About Poor Law Records 1742-1868 City of London Settlement Examinations
Settlement examinations provide much unique information about a class of people for whom virtually no other sources of biographical information are available. All the rich tapestry of London life can be seen here. However, the documents tend to be verbose and repetitive. Here they have been abstracted; the aim has been to include all the information (not just the genealogical) in the original so as to render consultation of the originals unnecessary (even where possible) to researchers. Thus not only all names, but all places and occupations have been included.

While most of the abstracts are of settlement examinations, other types of poor law records are also included – apprentice indentures and bastardy examinations.

The abstracts contain the Guilhall or LMA references, so that you can locate the original records.

There are plenty of 'repeat customers'. These have been repeated here as often a bit of extra information is given in one entry which is omitted in another. Also included are entries which are struck through in the original. This does not mean that the information they contain is necessarily wrong; the subject may have died or for some other reason the examination may not have become necessary.

Although we are referring to these records as being for the "City of London", the first two sets are for parishes (St Botolph Aldgate and St Sepulchre) which were each partly in the City and partly in Middlesex. Also bear in mind that many of the people mentioned had lived in other parts of England, and outside it, and that consequently there are many references to people from outside the London area.


St Botolph Aldgate 1742-1868
St Botolph is the patron saint of gatekeepers (few classes of people do not have a patron saint!) and is the dedication of several parish churches on the edge of the City. St Botolph Aldgate is a large but poor parish with a highly transient population. There are only a few Huguenots in the records but quite a few Jewish people, Irish, Scots and other early immigrants.

For civil purposes St Botolph was divided into two parts, each with separate civil jurisdiction: St Botolph Aldgate, Middlesex and St Botolph Aldgate, London, the latter being the portion of the parish within the old City walls. The settlement records abstracted here pertain to both parts of St Botolph Aldgate.


The source records for St Botolph Aldgate
All the poor law records of both parishes are held at the Guildhall Library. The table following lists the records abstracted. The volumes are in various formats; the last manuscript number (10034) consists of four boxes of loose documents. Some attempt has been made at some point to arrange these last into alphabetical order, but they have been considerably jumbled. Many of them appear in the volumes, but many do not and these have been appended (entry nos 4504-4662).

The end of manuscripts 2665/1; 2665/2 is in an unusual format. The examinations have been written into a ready-printed book, but the volume expects to have a removal order for each examination, and has headings set out for this on every other folio. In fact only three removal orders (of which two are duplicates) have been copied into this volume, so there is only content on every other folio, and only the used folios have been numbered. Furthermore, only approximately one-third of the volume has been used.

Civil Parish GL Ms No. Coverage Entry Nos.
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/1 1742-50 1-121
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/2 1750-57 122-264
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/3 1757-61 265-321
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/4 1765-68 322-421
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/5 1768-71 422-523
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/6 1771-72 524-582
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/7 1772-73 583-646
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/8 1773-75 647-719
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/9 1775-76 720-829
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/10 1776 830-968
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/11 1776-77 969-1178
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/12 1777-79 1179-1354
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/13 1780-81 1355-1484
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/14 1783-84 1485-1597
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/15 1784-85 1598-1724
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/16 1785-87 1725-1828
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/17 1787-88 1829-1979
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/18 1788-90 1980-2093
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/19 1790-93 2094-2210
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/20 1793-95 2211-2318
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/21 1795-97 2319-2432
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/22 1797-99 2433-2551
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/23 1804-11 2552-2888
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/24 1826-34 2889-2987
St Botolph Aldgate (Middlesex) 2676/25 1854-66 2988-3649
St Botolph Aldgate (London) 2665/1 1815-28 3650-4180
St Botolph Aldgate (London) 2665/2 1829-30 4181-4265
St Botolph Aldgate (London) 2665/3 1836-40 4266-4401
St Botolph Aldgate (London) 2665/4 1841-45 4402-4494
St Botolph Aldgate (London) 2665/5 1845-46 4495-4503
St Botolph Aldgate (Miscellaneous) 10034/1-4 1835-68 4504-4662



 St Sepulchre 1765-1844
St Sepulchre was a single ecclesiastical parish, but for civil purposes (which included matters pertaining to the poor law) was split into two, St Sepulchre, London and St Sepulchre, Middlesex, the former being the area within the old City walls.

