 (2010), 208–214.

¹⁵ See for example: Lützen, Byen tæmmes (1998), 119–216.

¹⁶ Bro, ‘Stiftelsesvæsenet’ (2005).

¹⁷ Henningsen, I sansernes vold 1 (2006), 186–196, 303–311. Solli, ‘Urban Space’ (2006), 3–7.

¹⁸ Weber, Wirtschaft (1980), 177–180.

¹⁹ Pitt-Rivers, ‘Honor’ (1968), 503.

²⁰ Stewart, Honor (1994), 54–63.

²¹ Henningsen, I sansernes vold 1 (2006), 366–397.

²² Henningsen, I sansernes vold 1 (2006), 303–305. Solli, ‘Urban Space’ (2006), 6–7.

²³ Veblen, Theory (1899); Trigg, ‘Veblen’ (2001), 99–115; Henningsen, I sansernes vold 1 (2006), 318–324; Jespersen, ‘At være’ (2010), 34–42.

²⁴ Adresseavisen, 13 May 1788.

²⁵ King/Tomkins, Poor (2003).

²⁶ Cavallo, ‘Charity’ (1998), 111, 113, 120.

²⁷ Frank Rexroth has demonstrated that this was also the intention of the medieval London almshouses; Rexroth, Deviance (2007), 252–263.

²⁸ The most important poor laws are reprinted in Henningsen, ‘Fattigvæsen’ (2007).

²⁹ Sager et al., Beretning (1840), 12; for a general account of the Copenhagen workhouses, see: Hansen, ‘Til nytte’ (2004).

³⁰ Thaarup, Kopenhagen (1828), 257.

³¹ In comparison, an average worker earned between 80 and 100 rixdollars annually, out of which a substantial part was spent on rent.

³² Hofman, Samlinger (1765), 1–20; Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 221.

³³ Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 222; Bruun, Kjøbenhavn 3 (1901), 171.

³⁴ Vogelius, ‘Budolphi Kloster’ (1925), 50–53; NN, ‘Efterretninger’ (1826), 19–24. Nielsen, Kjøbenhavns Diplomatarium 8 (1887), 624–626; Hofman, Samlinger (1765), 375–376; Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 221–222.

³⁵ Nielsen, Efterretninger (1875), 22–24; Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 222; Hofman, Samlinger (1765), 368–70.

³⁶ Løgstrup, ‘Fattigvæsenet’ (1967), 33–34; Danish National Archives, Danske Kancelli, Kommissionen ang. fattigvæsenet i København 1778–79, Dokumenter til forhandlingsprotokollen, register of the residents of Abel Cathrine's Almshouse.

³⁷ Thaarup/Wendt, 'Frue Abel Cathrines Boder’ (1821), 19–25; NN ‘Planen for Sygehjemmet’ (1859), 369.

³⁸ Løgstrup, ‘Fattigvæsenet’ (1967), 34; Fogtman, Kongelige Rescripter 6 (1786), 763–769.

³⁹ Hiort-Lorenzen/Rosendahl, Repertorium 1 (1894), 3–93.

⁴⁰ Thaarup/Wendt, 'Trøstens Bolig’ (1817–18), 23–31; Bärens, ‘Trøstens Bolig’ (1812), Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 225–226.

⁴¹ See note 3.

⁴² Bärens, ‘Hvad udfordres’ (1808), 163–166.

⁴³ Rexroth, Deviance (2007), 232.

⁴⁴ On shamefaced poor, see for instance: Cavallo, Charity (1995); Trexler, ‘Charity’ (1973); Ricci, ‘Naissance’ (1983), 158–177, Hansen, ‘Den skjulte fattigdom’ (2013).

⁴⁵ Adresseavisen, 5 March 1790, no. 51, 2.

⁴⁶ Bärens, ‘Blandede Efterretninger’ (1807), 368.

⁴⁷ Danish National Archives, Danske Kancelli, Kommissionen ang. fattigvæsenet i København 1778–79, F74D, letter to the commission from The Poor Relief Authority of Trinitatis Parish dated 31 August 1778.

⁴⁸ van Leeuwen, ‘Logic of Charity’ (1994), 589–613.

⁴⁹ Bärens, ‘Trøstens Bolig’ (1812), 102.

⁵⁰ Bergsøe, Stats Statistik 4 (1853), 216–219; NN ‘Planen for Sygehjemmet’ (1859), 369; Løgstrup, ‘Fattigvæsenet’ (1967), 34; August, Om Helligaands (1817), 22–23; Sager et al., Beretning (1840), 4–5.

⁵¹ Sager et al., Beretning (1840), 32–33.

⁵² Brandes, Om den offentlige Understøttelse (1852), 3–14.

⁵³ Cavallo, ‘Charity’ (1998).

⁵⁴ Likewise, in his research on medieval London almshouses Frank Rexroth has argued that assuring ‘impoverished elderly citizens of their ‘houses’ meant visibly to assign them to the majority of society and to keep them on the right side of the moral boundary to the underworld’. Rexroth, Deviance (2007), 263.