London Occupations in the Late Medieval Period

 

 

The Parisian and Florence censuses aren't the only source for Medieval demographics.  I'm unaware of any census or survey of London's Medieval residents that recorded occupations.  The 1086 Domesday Book survey was for taxation purposes and recorded residents' wealth, not what they did for a living.  Nevertheless, there are some records of the number of people practicing various occupations in London in the late Middle Ages.

Livery Companies

Various sources have reported the number of master craftsmen in London livery companies (guilds) in the late Middle Ages.  The source data generally came from original guild documents.  Brewers were the most numerous, which isn't surprising since most brewing was done on a small scale which required many brewers.  There probably weren't 197 inns in London in the late 14th century.  A map available at https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/overlays shows only 24 within the city boundaries although there could be unidentified inns.  Additionally, the town of Southwark on the south banks of the Thames just across London bridge was said to have a large number of inns.  Even so, it's difficult to believe there were so many inns in a city of 50,000.  Fullers washed wool, mercers sold cloth and were a very wealthy guild.  The skinners were mostly furriers who dealt in furs and were very wealthy.

 

Occupation	Number	Year	Pct. of Pop
Armorers	27	1322	0.05%
Brewers	234	1418	0.47%
Fullers	54	1376	0.11%
Goldsmiths	150	1369	0.30%
Grocers	135	Various	0.27%
Innkeepers	197	1384	0.39%
Mercers	107	1347	0.21%
Pewterers	43	1456	0.09%
Skinners	170	1397	0.34%
Tailors & Drapers	127	1413	0.25%

 

Clergy

 

The number of churches in Medieval London varied over time as parishes were consolidated and new ones created.  However, there do not appear to have been less than 100 at any given time.  Additionally, there were at least 10 chapels in the city in the late 13th century.  Add the clergy of St. Paul's cathedral which included, in addition to the bishop, a dean, four archdeacons, 30 great canons, 12 lesser canons, 50 chantry priests and 30 vicars for a total of 128 ordained clergy.  There were also no fewer than 17 monasteries in the city but I'm not sure if they had ordained priests.  If we assume each parish church and chapel had one priest each, that's 228 ordained priests or 0.05% of the population of approximately 50,000.

 

The Bishop's Hoes

                   

               Pimping his hoes

The Bishop of Winchester owned eighteen bathhouses known as stews in Southwark.  He leased these out and most were fronts for prostitution.  There are fairly good records of German bathhouses which were also used for prostitution.  At German bathhouses, there were typically twelve ladies per bathhouse.  If we assume there were about a dozen prostitutes at each Southwark bathhouse, that’s 216 hoes which is probably a low estimate.  Prostitutes also hung around inns and there are references to street walkers so it’s likely there were many more than just the ones at the stews.

 

Sources:

Blackham, Robert, The Soul of the City:  London’s Livery Companies

Borer, Mary, The City of London:  A History

Mortimer, Ian, Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England

Thrupp, Sylvia, The Merchant Classes of Medieval London

Tags:  Medieval, Middle Ages, London, Demographics, RPG, Dungeons and Dragons, Occupations, Guilds, Clergy, Prostitutes