{"title":"A Network of Contacts: Metropolitan Influences in the Delivery of Poor Relief in the London Hinterland (1778–1785)","authors":"Jane Saul","doi":"10.1080/03058034.2023.2227819","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Existing studies of poor relief have focused on parishes either metropolitan or wholly rural, whereas the focus of this article is on the distinctive experience of Battersea, a village in the London hinterland. Although the village suffered from the rising cost of poor relief experienced nationwide at the end of the eighteenth century, this article argues that the response of its vestry was shaped by Battersea’s liminal location. Consideration is given to the central role that the workhouse played in the provision of poor relief, and demonstrating that the social networks of parochial leaders were key to the development of policy. Many of the vestry members had commercial and professional interests in the metropolis and elsewhere, and these, together with their patronage of London charitable institutions, helped both to shape their response to the problems of poverty that they encountered, and influenced their administration of the Battersea workhouse.","PeriodicalId":43904,"journal":{"name":"London Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"London Journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03058034.2023.2227819","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Existing studies of poor relief have focused on parishes either metropolitan or wholly rural, whereas the focus of this article is on the distinctive experience of Battersea, a village in the London hinterland. Although the village suffered from the rising cost of poor relief experienced nationwide at the end of the eighteenth century, this article argues that the response of its vestry was shaped by Battersea’s liminal location. Consideration is given to the central role that the workhouse played in the provision of poor relief, and demonstrating that the social networks of parochial leaders were key to the development of policy. Many of the vestry members had commercial and professional interests in the metropolis and elsewhere, and these, together with their patronage of London charitable institutions, helped both to shape their response to the problems of poverty that they encountered, and influenced their administration of the Battersea workhouse.
期刊介绍:
The scope of The London Journal is broad, embracing all aspects of metropolitan society past and present, including comparative studies. The Journal is multi-disciplinary and is intended to interest all concerned with the understanding and enrichment of London and Londoners: historians, geographers, economists, sociologists, social workers, political scientists, planners, educationalist, archaeologists, conservationists, architects, and all those taking an interest in the fine and performing arts, the natural environment and in commentaries on metropolitan life in fiction as in fact