Purses and the Charitable Gift

The history of voluntary charity in early modern England has been characterized by teleological narratives of the gradual demise of spontaneous alms in light of increasing formal taxation. Steve Hindle has identified the Poor Laws of 1601 as a watershed in the history of charity marking a distinct move away from the interpersonal gift economy. More recently Brad Gregory has postulated a teleological explanation of morality in The Unintended Reformation which identifies a decrease in charity with a Protestant zeal finding in post Reformation England little impetus for the charitable gift. Coupled with an attack on micro historical analysis and the history of everyday life there appears little room within this framework for the discussion of the continuation and changing significance of localized spontaneous charity in the early seventeenth century. Presenting a material culture analysis of three purses from c.1630 bearing the axiom “REMEMBER THE POORE” it is argued here that the face-to-face charitable donation was far from moribund in the seventeenth century. The composition and biography of the purses all point to a shared cultural identity amongst the elite in which charity and the interpersonal exchange remained integral to displays of power and paternalism indicative of a continued culture of giving which, although with changing boundaries and emphasis, persisted despite the introduction of formal institutional relief.