01 August 2010

London Lives 1690-1800

"London Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects. It provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances."

Information drawn from documents of the criminal justice system includes:

  • Ordinary's Accounts (OA): biographies of executed criminals written by the chaplain of Newgate Prison.
  • Sessions Papers (PS): manuscript documents which provide additional evidence about the crimes tried at the Old Bailey and other courts, as well as documents concerning poor relief.
  • Criminal Registers (CR): lists of prisoners held in Newgate Prison.
  • Coroners's Inquests (IC): documents relating to deaths thought to be suspicious, but which did not result in a formal prosecution.
For poor relief the sources are three parishes with good records:
For Medical care the database includes St Thomas's Hospital with its detailed admissions and discharge registers.

There's much more. Run your London names.


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