Migration and Poverty in Early Modern London : Analysis of Examination Papers of Westminster

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This study on the settlement examination papers of Westminster in the 18^<th>century was done in two ways. One is a quantitative approach, that is to pick up the information from the examination papers and create a database on the various aspects of poor's careers such as birth place, occupation, apprenticeship, working experience as a servant, wage, renting house, marriage, relation with the relatives, schooling, literacy and so on. We finished creating a database of around 1200 examinees or their husbands. Another is a qualitative or narrative way to reconstruct some typical careers of individual poor, quoting their rhetoric of telling their own past. In order to do that, one of the examination books (WAC, F5015, St Martin in the Fields, 1721-1723) was fully transcripted and edited. Only one thirds of all examinees or their husbands were born in Westminster and London region (Londoners), but around three quarters apprenticed or worked as servants and married in this region. Fleet marriage which occupied 27% of all marriage in the 1720s almost disappeared in the late l8^<th> century. While exceptional long distance immigrants were Irish, some English men and women had moved to overseas and returned to England, as sailors, servants to noblemen or soldiers. Average term of renting house was 74 months, but scrutiny of individual cases reveals many moved frequently in a short time before becoming stayers. Literacy rate of female in the late 18^<th>century was 46%, rather high level, etc.