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Forme et fonction de la parenté chez les populations pauvres d’Angleterre, 1800-1840

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Steven A. King
Steven A. King*
Affiliation:
Université de Leicester
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Résumé

De récents travaux ont commencé à remettre en question l’orthodoxie historiographique qui voulait que les familles anglaises fussent des structures petites et simples, localisées dans des réseaux de parenté peu denses: la parenté anglaise aurait eu une fonction très limitée. Cet article cherche au contraire à montrer l’étendue, la profondeur et la fonction de la parenté parmi ceux qui dépendaient de l’aide sociale instaurée par la « Old Poor Law » en Angleterre et au pays de Galles. Centré sur la période 1800-1834 et s’appuyant sur une large collection de lettres écrites par les pauvres eux-mêmes, il défend l’idée selon laquelle les pauvres étaient insérés dans des réseaux de parenté complexes, dont la structure, la disponibilité et la fonctionnalité faisaient partie intégrante de la rhétorique comme de la stratégie qu’ils mettaient en œuvre pour faire valoir leurs droits.

Abstract

Abstract

Recent empirical work on English families has begun to question an historiographical orthodoxy that they were small and simple, that they were located within low density kinship networks, and that whatever the nominal density of local kinship networks, the functionality of English kin was often very limited. This article seeks to address the width, depth and functionality of kinship amongst those dependent upon and applying for relief from their communities under the English and Welsh Old Poor Law. Focussing on the period 1800-1834 and using a large collection of letters written by the poor the article argues that the poor were tied into complex and highly functional kinship networks and that the structure, availability and functionality of kinship was an important component in the rhetoric and strategy deployed by the poor as they sought to establish their entitlement.

Type
Histoire britannique (XVIIIe-XIXe siècle)
Information
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales , Volume 65 , Issue 5 , October 2010 , pp. 1147 - 1174
Copyright
Copyright © Les Áditions de l’EHESS 2010

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References

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4 - W. Coster, Family and kinship..., op. cit., p. 3 et 12.

5 - S. Barrett, « Kinship, poor relief and the welfare process... », art. cit.

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8 - Voir cependant, Seccombe, Wally, Weathering the storm: Working class families from the industrial revolution to fertility decline, Londres, Verso, 1993 Google Scholar; Sokoll, Thomas, Household and family among the poor: The case of two Essex communities in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Bochum, Brockmeyer, 1993 Google Scholar; Wall, Richard, «The residence patterns of elderly English women in comparative perspective», in Botelho, L. et Thane, P. (dir.), Women and ageing in British society since 1500, Harlow, Longman, 2001, p. 139-165 Google Scholar.

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10 - Sur la façon dont le système de paroisse de rattachement légal définissait les critères d’éligibilité de l’assistance sociale pour les pauvres, voir Snell, Keith D. M., Parish and belonging: Community, identity and welfare in England and Wales 1700-1950, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, et King, Steven, «‘It is impossible for our vestry to judge his case into perfection from here’: Managing the distance dimensions of poor relief, 1800-40», Rural History, 16-2, 2005, p. 161-189 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 - S. Barrett, « Kinship, poor relief and the welfare process... », art. cit.

12 - Morgan, Gwenda et Rushton, Peter, «Visible bodies: Power, subordination and identity in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world», Journal of Social History, 39-1, 2005, p. 39-57 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, montrent comment les autorités locales reconnaissaient les problèmes liés à l’identification des personnes ainsi que leurs liens familiaux en mettant des encarts dans les journaux destinés à ceux qui s’étaient enfuis ainsi qu’aux pères d’enfants illégitimes afin qu’ils soient appréhendés.

13 - King, Steven, «Pauvreté et assistance. La politique locale de la mortalité dans l’Angleterre des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles», Annales HSS, 61-1, 2006, p. 31-62 Google Scholar.

14 - Chaytor, Miranda, «Household and kinship: Ryton in the late 16th and early 17th centuries», History Workshop Journal, 10-1, 1980, p. 25-60 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ici p. 29 et 38.

