ABSTRACT
As a case study of charitable provision during the sixteenth century, Canterbury has certain advantages. Over 1,400 people from the city and its suburban parishes had wills proved in either the archdeaconry or consistory court between 1500 and 1600. Canterbury was a regional market centre for a wide range of products. Victualling, inn-keeping and allied trades had been important for centuries but the loss of Becket’s shrine in 1538 and the dissolution of the local monasteries had a serious impact on the city’s provisioning industry. During the first three decades of the sixteenth century, about a third of Canterbury’s testators included the poor among their beneficiaries. Thereafter the proportion increased to over a half during Edward VI’s reign. During Edward’s reign, interest in the hospitals fell considerably and the city suffered its first casualty when St James’ was surrendered to the crown in 1551.
