Caring for Poor and Fatherless Children in London, c. 1350-1550

Abstract

o what extent did formal developments in poor relief usher in significant changes in the experiences of poor children? Sixteenth-century developments in poor relief had direct implications for children, who were often the subjects of legislation. Poor laws authorized local authorities to bind poor children into apprenticeships, with the stated intention of equipping children for employ- ment in adulthood. 1 By the end of the sixteenth century, when support from parents or kin was lacking, parishes were responsible for maintaining poor children, whether they were orphaned, illegitimate, or simply destitute. Some of the larger towns also established municipal hospitals dedicated to the poor, including children, to replace charitable care formerly provided by religious houses. 2 Hospitals and poor relief legislation of the sixteenth century repre- sented efforts by public authorities to support poor children and to prepare them for adulthood. The origins of sixteenth-century developments in welfare have been dis- cerned in the perspectives and practices of local communities dating back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 3 Compulsory contributions and parochial administration of charity were distinctive features of the evolving national system of poor relief in England. But we need more detailed knowledge of the informal systems of support for children in the fifteenth century to assess the extent to which subsequent developments in poor relief represented significant changes for poor girls and boys. Who came to the assistance of poor children in later medieval England, and what sort of upbringing might they expect if their natal family dissolved through death, desertion, or poverty? What happened to illegitimate children whose fathers would not or could not pay maintenance or keep them? These are difficult questions to ask of medieval sources. We know, in broad outline, that kin, social networks, and religious houses all contributed to the care of destitute children. 4 But how such arrangements were made and