St Clement Danes, Examinations Book, 1786-1792, Westminster Archives Centre, Ms. B1202, LL ref: WCCDEP35828, Tagging Level: B Included in this data series are 56,430 names of individual male ratepayers, including their street of residence and the name of their parish. A rateable value– the notional annual rental value of the house – is also given to the nearest pound.

Because the franchise was restricted to male householders, the data available through this particular collection is unlikely to overlap significantly with the names of either recipients of poor relief or the perpetrators of crime. The names of these voters, will, however, appear in large numbers amongst the parish records of St Clement Danes, generally as parish officers and rate payers. There will also be a substantial overlap with the jurymen who are listed in Westminster Coroners' Inquests (IC); and with names associated with the administrative records of Westminster and included in the relevant Sessions Papers (PS). Because residents of Westminster did not normally sit on the jury at the Old Bailey, there is little overlap with these jury lists, but as Westminster was in the jurisdiction of the Old Bailey, names from the Rate Books and Poll Books will appear frequently among the victims of crime and as witnesses in the Old Bailey Proceedings (OBP). Some residents of Westminster may have served as governors of St Thomas's Hospital; if they attended the meetings they will be listed in the Minutes of the Court of Governors (MG). Watch rate, St Anne King Square ward (1774), City of Westminster Archives Centre, A/1526; Watch rate, St Anne Leicester Fields ward (1774), City of Westminster Archives Centre, A/1527; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St Margaret Grand ward (1774), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/471; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St Margaret Absey ward (1774), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/472; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St John (1774), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/473. With the growth of associational charities in the eighteenth century, several hospitals were founded by philanthropic men who wished to ameliorate the lives of the poor, contribute to the increasing population and prosperity of the nation, and improve their own social position. These hospitals tended to be more selective than the royal hospitals in the range of people and conditions they cared for, and included: St Botolph Aldgate, Pauper Examination Book, 1752-57, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2676/2, LL ref: GLBAEP10307, Tagging Level: Aa

St Botolph Aldgate, Pauper Examination Book, 1775-76, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2676/9, LL ref: GLBAEP10315, Tagging Level: A Register Date/Company/Reference: An abstracted statement encoding details of the original register, date of the policy, company, and eighteenth-century reference.

The Fire Insurance registers include for most entries details of the policy holders' occupation and place of residence. London Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about 18th-century London, Date of Birth: Only provided for baptisms. Where such information is given in the source, standardised in the form of dd/mm/yyyy. Dates are usually according to the Julian calendar, with each year beginning on 25 March (thus, for any date provided from 1 January to 25 March the actual year as currently defined was one year later than indicated). Where partially given in the source and the day is unclear, set to the first day of the month, or where the month is unclear, set to the first month in the year. Just like watchmen, and for many of the same reasons, many householders chosen for the office of constable preferred not to serve, and instead paid a fine or hired substitutes. Although they were already present in the late seventeenth century, the practice of hiring substitutes, or deputies, became more common in the first half of the eighteenth century. By 1730, four out of every ten constables in the City of London were hired, many of whom engaged in repeated service, often holding the post for years, effectively become professional policemen. 4 Poor rate, St Anne Leicester Fields ward west (1802), City of Westminster Archives Centre, A/522; Poor rate, St Anne King Square ward east (1802), City of Westminster Archives Centre, A/523; Poor rate, St Anne King Square ward west (1802-3), City of Westminster Archives Centre, A/525; Poor rate, St Anne Leicester Fields ward east (1802-3), City of Westminster Archives Centre, A/526; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St Margaret Grand ward (1802), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/566; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St Margaret Absey ward (1802), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/567; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St John (1802), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/568.Some constables, however, motivated by financial greed or religious zeal, adopted a more proactive approach and arrested hundreds of offenders for predominantly victimless offences. These men, such as William Payne, whose activities have recently been documented by Joanna Innes, 7 often also acted as informers, and were supporters of a reformation of manners campaign. Although often reviled by those they prosecuted, such men could receive support from established householders concerned to maintain the respectability of their neighbourhoods. Westminster poll books (1806), London Metropolitan Archives: St Margaret and St John WR/PP/1806/1, 3-5; St Anne, WR/PP/1806/9-10; St James WR/PP/1806/11-13, 15; St George WR/PP/1806/21; St Martin WR/PP/1806/22; St Clement and St Mary WR/PP/1806/27-29. St Clement Danes, Examinations Book, 1795-1798, Westminster Archives Centre, Ms. B1192, LL ref: WCCDEP35826, Tagging Level: B

Register of Paupers Admitted to the St Botolph's Workhouse. Both contain information about places of residence.

also by this author

Poor rate, St Clement (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, B/203; Poor and highway rate, St George Conduit Street, Dover Street and Out wards (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, C/361; Poor and highway rate, St George Grosvenor Street and Brook Street wards (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, C/380; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St Margaret Grand ward (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/504; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St Margaret Absey ward (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/505; Poor, highway and scavenger rate, St John (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, E/506; Poor rate, St James (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, D/105; Poor rate, St Martin (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, F/584; Poor rate, St Mary (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, G/190; Poor rate, St Paul (1784), City of Westminster Archives Centre, H/112. St Botolph Aldgate, Pauper Examination Book, 1783-84, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2676/14, LL ref: GLBAEP10320, Tagging Level: A Drew D. Gray, Crime, Prosecution and Social Relations: The Summary Courts of the City of London in the Late Eighteenth Century (Basingstoke, 2009), pp. 45, 56. ⇑ Harvey, Charles, Green, Edmund and Corfield, Penelope. Continuity, Change, and Specialization within Metropolitan London: The Economy of Westminster, 1750-1820. The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Aug., 1999), pp. 469-493.

The rate book data represent a complete transcription of selected Westminster Rate Books for the years between 1749 and 1820, omitting records relating to corporations and identifiable women.

Role and Group

The externally created databases included were created by several different scholars over a period of more than two decades, and for the most part these were included in London Lives without any changes. Where present, separate fields in the databases were used to identify names, dates and places for searching. Records which provide narratives of short episodes in daily life, such as are found in the trial narratives of the Old Bailey Proceedings and in depositions and examinations kept in the Sessions Papers (PS) and Coroners' Inquests (CI), often describe working practices. This is particularly true when an injury or death related to a workplace accident or dispute. In addition, the Registers of Admissions (RH) of St Thomas's Hospital include the victims of workplace accidents, with very brief descriptions of their injuries. The passage of the Act for the better Regulation of the Parish Poor Children (1767), sponsored by Jonas Hanway, which required that all parish children under the age of four should be nursed in the countryside at least three miles from London and Westminster, also encouraged the development of a sub-set of contract workhouses, known as baby farms. 17 It was at a farm of this sort that the infant Oliver Twist was confined and starved. Westminster Archives Centre, St Clement Danes, Vestry Minutes, 1776-87, B1072, LL ref: WCCDMV362040294.