15 - Kertzer, David I., «Living with kin», in Kertzer, D. I. et Barbagli, M. (dir.), The history of the European family, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2001, t. 2, p. 45-52 Google Scholar, ici p. 47, interroge la question des parents fictifs, et nous rappelle que l’apprentissage ou la domesticité « extrayait les enfants des ménages les plus pauvres en direction des plus riches » [« pumped children out of poorer households and into richer ones »], créant ainsi des réseaux fictifs de parenté.

16 - Voir King, Steven, Nutt, Thomas et Tomkins, Alannah, Narratives of the poor in eighteenth-century Britain, Londres, Pickering & Chatto, 2006 Google Scholar.

17 - Cette pratique était différente du système plus formel de certification. À ce sujet, voir K. D. M. Snell, Parish and belonging..., op. cit., p. 98-102.

18 - King, Steven et Muldrew, Craig, «Cash, wages and the economy of makeshifts in England 1650-1830», in Scholliers, P. et Schwarz, L. (dir.), Experiencing wages: Social and cultural aspects of wage forms in Europe since 1500, Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2003, p. 155-180 Google Scholar.

19 - Taylor, James S., «A different kind of Speenhamland: Non-resident relief in the industrial revolution», Journal of British Studies, 30-2, 1991, p. 183-208 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 - Sokoll, Thomas (éd.), Essex pauper letters 1731-1837, Oxford, British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 - Sur les « avocats épistolaires », voir Tabili, Laura, «‘Having lived close beside them all the time’: Negotiating national identities through personal networks», Journal of Social History, 39-2, 2005, p. 369-387 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ici p. 372-375.

22 - van Voss, Lex Heerma, «Introduction», in van Voss, L. Heerma (dir.), Petitions in social history, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 1-10 Google Scholar, ici p. 9.

23 - Sokoll, Thomas, «Writing for relief: Rhetoric in English pauper letters 1800-1834», in Gestrich, A., King, S. et Raphael, L..), Being poor in modern Europe: Historical perspectives 1800-1940, Berne, Peter Lang, 2006, p. 91-112 Google Scholar.

24 - Sur ce point, voir Gray, Louise, «The experience of old age in the narratives of the rural poor in early modern Germany», in Ottaway, S. R., Botelho, L. A. et Kittredge, K. (dir.), Power and poverty: Old age in the pre-industrial past, Westport, Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 107-123 Google Scholar.

25 - T. Sokoll (éd.), Essex pauper letters..., op. cit., p. 23.

26 - Sur les vérités acceptées, voir L. Gray, « The experience of old age... », art. cit., p. 111.

27 - Manchester Record Office (ci-après MRO), M10/815, Hulme letter book. Les lettres de cette collection étaient à l’origine collées dans des grands registres, mais la plupart sont maintenant conservées individuellement.

28 - T. Sokoll (éd.), Essex pauper letters..., op. cit., p. 29.

29 - W. Coster, Kinship and inheritance..., op. cit., p. 13-24.

30 - S. Barrett, « Kinship, poor relief and the welfare process... », art. cit.

31 - J. E. Smith et J. Oeppen, « Estimating numbers of kin... », art. cit.

32 - King, Steven, «Friendship, kinship and belonging in the letters of urban paupers 1800-1840«, Historical Social Research, 33-3, 2008, p. 249-277 Google Scholar.

33 - Sur la migration en chaîne, voir Schurer, Kevin, «The role of the family in the process of migration», in Pooley, C. et Whyte, I. (dir.), Migrants, emigrants and immigrants: A social history of migration, Londres, Routledge, 1991, p. 106-142 Google Scholar.

34 - Berkshire Record Office (ci-après BRO), D/P 91/18/4, Pauper letter. Pour des commodités de lecture, on a adapté le style de ces lettres car il est difficile de les traduire de façon littérale. L’original est fourni en note: « I have dun a grat deal un none to my husband and distressed my salf and other children till we have nothing now left that i can assist them any longer i shuld have bene happy to have dune it for it is a grat trobele to my mind to see my chilldren starving and can not help them for i have now brot my self to grat disstres gentillman I ham sorry to say unles that we hear from you by monday my son and his wife and child must com on tuesday as they will nither have home or habataion to hide thar unfortunate heads gentellmen i humbly pray that you will whea [weight] their misfortunes in your hone brast [breast] and think wot a Mother must feel in seing her children starving and naked and not lay in her power to elivat their suferings gentillman was you to inquire of any boddy you would find that i have dun a [illegible] part to indavour to keep them from trobeling of you but now i can do no more ».

