The County of Yorkshire (1100-1400)

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Yorkshire, historically, is a unique county in the way institutions to care for the sick and needy were developed. The author stresses that, as opposed to most places, where there was a decline in the foundation of hospitals after the Black Death, charitable provision in Yorkshire, including the number of hospitals, remained at a high level. The paper presents an extensive historiography of Yorkshire charity during the Middle Ages.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
The County of Yorkshire
Historiography and Source Materials
The Economic Situation, 1100-1400
Development of Hospitals, 1100-1300
Leprosy and Leper Hospitals 1100-1300
Hospitals in the Fourteenth Century
Wills in the Fourteenth Century
Ideas of Poverty and Charity by 1400

From the Paper:

"What we undoubtedly see in Yorkshire is the movement away from the founding of monastic institutions, prevalent during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the growth of civic almshouses and secular maisondieu in the fourteenth century. From figures between 1350 and 1400, it is clear how secular maisondieu were becoming more common. For example, two were created in Kingston-upon-Hull in 1380 and 1400, while four were created in York between 1390 and 1397."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Burgess, Clive, "By Quick and by Dead": wills and pious provision in late medieval Bristol, English Historical Review, vol. 102, (1987).
• Mollat, Michel, The Poor in the Middle Ages. Rubin, M., Charity and community in medieval Cambridge, Cambridge, CUP, 1987.
• Slack, P., Poverty and policy in Tudor and Stuart England, London, Longman, 1988.
• Richards, Jeffrey, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages (London, 1990).
• Kermode, Jenny, Medieval Merchants: York, Beverley and Hull in the later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1998).

More papers on The County of Yorkshire (1100-1400):

• Essay # 72356 : "'The Joys of Motherhood'"
• Essay # 71250 : "Love in "The Merchant of Venice"
• Analytical Essay # 16717 : "Eliza Haywood and "The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: