Poor Relief in London during the English Revolution Revisited

Abstract

This article will argue that the poor relief institutions of seventeenth-century London proved incapable of adequately responding to the increased poverty caused by the economic disruption of the English Civil War. In so doing it challenges previous' optimistic' interpretations of poor relief in Civil War London, in particular that of Ronald Herlan. This study uses qualitative rather than quantitative sources to chart the rise of Civil War poverty, but draws on a wide range of materials from the City of London and the suburbs to evaluate the response of poor relief institutions to the wartime social problems. This subject is of vital importance in recapturing Londoners' experience of the war, and this paper will therefore contribute to the understanding of the role of London in the 'English Revolution'.