Records of settlement and bastardy examinations held in the parish of Chelsea in the mid-eighteenth century.

The examinations give new insight into the nature of family relationships among the least articulate members of eighteenth-century society. In a whole range of ways the material reproduced here adds a new level of complexity to our understanding of eighteenth-century London and its environs, and the experiences of the approximately fifty per cent of the population who were likely to need relief from the parish at some point during their lives. The volume provides a great deal of information on migration, patterns of courtship and the experience of working and living within the rapidly changing social welfare provision of mid-eighteenth century London.