London Lives, Culture & Society 1680-1817

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London Lives chronicles the lives of Londoners through the exploration of a variety of sources including criminal registers, apprentice records, coroner inquests, workhouse minutes, clerks’ papers and much more. Discover the lives of your English ancestors and add further colour to their biographies.

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Each record will have a transcript with the vital details of the document and a link to the image of the document provided by London Lives.

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  • Extract – a brief extract of the text in which your ancestor’s name appears. Use the link to the image to view the full document.
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Discover more about these records

London Lives, funded by the Economic and Social Research, is a project that has digitised more than 1.6 million records from six archives. The project has scanned and digitised numerous record types including a range of primary sources, such as criminal registers, session papers, coroner’s inquests and ordinary’s accounts from Old Bailey. The records detail the lives of ordinary and common Londoners and describe a London beyond the popularised portrayals in media and literature.

London Lives, Culture & Society 1680-1817 is a selection of those sources related to society and culture. The full list of documents is available below. The records are from St Botolph Aldgate, St Clements Danes, St Dionis Backchurch, St Martin in the Fields and St Luke Chelsea parishes, as well as one London guild, the Carpenters’ Company, and one royal hospital, St Thomas’ Hospital. Below are some examples of the information you will find in the assorted record types. You can discover if your ancestor was an apprentice, made a court appearance, listed as a parish pauper, supplied goods for a workhouse or imprisoned.

Minutes of the court of governors, Bridewell & Bethlem

27 Mar 1775

‘Sarah Reynolds was brought to court for pilfering from Alice Watts, an old linen shift of small value and being a loose, idle and a disorderly person.’

Churchwardens’ vouchers and miscellaneous papers, St Dionis Backchurch parish records

9 September 1755

‘Mr William Wooloy, son of Jon Wooley, was buried in the north churchyard.’

Court summons, St Dionis Backchurch parish records

28 Jun 1817

Sarah Jefferies, single woman and pregnant with illegitimate child, upon examination, was ordered to be removed from the parish of Croydon and returned to the parish of Saint Diones Backchurch.

Carpenters’ Company, court minute books

6 Mar 1787

‘John Terwin of Saint George Hanover Square and son of John Terwin, deceased, bound to George Shakespeare of Oxford Street, citizen and carpenter of London, made free on the testimony of his master.’

Coroners' Inquests, city of London coroners' inquests

3 Apr 1790

An inquisition into the death of Ann Smith on 31 March 1790 found that Smith had taken a half ounce of the drug Laudanum, unknowing its poisonous nature. Ann Smith became mortally sick and died. Laudanum is an opiate and it was used by the Victorians, in small quantities, as a pain killer.

Documents

Admissions registers

Alphabetical lists of paupers/list of weekly pensioners

Annual register of apprentices placed by parish/register of apprentices

Annual register of poor infants

Apprentice records

Bastardy bonds

Churchwarden's account books

Churchwardens’ and overseers of the poor miscellaneous account books/account of the treasurer to

the overseer/quarterly accounts of disbursements

Churchwardens’ vouchers and miscellaneous papers

Clerks' papers

Clothing books, children at nurse

Clothing books, names of paupers

Coroners’ inquests

Court minute books/grand committee minute books

Court summons: loose sheets/clerks papers/miscellaneous parish papers

Criminal registers

Enfield books

General committee

General orders of court

Letters seeking pauper relief

List of persons in the workhouse

List of weekly governors takers in

Minute book of meeting re poor parish children/churchwardens and overseers of the poor committee book/minutes of Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor

Minutes of the court governors/court of governors minute books

Out letter books

Overseers order book

Parish register of the casual poor/register of passes

Pauper examination books/examination books

Record of monthly payments to pensioners/payments to monthly pensioners

Register of admissions to workhouse

Register of apprentices

Register of passes

Register of poor children under 4/parish register of poor children

Register of removal orders etc.

Register of securities for maintenance of bastards

Sessions papers

Vestry minute books/vestry minutes

Workhouse inquest minute book