Watching talks in #AllAboutThatPlace and especially one by Hayley Wright of the Historic Towns Trust prompted me to think about the wealth or, more often, poverty of our ancestors and how we might investigate that.

Kelly’s Trade Directory 1893 for the village of Thornton le Clay and the adjacent village of Foston gives a distinct impression of the relative social class structure:

Foston Hall and Foston Lodge are large detached houses with extensive grounds. Foston (91 residents) had the Parish Church. However, there were far more residents (274) in Thornton le Clay, and I have evidence that they needed help. On 7 March 1840 The York Herald reports: the Malton Poor Law Union directed that the “Medical officers for the districts of Welburn and Rillington should attend the wives of J. Potter, of Thornton le Clay and James Wade, of East Heslerton, on their confinement.”

I am pleased to report that little Enos Potter was safely delivered in Thornton le Clay.

So as you can see general records can give an overview of wealth or social structure. Specific records, even if not for your direct relatives can start to paint a picture of the relative wealth of the inhabitants of that place.

Maps, preferably at the time period you are looking at, and investigating changes over time can again hint at what life was like for the residents. Look at what was recorded on the maps (and why they were made). People record what was thought to be important or significant. Street names can in themselves indicate the status or occupations of the area. There is often an indications of housing – tightly packed terraces, back-to-back houses (another great talk there by Jude Rhodes!) or palatial mansions with vast grounds..

In London the ‘Bills of Mortality’ have maps linking ill health with the areas. Of course the Charles Booth Poverty maps for London are well worth viewing, and indicate the relative wealth of households divided into 7 levels of affluence (and associate poverty with criminality). Rowntree’s Reports of Poverty in York are also enlightening.

Maps help us identify the Parish which is important when searching for Parish Registers and records like pauper records and the work of the Poor Law Union, Board of Guardians or Overseers of the Poor. Settlement examinations for local residents can give an idea of a life of poverty at that time in that place. Finding a settlement examination for your own ancestor (often in the Archives rather than online) gives so much thrilling detail, whilst we cringe at what they endured.

Baptism registers indicate unmarried mothers – often associated with financial difficulties. Marriage registers and the census records indicate occupation and suggest likely family income. Census might state the number of employees, ‘living on own means’ or ‘Annuitant’ as well as ‘pauper’, an indication of disability or being in the workhouse. Look at the overseers accounts, how many paupers do they name and what were they given to support them eg coal, funeral expenses etc. Were there many pauper apprentices from your place?

Causes of death within a population may be related to wealth. Medical officers of health reports for the district often point to bad sanitation and housing accompanying poverty as causes of disease. Church accounts may indicate if there was a muffled peel of bells – only the better off (or bell-ringers themselves) would likely merit that.

There are indications of literacy in many records. Signing with an X might not always mean the person never learned to read and write, and signing your signature doesn’t mean you could read Shakespeare, or had great wealth, but it is a clue along the way. A studio photograph or portrait holding a book is not an indication of literacy.

Newspaper reports also indicate when harvests were bad, at a time when poor families relied on the local harvest for their winter’s food. Sales of farms when times were hard, or bankruptcy (See The London Gazette for example gazettes bankruptcy). See the story of George Ching falling on bad times for an example of a farmer selling up and becoming an Ag Lab for a while.

What sources to indicate wealth or poverty have you used?