Child health as a social value in early modern England.

Abstract

Until recently, early modern children were neglected as a historical topic because of their political and economic insignificance. Historians of the family have made children important but at the cost of imprisoning them within the family environment. Older children have been of less interest than infants. This paper suggests that the subject of child health can show the value placed on the child by the wider society. Especially among the high proportion of poor families in early modern towns, children between the ages of 7 and 14 could be useful and even essential for the survival of the household. Survival strategies involving children could evolve irrespective of blood relationship; intergenerational dependency consequently becomes a more complex question. Urban authorities shared this appreciation of the potential value of children. A wide range of social policies was adopted for preserving the viability of younger children, of which institutions such as hospitals were probably the least important. For older children, the institutions of service and especially apprenticeship as supervised by the crafts and municipal authorities acquired a major role in maintaining the health of children, reflecting the socio-economic importance of mechanisms of interdependence outside the family group. This role was modified in the context of parish apprenticeship. The changing content and experience of apprenticeship, which affected a high proportion of early modern children, is a subject well deserving of further consideration.