While most of the St Sepulchre abstracts are of settlement examinations, there are also apprenticeship indentures and bastardy examination records; in the abstracts these are identified by "Apprenticeship" or "Bastardy Examination" respectively in brackets at the end of the abstract; all other abstracts should be of settlement examinations. Examples:
12 Aug 1777 Elizabeth Cary sp. delivered of male child Thomas Tulley at house of (Mr) Bonney, 46 Featherstone Street, St Luke Old Street 5 Nov 1776 (Bastardy Examination)
[St Sepulchre, Entry No 11; GL Ms 7235]

10 Mar 1818 Catherine Wills (14) to Michael Brickel of Mill Row, Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, silk weaver for £4 (Apprenticeship)
[St Sepulchre, Entry No 166; GL Ms 9107]

 The source records for St Sepulchre
There are twelve surviving registers of settlement examinations of St Sepulchre, Middlesex in the Guildhall Library, GL Mss 9095/1-12. In addition there is a book of bastardy examinations 1776-86 (GL Ms 7235) and of poor parish apprenticeships 1802-42 (GL Ms 9107) both of which are included here. Furthermore there are three more books of examinations (GL Ms 3224/1-3) of St Sepulchre, London though these books have been bound into one volume. Ms 3224/1 is a very flimsy book unlike the others and it was at first missed, it appearing to be part of the rough index at the front of Ms 3224/2. This has resulted in the entries for that volume being at the end of the abstracts rather than in the correct position.

Finally, at London Metropolitan Archives there is a bundle of unbound original settlement examinations of St Sepulchre, London (LMA: P69/SEP/22/1-165).

The table below lists the records abstracted.

GL/LMA
Ms No.		 Parish Type Start Date Finish Date Start Abstract # Finish Abstract #
GL 7235 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Bastardy 20 Apr
1776		 27 Dec 1786 1 119
GL 9107 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Apprentice-
ships		 15 Jul 1802 6 Dec 1842 120 237
GL 9095/1 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 2 Jan 1765 17 Jul 1776 238 462
GL 9095/2 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 12 Mar 1773 8 Dec 1780 463 657
GL 9095/3 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 1 Jan 1781 13 Jun 1792 658 888
GL 9095/4 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 21 Jun 1792 29 Dec 1795 889 1069
GL 9095/5 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 6 Jan 1796 20 Dec 1797 1070 1140
GL 9095/6 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 2 Jan 1798 2 Jan 1798 1141 1212
GL 9095/7 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 30 Jan 1800 8 Apr 1800 1213 1224
GL 9095/8 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 9 Jan 1801 25 Mar 1801 1273 1293
GL 9095/9 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 22 Sep 1801 11 Jul 1812 1294 1603
GL 9095/10 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 22 Jul 1812 12 Aug 1822 1604 1992
GL 9095/11 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 5 Nov 1831 30 Jul 1841 1993 2194
GL 9095/12 St Sepulchre (Middlesex) Settlement 21 Aug 1841 8 May 1844 2195 2226
GL 3224/2 St Sepulchre (London) Settlement 15 Oct 1810 11 Jul 1816 2227 2410
GL 3224/3 St Sepulchre (London) Settlement 20 Jul 1816 23 Jul 1823 2411 2706
LMA P69/SEP/
22/1-165		 St Sepulchre (London) Settlement 3 Jul 1756 9 Feb 1810 2707 2874
GL 3224/1 St Sepulchre (London) Settlement 11 May 1781 2 Oct 1786 2875 2919



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