ABSTRACT
During the sixteenth century, London perceived or experienced an increase in poverty and withstood waves of religious and cultural change. Irrespective of age, widowhood could occasion conjunctural poverty, but functional old age unquestionably worsened it. Demographic strain and economic pressure intersected with the cultural changes to shape the experience of the aged in sixteenth-century London. Employing ageing or blind women to prevent distractions and flirtations during the church service reflected the intent of Elizabeth's 1576 statute for setting of the poor on work, and for the avoiding of idleness. Even before the advent of the national poor law, the parish pension played an important role in the survival of poor, aged women, although it was never an individual's sole source of support. Older poor women were supported by relief, informal testamentary charity, family contributions in money and care, as well as through their own labour.
