Childrearing Among the Lower Classes of Late Medieval England

Abstract

Although Aries drew his data primarily from the upper class his theory has raised issues which should be investigated for all ranks of society. First he assumed that the medieval household was a large one in which both extended family and outsiders lived together a view of the preindustrial family which Laslett has denied. Second he argued that children became valuable to society only when they reached the age of seven and could be sent out to another house to work in other words only when they became economically productive. Third he ignored the actual process of childrearing before the age of seven leaving this issue unexplored. In this essay I have studied these three problems and have used coroners rolls a source often ignored by historians of the family in order to move the investigation of childrearing away from the elite minority to the practices of the majority. (excerpt)

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