This book explores the medical world of the poor and the Old Poor Law in the period 1750-1834. Encountering the sick poor in their own words and everyday situations, I offer a new and more positive view of English welfare.

Steven King is Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Leicester

Part I: Locating sickness and medical welfare
1. The ecology of poor relief
2. Defining and measuring
3. Negotiating medical welfare
Part II: The scale and character of medical welfare
4 Treating the sick poor: a quantitative overview
5 Medical People
6 Wider medical welfare
7 Dying, being buried and leaving people behind
Part III: Parochial medical welfare in context
8 Institutions and the sick poor
9 The medical economy of makeshifts
10 Making sense of diversity
Appendix
Bibliography
Index