Register of Pauper Settlement and Bastardy Examinations (RD)
Westminster Archives Centre, St Clement Danes, Register for Passes and Certificates, 1703-07, Ms B1207, LL ref: WCCDRD366000093.
The Register
For a few years in the early eighteenth century (1703-1707), the parish of St Clement Danes maintained an alphabetically indexed register of settlement and bastardy examinations. The texts of the examinations reproduced in this register take the form of a legal examination as described under Pauper Examinations (EP), but because they are unsigned copies - with the signature of neither the Justice of the Peace who conducted the examination nor the pauper being examined, these copies had no legal standing. They were created as an administrative convenience. To this extent they are distinct from the other examinations reproduced on this site.
For a guide to the content of these types of examinations see Pauper Examinations (EP).
Introductory Reading
- Black, John. Illegitimacy, Sexual Relations and Location in Metropolitan London, 1735-85. In Hitchcock, Tim and Shore, Heather, eds, The Streets of London: from the Great Fire to the Great Stink. 2003.
- Hindle, Steve. On the Parish?: The Micro-Politics of Poor Relief in Rural England, c.1550-1750. Oxford, 2004.
- Hitchcock, Tim and Black, John, eds, Chelsea Settlement and Bastardy Examinations, 1733-66. London Record Society, 33, 1999 for 1996, Introduction.
- Snell, Keith D. M. Parish and Belonging: Community, Identity, and Welfare in England and Wales, 1700-1950. Cambridge, 2006.
Online Resources
For further reading on this subject see the London Lives Bibliography.
Documents Included on this Website
- St Clement Danes, Register for Passes and Certificates, 1703-07, Westminster Archives Centre, Ms. B1207, LL ref: WCCDRD36600, Tagging Level: C