Nurture and Neglect: Childhood in Sixteenth-Century Northern England

Using ecclesiastical and secular legal records to form its basis, hitherto an untapped resource for children’s voices, Nurture and Neglect tackles a number of anomalies in the existing historiography surrounding the experience of children in urban and rural communities in sixteenth-century northern England. It addresses the adult-centred nature of the debate and the regional imbalance, as well as engaging in the question of what nurture and neglect was in sixteenth-century society.