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The London Vagrancy Crisis of the 1780s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2013

TIM HITCHCOCK
TIM HITCHCOCK*
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, UKt.hitchcock@herts.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article outlines the changing character of vagrant removal from the City of London during the 1780s, suggesting that the City largely abandoned its duty to ‘punish’ the vagrant poor in favour of a policy of simply moving them on as quickly and cheaply as possible. After describing the impact of the destruction of Newgate and the resulting overcrowding in London's other prisons, it provides evidence for a dramatic increase in vagrant numbers. The article suggests that this change was both a direct result of the crises of imprisonment, transportation and punishment that followed the Gordon Riots and American war; and a result of growing demand for the transportation provided to vagrants, on the part of the migratory poor. Having established the existence of a changing pattern of vagrant removal, it suggests that the poor increasingly made use of the City of London, and the system of removal, to access transportation in pursuit of seasonal migration, and more significantly, medical care in the hospitals of the capital as part of a wider ‘economy of makeshift’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 24 , Special Issue 1: Poverty and Mobility in England, 1600–1850 , April 2013 , pp. 59 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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References

Notes

1. For the cart, see London Lives 1690–1800 (www.londonlives.org, consulted 2nd February 2012), Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of the Court (LMSMGO556070428); original currently held at the London Metropolitan Archives.

2. London Lives, City of Westminster Coroners: Coroners’ Inquests into Suspicious Deaths, ‘William Jenkins’, 31st March 1784, (WACWIC65224IC652240200): Westminster Abbey Muniment Room.

3. The history of crime and the British system of criminal justice is extensive but for some authoritative recent accounts see, Beattie, John, Crime and the Courts in England 1660–1800 (Princeton, NJ, 1986)Google Scholar; Beattie, John, Policing and Punishment in London, 1660–1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of Terror (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar; and King, Peter, Crime and Law in England, 1750–1840: Remaking Justice from the Margin (Cambridge, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shoemaker, Robert, The London Mob: Violence and Disorder in Eighteenth-Century England (London, 2004).Google Scholar For the crisis of the 1780s see Tim Hitchcock, ‘Re-Negotiating the Bloody Code: The Gordon Riots and the Transformation of Popular Attitudes to the Criminal Justice System’, in Heywood, Ian and Seed, John, eds, The Gordon Riots: Politics, Culture and Insurrection in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge, 2012).Google Scholar

4. F. and Rivington, J., The Works and Correspondence of. . .Edmund Burke (London, 1856), volume1, p. 305Google Scholar.

5. Cambell, Charles, The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement, 1776–1857 (Tucson, AZ, 3rd edn, 2001)Google Scholar, and Devereaux, Simon, ‘The Making of the Penitentiary Act, 1775–1779’, Historical Journal, 42 (1999), 405–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

6. Old Bailey Proceedings (www.oldbaileyonline.org, ver. 6.0, 2nd February 2012), June 1780, trial of Thomas Haycock (t17800628–34). Thomas Haycock's role and background are substantially explored in Linebaugh, Peter, London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1991), pp. 346–7.Google Scholar

7. Reports from the committees of the House of Commons (31st October 1776 to 6th June 1777), ‘Report from the Committee appointed to inspect and consider the Returns made by the Overseers of the Poor, in pursuance of Act of last Session:- Together with Abstracts of the said Returns’, 15th May 1777, p. 539.

8. Reports from the committees of the House of Commons (26th October 1775 to 23rd May 1776), ‘Second Report’, 21st May 1776, pp.289–96, for Middlesex, see p. 291. Surprisingly, the report does not record vagrant costs for the City of London.

9. Although there were some twenty-six Acts relating to vagrancy passed between 1700 and 1824, the two most significant pieces of legislation were 13 Ann. c.26, and 17 George II. c.5.

10. For the evolution of the laws of settlement see Lees, Lynn Hollen, The Solidarities of Strangers: The English Poor Laws and the People, 1700–1948 (Cambridge, 1998)Google Scholar; Snell, K. D. M., Parish and Belonging: Community, Identity and Welfare in England and Wales, 1700–1950 (Cambridge, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor, J. S., ‘The Impact of Pauper Settlement 1691–1834’, Past and Present, 73 (1976), 42–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the role of King's Bench see Carolyn Steedman, ‘ Lord Mansfield's Women’, Past and Present, 176 (2002), 105–43.

