f [1v] (2 March–2 March)
...
| li. | s. | d. | ||
| ... | ||||
| 7 | Item paide for a shrowde to put in the boy that was kilde in ye Beargarden | 00 | 01 | 06 |
| ... | ||||
| 9 | Item paid to Ridgeway to crosse the water to fetch the Coroner | 00 | 00 | 04 |
| 11 | Item paid more for sendeng for the Coroner & to the officers
about the boy kilde in ye bearegarden |
00 |
⸢07⸣ |
02 |
...
The numbers in the left-hand column refer to dates in September 1626.
Record title: St Saviour's Overseers of the Poor Accounts
Repository:
LMA
Shelfmark: P92/SAV/1401
Repository location: London
The accidental death of a young boy at the Bear Garden under unknown circumstances is an unusual entry in the annual accounts kept for March 1624/5–5/6 by William Maddoxe, warden of the General Poor in the parish of St Saviour's, Southwark. St Saviour's Overseers of the Poor accounts survive only sporadically during this period, located now either at the London Metropolitan Archives or The British Library (for Paris Garden).
Relief of the poor has been described as one of most important civil functions of the parish. The act for the relief of the poor enacted in 1597 established the administration of poor relief at the parish level by overseers of the poor drawn from vestry. St Saviour's had four, which seems to have been the standard; see Paul A. Fideler, 'Introduction: Impressions of a Century of Historiography' Albion 32.3 (Autumn 2000), 382 n 2. As Jeffrey Forgeng observes, '[p]oor relief was supported by the Poor Rate, a tax levied on the more well-off parish householders; this money was supplemented by other parish funds and by the occasional bequest'; see Daily Life in Stuart England (Westport, CT, 2007), 129.
2 March 1625/6–2 March 1626/7; English; paper; 6 leaves; 155mm x 410mm; unnumbered (ff [3–5, 6v] blank); damaged at edges, repaired and remounted in modern leaves; no binding, preserved in a blue cardboard folder.
© London Metropolitan Archives (City of London), P92/SAV/1401