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Title:
People in Place: Families, Households, and Housing in London, 1550-1720

Subject Categories:
Economic history - History
Local history - History
Medical history - History
Population history - History
Social history - History
Urban history - History

Depositor(s):
Harding, V., Birkbeck College, University of London

Principal Investigator(s):
Merry, M., University of London. Institute of Historical Research. Centre for Metropolitan History
Newton, G., Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Baker, P., University of London. Institute of Historical Research. Centre for Metropolitan History

Sponsor(s):
Arts and Humanities Research Council

Grant Number:
RG/AN4417/APN16429

Abstract:
This project examines the crucial role of family and household in the social and economic transformations that took place in London in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Population growth, immigration, urbanisation, and commercialisation produced new patterns of sociability, gender relations, employment, and domestic lifestyle. The family was central to all these developments, but has been little studied in detail. The project will reconstruct and analyse the dense matrix of families, households, properties, and buildings in sample areas of the capital, and trace their evolution over time, gaining new insights into social structures and the agents and circumstances of change.
Main Topics:
The digital resource comprises a series of datasets which contain information about individuals, households and properties transcribed and extracted from a wide range of sources from the period 1540-1710 (a complete list of sources is included in the documentation for the database). The project database contains information on over 60,000 individuals, as well as over 24,000 records of 'listing type' information for five parishes at the eastern end of Cheapside, and 5000 such records for Tower Hill precinct in the parish of St Botolph Aldgate. The information provided in these records comprises names, titles, places of residence (by ward and/or parish and/or street), occupations, and where appropriate an assessment of sums owed according to the function of each particular list. The datasets also include family reconstitutions for the five Cheapside parishes and Clerkenwell, and derived from parish register entries (there was almost complete and continuous register coverage). In all, the data covers 22,324 instances of people experiencing a baptism, marriage or burial in Cheapside, and 19,095 instances of persons related to them; 140,713 people experiencing a vital event in Clerkenwell and 95,927 'related' people. These data have been used for the reconstitution of 3,809 biological/nuclear families containing 9,027 unique children in Cheapside and 26,324 reconstituted families containing 44,052 unique children in Clerkenwell. In addition to the project database and the family reconstitution data, a number of sources have been transcribed in a structured format which allows for the viewing of the individual sources used in the database without the need for viewing any related data from other sources.

Coverage:
Time Period Covered: 1550-1720
Dates of Fieldwork: October 2003-September 2006
Country: England
Geography: London; Middlesex
Spatial Units: no spatial unit
Observation Units: Individuals; Families/households
Kind of Data: Numeric data; Alpha/numeric data

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:Subnational
Population:London parishes of All Hallows Honey lane, St Mary Colechurch, St Mary le Bow, St martin Ironmonger Lane, St Pancras Soper Lane, St James Clerkenwell. the London precint of Tower Hill in the parish of St Botolph Aldgate

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: No sampling (total universe)
Method of Data Collection: Transcription of existing materials; Compilation or synthesis of existing material
Weighting: No weighting used
Data Sources: See study documentation

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Available to all users based in HE/FE institutions, for not-for-profit educational and research purposes only.
Availability: History Data Service, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: hds@essex.ac.uk

Date of Release:
First Edition: 30 May 2008

Copyright:
Vanessa Harding

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