London Lives

London Lives is a website which makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects and provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances.

The lives of plebeian Londoners most often intersected with institutional records when they were caught up in the criminal justice system, or sought poor relief or medical treatment. The choice of sources was designed to capture this pattern of interaction, but the website also seeks to include comprehensive archival collections.

For criminal justice, the site includes the already digitised Old Bailey Proceedings, the largest printed source detailing the lives of non-elite people ever produced. This is supplemented with the most descriptive related records about serious crime available, including all surviving examples of the:

• Ordinary's Accounts (OA): biographies of executed criminals written by the chaplain of Newgate Prison.
• Sessions Papers (PS): manuscript documents which provide additional evidence about the crimes tried at the Old Bailey and other courts, as well as documents concerning poor relief.
• Criminal Registers (CR): lists of prisoners held in Newgate Prison.
• Coroners's Inquests (IC): documents relating to deaths thought to be suspicious, but which did not result in a formal prosecution.

Official responsibility for poor relief lay with London's parishes, of which there were more than one hundred, many of which have left very rich archives. The records of three parishes have been comprehensively digitised for this project:

• St Botolph Aldgate (straddling the eastern boundary between the City of London and Middlesex)
• St Clement Danes (Westminster)
• St Dionis Backchurch (City of London)

These parishes were chosen for the quality of their records, and the extent to which they exemplify different parts of London. Each of the selected parishes had a distinctive social and occupational composition. These are supplemented with the records of three parishes with externally created datasets of settlement and workhouse records from two further parishes:

• St Martin in the Fields (Westminster)
• St Luke Chelsea (just to the west of the built up area of London)

Charity for the poor also came from the guilds and associational charities. Included are the records of one London guild, the Carpenters' Company. This was one of the less prestigious companies and included a number of plebeian members. It also distributed considerable charitable funds to its members. Also included are partial transcriptions of the registers of the Marine Society, a charity which provided training at sea for poor boys.

Medical care for the poor was provided in parochial workhouses, reflected in the parish records, and hospitals. The database contains the records of one of the royal hospitals, St Thomas's Hospital, including its detailed admissions and discharge registers.

So take a look through London Lives and see what it can tell you about the lives of your ancestors.  Even if there are few (or no) specific records for your family, they provide an invaluable insight into the social conditions and attitudes of the time.

Records of London's Livery Companies (ROLLCO)

The Records of London's Livery Companies Online project is a partnership between the Centre for Metropolitan History, The Bowyers' Company, The Clothworkers' Company, The Drapers' Company, The Founders’ Company, The Girdlers' Company, The Goldsmiths' Company, The Mercers' Company, The Musicians' Company, The Salters' Company, The Stationers' Company and The Tallow Chandlers' Company.

The aim of ROLLCO is to provide a fully searchable database of Livery Company membership over time, including the records of Apprentices and Freemen in the City of London Livery Companies between 1400 and 1900.  Searches can be made for individuals within the Companies' membership, with results available to download and save.  Currently the database includes information about apprenticeship bindings and freedom admissions for ten of London's Livery Companies, with the records of further Companies to follow.

The Livery Companies of the City of London originate from the medieval trade guilds which were established to regulate particular crafts. Guilds supervised the training of apprentices, controlled standards of craftsmanship, and protected craftsmen from unfair competition. They also provided financial support to their members in old age and in times of poverty and bereavement.

ROLLCO is a not-for-profit project, and access is free to all.

Collage : The London Picture Archive

Collage: The London Picture Archive offers access to a wealth of photographs, prints, drawings and posters from London, available via an interactive map showing the locations that they depict.  This database of pictures not only includes images of famous landmarks, but ordinary streets and residential buildings that are no longer in existence.

Managed by London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), it provides free online access to over 250,000 images of London from the collections at LMA and Guildhall Art Gallery.  The whole of Greater London is covered, as are the adjoining counties, and the images provide an extraordinary record of London and its people from the fifteenth century to the present day. Some of the many highlights include photographs of Victorian London; the sixteenth century ‘Agas’ map of London; Hollar’s stunning panorama from 1647; beautifully designed twentieth century posters for London’s tramways; the Cross and Tibbs photographs of Second World War damage to the City of London and the collections formerly held at the Guildhall Print Room.

The site regularly adds new content from the LMA collections - they estimate that there are around 2 million photos, prints, drawings and maps in their strong rooms. So, if you can’t find what you’re looking, check back soon!

We Were There Too - Jewish Londoners in WW1

A new resource designed to honour the lives of Jewish Londoners involved in the First World War has launched online.
Unveiled at Bevis Marks Synagogue on Thursday 30 June, We Were There Too enables users to share and search for details of ancestors who served overseas and on the Home Front, ranging from soldiers to nurses.
The site also provides access to an array of historic photographs, video clips and documents, as well as a memorial wall that allows people to light a virtual Yahrzeit candle – traditionally lit on the anniversary of a loved one’s death.

 We Were There Too provides an insight into Jewish life in London in the early part of the 20^th century and gives easy access to a number of diverse research sources, brought together for the first time, for personal exploration. As the site develops, more collections of rare material will be added, so revisit the site to see what's new.

17th Century London animation

Ever wondered what London looked like centuries ago?  Six students from De Montfort University have created a 3D representation of 17th century London, as it existed before The Great Fire of 1666. The three-minute animation portrays Tudor London, and particularly a section called Pudding Lane, which is where the fire started. As judges noted, “Although most of the buildings are conjectural, the students used a realistic street pattern and even included the hanging signs of genuine inns and businesses.” The signs portrayed have been mentioned in diaries from the period, and the street patterns taken from historical maps of the time.
Their animation saw the De Montfort team was awarded first prize in the Off the Map contest, a competition run by The British Library and video game developers GameCity and Crytek.

London's Pulse

The Wellcome Library has unveiled London's Pulse, a free website which allows you to search more than 5500 Medical Officer of Health (MOH) reports from the Greater London area.  The era of the Medical Officer Health saw the emergence of new ways of thinking about the connections between poverty, health and government.  The reports provided statistical data about births, deaths and diseases, but they also allowed the authors to express the diversity of their local communities and their own personal interests.  Many of the daily concerns and shifting preoccupations of Londoners can be seen through the eyes of their Medical Officers of Health.

London Lives

London Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects. It provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances. Facilities are provided to allow users to link together records relating to the same individual, and to compile biographies of the best documented individuals. Every document display page includes a link to the relevant background page which provides information about that document type. The site also features historical background notes and a user wiki.