ABSTRACT
The administrative records of the City of London might not seem a likely source of rich material to illuminate the attitudes to mothers and mothering prevalent in medieval London, but in one respect they throw unexpected light on children and their parents. By the early fourteenth-century it had been established as civic custom that, on the death of a freeman of London, his underage children became the responsibility of the mayor and aldermen. There were two parts to this responsibility: the practical concern for the well-being of the fatherless child and the need to ensure that any inheritance due to the child was safeguarded until the child came of age. As a result of the development of this civic custom, the records of the city amongst all the other civic business, decisions taken by the court relating to individual orphans, their parents and stepparents came to court to receive their inheritances and the mayor and aldermen relinquished their responsibilities.
