The Charities Of London

In this work, Professor Jordan continues his study of the origins of modern social and cultural institutions in England. He is concerned with the momentous shift which occurred in men's aspirations for their society in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as reflected in the charities which were established by gifts and bequests. This volume deals with the immense contribution made by London to this process of historical change, a change so swift as to be revolutionary in its institutional implications. The author describes the vast charitable system which London created, examines at length the aspirations and the social philosophy of the merchant aristocracy which controlled its affairs, and seeks to assess the social dominance exerted by London in this era as the flood of its charitable generosity poured out across the face of the realm. It is Professor Jordan's estimate that more than a third of the whole of the great charitable endowments created in England during this period were London's gift, while almost a third of London's benefactions were made for the benefit of communities in other parts of the realm. It is not too much to say that London's almost prodigal generosity was fashioning for all of England the institutions of a new age. Here is recorded the annal of a proud achievement by a city which discovered its own greatness in the period under discussion. It is perhaps not too much to say that few authors have quite so fully mastered the rich and variegated life and aspirations of the city as has Professor Jordan, certainly none have recounted the triumph of its achievement with greater understanding and pride. This book was first published in 1960.

In this study of voluntary charities in eighteenth-century London, Donna Andrew reconsiders the adequacy of humanitarianism as an explanation for the wave of charitable theorizing and experimentation that characterized this period. Focusing on London, the most visible area of both destitution and social experimentation, this book examines the political as well as benevolent motives behind the great expansion of public institutions--nondenominational organizations seeking not only to relieve hardship, but to benefit the nation directly--funded and run by voluntary associations of citizens. The needs of police, the maintaining of civil order and the refining of society, were thought by many ordinary citizens to be central to the expansion of England's role in the world and to the upholding of the country's peace at home. Drawing on previously unexplored and unsynthesized materials, this work reveals the interaction between charitable theorizing and practical efforts to improve the condition of the poor. The author argues that it is impossible to comprehend eighteenth-century charity without taking into account its perceived social utility, which altered as circumstances mandated. For example, the charities of the 1740s and 1750s, founded to aid in the strengthening of England's international supremacy, lost their public support as current opinions of England's most urgent needs changed. Creating and responding to new visions of what well-directed charities might accomplish, late-century philanthropists tried using charitable institutions to reknit what they believed was a badly damaged social fabric. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.