11. The best scholarship from a thin literature on vagrancy in this period includes Eccles, Audrey ‘The Adams’ Father and Son, Vagrant Contractors to Middlesex 1754–94’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 57 (2006), 83–9Google Scholar; and Joanna Innes, ‘Managing the Metropolis: London's Social Problems and their Control, c.1660–1830’, in Clark, Peter and Gillespie, Raymond, eds, Two Capitals: London and Dublin 1500–1840 (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar, Proceedings of the British Academy, 107, pp. 53–79. Less satisfactory but occasionally useful is Rogers, Nicholas, ‘Policing the Poor in Eighteenth-Century London: The Vagrancy Laws and their Administration’, Histoire sociale/Social History, 24 (1991), 127–47.Google Scholar

12. Eccles, ‘The Adams’ Father and Son’. For details for each county, see Reports from the committees of the House of Commons (26th October 1775 to 23rd May 1776) ‘Second Report’, 21st May 1776, pp. 289–96.

13. For details of the arrangements in Middlesex see the 1757 contract between James Sturgis Adams and the county: London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers - Justices’ Working Documents July 1757 (LMSMPS504630003): London Metropolitan Archives, MJ/SP/1757/07. See also Reports from the committees of the House of Commons (26th October 1775 to 23rd May 1776), ‘Second Report’, 21st May 1776, p. 291.

14. The survival of an increasing number of ‘pauper letters’ from the 1780s reinforces the impression of eighteenth-century England as a society in which migration was commonplace and in which ‘vagrancy’ was poorly policed. For a comprehensive collection of one county's letters see Sokoll, Thomas, ed., Essex Pauper Letters, 1731–1837 (Oxford, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Records of Social and Economic History, ns, 30.

15. A Bill Intituled, An Act to amend and make more effectual the Laws relating to Rogues, Vagabonds, and other idle and disorderly Persons and to Houses of Correction (1744), 17 George II. c.5, pp. 2–3. This same list was then reproduced in every edition of the justicing manuals found in every Justice of the Peace's study up to and beyond the end of the century. See, for example, Burn, Richard, The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer (18th edn, London, 1797), volume 4, pp. 410–11Google Scholar.

16. Parliamentary Papers, ‘Second Report. Reported by Thomas Gilbert, Esq. 21st May 1776’, p. 291

17. Burn, Justice (1st edn, 1755), p. 494.

18. Old Bailey, Tabulating year against punishment subcategory, between 1770 and 1790, counting by punishment.

19. Old Bailey, Tabulating year against punishment category, between 1770 and 1790, counting by punishment.

20. London Metropolitan Archives, ‘Register of commitments to the New Prison Clerkenwell’, July 1777 - October 1780, MJ/CC/V/002.

21. London Metropolitan Archives, ‘Minutes of the Committee for repairing the House of Correction, Clerkenwell, and the New Prison, Clerkenwell, April 1773 - December 1781’, MA/G/GEN/1 p. 40.

22. London Metropolitan Archives, ‘Minutes of the Committee for repairing the House of Correction, Clerkenwell, and the New Prison, Clerkenwell, April 1773 - December 1781’, MA/G/GEN/1 pp. 42, 67; ‘Middlesex House of Correction, Clerkenwell’, April 1781, MJ/CC/B/080; ‘Signed report of John Sherwood, visiting Justice’, 3rd July 1781. MA/G/GEN/010; ‘Signed report of William Quarrill and John Staples, Visiting Justices, 2 August 1781’, MA/G/GEN/013; ‘Minute book of the Committee for building the House of Correction’, MA/G/CBF/1 (27th January 1784).

23. London Metropolitan Archives, Repertories 187, p. 25 (3rd December 1782).

24. In October 1783 the coroner claimed a total of thirty five pounds and three pence for conducting the inquisitions, at fifteen shillings per inquisition: London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of the Court, 5 October 1783, (LMSMGO556070461): London Metropolitan Archives.

25. London Metropolitan Archives, ‘Committee for Rebuilding the Poultry and Wood Street Compters’, November 1784, CLA/032/02/006.

26. Simon Devereaux, ‘Convicts and the State: The Administration of Criminal Justice in Great Britain during the Reign of George III’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, 1997), pp. 232, 254.

27. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions, Sessions Papers, ‘A List of Vagrants, 4th. December 1777 to the 15th. January 1778’ (LMSMPS506770118–22): London Metropolitan Archives. Children have been excluded from these calculations.

28. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions, Sessions Papers, ‘A List of Vagrants, 8 Janr. to 19 Febr. 1784’ (LMSMPS507780019–22): London Metropolitan Archives.

29. Dabhoiwala, Faramerz, ‘Summary Justice in Early Modern London’, English Historical Review, 121: 492 (2006)Google Scholar, Appendix (committals).

30. London Metropolitan Archives, MA/G/GEN/1, p.67, MA/G/GEN/10.

31. London Metropolitan Archives, ‘Middlesex House of Correction, Clerkenwell’, February 1781, MJ/CC/B/81.

32. London Metropolitan Archives, MA/G/GEN/1, pp. 56–7.

33. Old Bailey, William Wood, John Fitzgerald, December 1782, t17821204–71.

34. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers, September 1781, ‘Petition of Samuel Newport’ (LMSMPS507440060), London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/SO/1781/12.

35. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of Court, September 1782 (LMSMGO556070380): London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/10a.

36. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers, September 1781, ‘An Account of Money Paid by James Crozier. . . for the poor convicts. . .’ (LMSMPS507440064): London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/SP/1781/09.

37. Harris, Andrew, Policing the City: Crime and Legal Authority in London, 1780–1840 (Columbus OH, 2004), pp. 38–52.Google Scholar

38. Reports from the committees of the House of Commons (26th October 1775 to 23rd May 1776), ‘Second Report’, 21st May 1776, p. 291.

39. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers, April 1786 (LMSMPS508090268): London Metropolitan Archives.

40. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of the Court, April 1786 (LMSMGO556090233); Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers, April 1786 (LMSMPS508090268): London Metropolitan Archives.

41. Harris, Policing the City, pp. 45–6.

42. The Committee of the Magistrates of . . .Chester and Lancaster . . . for taking into Consideration the present Mode of Maintaining, Conveying, and Shipping Vagrants (1786), p.4. This report was sent to the Middlesex bench and a copy is available at London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers - Justices’ Working Documents (April 1786) (LMSMPS508090257): London Metropolitan Archives.

43. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers, ‘A List of Vagrants Convey'd. . . 2d Decr. to 6th January 1785’ (LMSMPS507920077): London Metropolitan Archives. This is not to suggest that this strategy was entirely new to the 1780s.

44. London Metropolitan Archives, City Cash Accounts, 1784 - 1786, MS 2/58, fol.298. This fall could in part reflect the new availability of criminal transportation to New South Wales from May of 1787.

45. London Metropolitan Archives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of the Court, December 1782 (LMSMGO556070402): London Metropolitan Archives.

46. London Lives, Middlesex Coroners: Coroners’ Inquests into Suspicious Deaths, 25th November 1783, Sarah Baylis (LMCOIC651010155): London Metropolitan Archives. See also the note for her removal, and bill for her burial (shroud, bearers, fees, one pound, five shillings and sixpence): London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: Sessions Papers, December 1782 (LMSMPS507610096) and (LMSMPS507610100): London Metropolitan Archives.

47. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of Court, December 1792 (LMSMGO556070404): London Metropolitan Archives.

48. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of Court, February 1793 (LMSMGO556070428): London Metropolitan Archives.

49. From 1773 St Bartholomew's insisted that the City not only pay for medical care and washing, but also for clothing prisoners sent to the hospital. St Bartholomew's Hospital Archives, ‘St Bartholomew's Governors’ Minutes, 1770–86’, Journal HA 1/14, p. 206. My thanks to Kevin Siena for this reference.

50. London Metropolitan Archives, ‘City's Cash Accounts’, 1791–99, MS 2/61, fos. 130–31, 294–95; MS 2/62, pp. 303–5, 358–61; MS 2/64, pp.353–56; MS 2/65, pp. 365–68; MS 2/66, pp. 344–47; MS 3/67, pp. 352–55; MS 3/68, pp. 263–66.

51. London Metropolitan Archives, Repertories 158, p. 116–17.

52. St Thomas's Hospital Admissions Register London Metropolitan Archives H1/ST/B3/8, 26th March 1789 to 22nd April 1790. My thanks to Kevin Siena for these figures.

53. London Lives, Middlesex Sessions: General Orders of the Court, January 1791 (LMSMGO556100109).