The 'Decline of Life': Aspects of aging in eighteenth-century England

This dissertation examines the lives of the aged in eighteenth-century England, first asking who was considered old in this culture, and then focusing on the assistance provided to the elderly by family and community. The dissertation combines aspects of cultural, social and demographic history and is a significant contribution to the history of the family as well as the history of aging. The project was supervised by Professor Tim Harris at Brown University.;I combine a detailed study of three regionally and economically disparate parishes with an exploration of a variety of national sources to show that community-based assistance to the elderly was a national priority in this period. The aged increasingly turned to the support provided under the aegis of the Old Poor Law as the century progressed. By the 1790s a substantial proportion of England's elderly population was dependent upon parish poor relief. Although the scope of the system of relief for the aged thus increased over the century, the assistance fell in terms of real value as parish pensions failed to keep pace with inflation, and many parishes built workhouses to shut away their old and infirm paupers. By the final years of the eighteenth century, more older individuals than ever before were dependent on a poor relief system that was strained nearly to breaking point by the harsh economic climate in England brought on by harvest crises and the wars with the French. Chapters that explore the household situation of the elderly and the availability of charitable assistance in this period suggest that the decline in the standard of community assistance was not offset by a growth in family relief or informal almsgiving. The later eighteenth century thus witnessed a worsening standard of living for the aged poor of England.