The Decline of Life: Old Age in Eighteenth-Century EnglandThe Decline of Life is an ambitious and absorbing study of old age in eighteenth-century England. Drawing on a wealth of sources - literature, correspondence, poor house and workhouse documents and diaries - Susannah Ottaway considers a wide range of experiences and expectations of age in the period, and demonstrates that the central concern of ageing individuals was to continue to live as independently as possible into their last days. Ageing men and women stayed closely connected to their families and communities, in relationships characterized by mutual support and reciprocal obligations. Despite these aspects of continuity, however, older individuals' ability to maintain their autonomy, and the nature of the support available to them once they did fall into necessity declined significantly in the last decades of the century. As a result, old age was increasingly marginalized. Historical demographers, historical gerontologists, sociologists, social historians and women's historians will find this book essential reading. |
Contents
| 1 | |
1 Who was old in eighteenthcentury England? | 16 |
selfreliance work and community expectations of the elderly | 65 |
3 The comforts of a private fireside | 116 |
family ties for the elderly | 141 |
5 Community assistance to the aged under the Old Poor Law | 173 |
Other editions - View all
The Decline of Life: Old Age in Eighteenth-Century England Susannah R. Ottaway No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
accounts adult children Age in English age of sixty aged poor aged sixty assistance average pension Barker-Read Blandford Forum Botelho charity co-resident continued Corfe Castle cultural David Thomson decline demographic dependent Diary Dorset DRO PE/PUD Early Modern England economic eighteenth century elderly poor Elizabeth Freke England English History ERO D/P Essex evidence expected female friendly societies gender grandchildren grandparents Halifax historians household listings important impotent poor included infirm inmates James Fretwell John labor Laslett late eighteenth century lived London Mary menopause noted old age Old Poor Law old women older individuals older women Ottaway Ovenden overseers Oxford parents parish officers parish registers paupers percent period person Peter Laslett Piddlehinton poor relief population Poverty Puddletown received recorded relief recipients retirement role Sarah Smith social sources spouse suggests Terling Terling and Puddletown Terling's Thane Thomas vestry Wembworthy widows workhouse wrote