Author Description

There is a wealth of documentary material available, both published and unpublished, that reflects the existence and experiences of immigrant communities in late Medieval and early modern England. The great majority of the published material is, however, difficult to access, while the unpublished material is widely scattered among national and local record repositories. This volume presents the first full collection of documentary evidence relating to immigrants to England ever to be published, and as such will provide scholars and students with an invaluable resource. The present volume is the first of a proposed three-volume series, which will take alien immigration up to the present day, commences with the first concerted attempts to attract foreign immigrants made in the reign of Edward III, and closes at the end of the early modern period (c.1750), coinciding with a period that has been widely regarded as a crucial one in the forging of a new sense of national identity. Topics covered include the foundations of immigrant communities, legal and economic status, wealth and poverty, economic and cultural impacts, popular and elite reactions, assimilation, the stranger churches and their discipline, and international connections. Each chapter is introduced by a scholarly appraisal of the value and implications of the documents that it includes.