William Poulter
DPhil Student - St Peter's College
Supervisor: Ian Archer
Thesis Title: Integration and its Limits: Alien Craftsmen and London’s Livery Companies, c. 1500–1600
My research examines the integration of alien craftsmen into London’s livery companies and the wider city during the sixteenth century. I ask how far and through what mechanisms migrant craftsmen participated in London’s corporate, economic and social life, and where the limits of that participation lay. In doing so, I investigate both the institutional character and flexibility of the livery companies and the wider processes through which London incorporated, accommodated or excluded its migrant population. The treatment of alien craftsmen therefore provides a means of assessing how inclusive or exclusive the institutions and communities of sixteenth-century London were in practice, and the economic, legal and social circumstances that shaped their responses to migrants.
I approach integration not as a single process culminating in assimilation or full civic equality, but as something that could take different forms. Alien craftsmen could become economically successful, participate in corporate life and become deeply embedded in London’s social world while still occupying distinct, and sometimes disadvantaged, legal or institutional positions. Conversely, participation in a livery company did not necessarily entail integration into the wider city. I therefore examine different aspects of migrants’ experiences, including their legal status, corporate and economic participation, social embeddedness and the duration of their presence in London. This allows me to ask not only whether alien craftsmen were integrated, but how different forms of integration interacted, how far they extended and where their limits lay.
Methodologically, I reconstruct the careers and networks of alien craftsmen by cross-referencing livery-company records with denization records, alien subsidies, civic and parish material, and testamentary evidence. I combine prosopographical analysis with detailed individual case studies, allowing me to move between individual migrant experiences and broader patterns of institutional and social practice. Through this approach, I use the experiences of alien craftsmen to investigate both the flexibility and limits of London’s corporate institutions and the wider capacity of the sixteenth-century city to incorporate migrants while maintaining significant legal, economic and social distinctions.
Prizes:
- Oxford Graduate Scholarship;
- The Huguenot Bursary for Historical Research
