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        The London Vagrancy crisis of the 1780s

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        906516.pdf (PDF, 176Kb)
        Author
        Hitchcock, Tim
        Attention
        2299/11642
        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'.
        Publication date
        2013-04
        Published in
        Rural History
        Published version
        https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793312000210
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/11642
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