35 - MRO, M10/812, Pauper letter. Texte original: «My daughters have done all that can be done for a poor old man and more than just duty would allow, and distressed themselves and their fameleys greatly for wich I am wayed hevely in the mind Gentlemen think what an old man must feel in a case such as this. »

36 - MRO, M10/813, Pauper letter. Texte original: «I have no Mother and Father to look to me as the Law sayeth, they both been Dead these ten years. »

37 - MRO, M10/814, Outgoing letters.

38 - Northamptonshire Record Office (ci-après NRO), 261P Vii/Bundle 244/49, Peterborough overseers’ correspondence.

39 - NRO, 261P Vii/Bundle 242/14, Peterborough overseers’ correspondence.

40 - MRO, M10/815, Pauper letter.

41 - NRO, 261P Vii/Bundle 242/14, Peterborough overseers’ correspondence.

42 - Oxfordshire Record Office (ci-après ORO), MSS. D.D. Par. Rotherfield Greys c.11/13, Pauper letter.

43 - Cependant, la sous-catégorie en question était à la fois étroite et se rétrécissait de plus en plus à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Pour une étude récente à ce sujet, voir Biggs, Carmel, «Women, kinship and inheritance: Northamptonshire 1543-1709», Journal of Family History, 32-2, 2007, p. 107-132 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 - BRO, D/P/91/18, Soundy correspondence.

45 - BRO, D/P 91/18/4, Pauper letter. Texte original: « I do not no wot corse to take in this our disstres throw surporting our son his wife and child gentillmen I would not have trobelled you a gain could i by any meanes have avoided it but throw my husband illness at Christmas and keep in of them as inthralled us so much in debt that i can not assist them any longer my Son now would i exspet git in to work in a week or 2 if he ad deasant things to put on but he can not put feet out dores for he have not a shoe to his feet and he must apeer tidy be fore the gentillmen and it do not lay in my power to git him any of my selfe... gentillmen if you have any doubt that i have serliseted [solicited] you inbelhalf of my son and keept wot you have been so kind to send they have now lived with me 11 weeks if you think proper to authorise any one to inquire you will find gentillmen that i have not mencioned one half of the disstrees that we have brote to throw surporting of them for I keeps it as much as i can in my hone brast [breast]. »

46 - NRO, 261P Vii/Bundle 244/40, Correspondance des responsables de Peterborough.

47 - Pour la législation sur la responsabilité des parents (au sens large), voir K. D. M. Snell, Parish and belonging..., op. cit., p. 301-305.

48 - D. Cooper et M. Donald, « Households and hidden kin... », art. cit.; K. D. M. Snell, Parish and belonging..., op. cit.; N. Tadmor, Family and friends..., op. cit.

49 - NRO, 251p/98, Pauper letter.

50 - W. Coster, Family and kinship..., op. cit.; S. Barrett, « Kinship, poor relief and the welfare process... », art. cit.

51 - « Échantillon complet » signifie une moyenne pondérée qui tient compte de l’importance totale dans la série des lettres.

52 - Pour vérifier si l’ensemble des chiffres des comtés était faussé par les références apparaissant dans les rédacteurs de lettres multiples, on a simplifié l’échantillon en contrôlant le nombre de lettres écrites. Cela a réduit la taille de l’échantillon mais n’a que peu transformé les typologies de parenté mentionnées ici.

53 - C. Biggs, « Women, kinship and inheritance... », art. cit., p. 112. Les testateurs masculins avaient tendance à davantage se concentrer sur la famille nucléaire que les testateurs féminins. Ces dernières se reconnaissaient moins de parents, mais d’une plus grande variété.

54 - Voir par exemple Davidoff, Leonore, «Kinship as a categorical concept: A case study of nineteenth century English siblings», Journal of Social History, 39-2, 2005, p. 411-428 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ici p. 411 et 414. Voir aussi les contributions à l’excellent volume de Naomi J. MILLER et Yavneh, Naomi (dir.), Sibling relations and gender in the early modern world: sisters, brothers and others, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006 Google Scholar. On peut aussi comparer avec C. Biggs, « Women, kinship and inheritance... », art. cit., où les frères et sœurs comptent pour moins de 10 % des legs, même si l’on compte la belle-famille.

55 - T. Sokoll (éd.), Essex pauper letters..., op. cit., p. 103. Texte original: « he is so infirmed with age that he is not capable of doing any thing for himself... he have had a very Servere illness and I have done for him all that laid in my power ».

56 - Résumé dans Goose, Nigel, «Poverty, old age and gender in nineteenth century England: The case of Hertfordshire», Continuity and Change, 20-3, 2005, p. 351-384 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 - Perkyns, Audrey, «Age checkability and accuracy in the censuses of six Kentish parishes 1851-1881», Local Population Studies, 50, 1993, p. 19-38 Google Scholar.

58 - Les données sur l’âge pouvaient être déduites ou étaient explicites dans les proportions suivantes: Berkshire 59 sur 240; Wiltshire 52 sur 619; Essex 124 sur 758; Lancashire 312 sur 1 043; Northamptonshire 184 sur 414; Norfolk 101 sur 365; Somerset 43 sur 218 et Westmorland 89 sur 324.

59 - Les personnes âgées avaient plus tendance à évoquer leur âge comme critère de mérite pour recevoir l’aide sociale. Sokoll, Thomas, «Old age in poverty: The records of Essex pauper letters, 1780-1834», in Hitchock, T., King, S. et Sharpe, P. (dir.), Chronicling poverty: The voices and strategies of the English poor, 1640-1840, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 1966, p. 127-154 Google Scholar.

60 - Wolfram, Sybil, In-laws and outlaws: Kinship and marriage in England, Londres, Cromm Helm, 1987 Google Scholar.

61 - Pour un excellent résumé, voir Susannah R. Ottaway, Lynn A. Botelho et Katharine Kittredge, «Introduction: Authority, autonomy, and responsibility among the aged in the pre-industrial past » in S. R. Ottaway, L. A. Botelho et K. Kittredge (dir.), Power and poverty..., op. cit., p. 1-12.

62 - Voir par exemple Sara Mendelson et Mary O’Connor, «‘Thy passionately loving sister and faithfull friend’: Anne Dormer’s letters to her sister Lady Trumbull», in N. J. Miller et N. Yavneh (dir.), Sibling relations and gender..., op. cit., p. 206-215.

63 - Thomson, David, «‘I am not my father’s keeper’: Families and the elderly in nineteenth-century England», Law and History Review, 2-2, 1984, p. 265-286 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Id., « Welfare and the historians», in L. Bonfield, R. Smith et K. Wrightson (dir.), The world we have gained: Histories of population and social structure. Essays presented to Peter Laslett on his seventieth birthday, Oxford, Blackwell, 1986, p. 355-378.

64 - David Gaunt, «Kinship: Thin red lines or thick blue blood», in D. I. Kertzer et M. Barbagli (dir.), The history of the European family, op. cit., t. 1, p. 257-287, ici p. 258.

65 - King, Steven, «The English proto-industrial family: Old and new perspectives», History of the Family, 8-1, 2003, p. 21-43 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ottaway, Susannah R., The decline of life: Old age in eighteenth century England, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 - NRO, 261P Vii/Bundle 244/6, Pauper letter.

67 - ORO, MSS. D.D. Par. Rotherfield Greys c.11/13, Pauper letter.

68 - Les différents types de soutien apparaissant dans une seule lettre sont comptés individuellement. 128 lettres mentionnant les liens de parenté ne font pas allusion à la nature de ce soutien ou alors expriment explicitement qu’il n’y a aucune aide à attendre.

69 - Lancashire Record Office, PR2391/18, Pauper letter.

70 - T. Sokoll (éd.), Essex pauper letters..., op. cit., p. 108.

71 - Ibid., p. 117.

72 - Ibid. Texte original: «Honoured gentlemen. I hope you will excuse my freedom in writing to you but my present distress is the cause of the same as I ham now so infirm that I am not able to spend 1 penny towards my support and my wife is very ill and we are almost lost was it not for some of our children that have been kind to us we must have come wolly to you before now therefore I hope you honourable gentlemn will consider our distress and allow us a little more pay as it is impossible for to do with out any longer... I am object of pity therefore send immediately... my daughters can now scarcely maintain themselves without keeping me. »