Generating Generosity Financing poor relief through charitable collections in Dutch towns, c. 1600-1800 Daniëlle Teeuwen Cover image: drawing in an account book from the Zwolle City Poor Chamber of 1799 (HCO, Stadsarmenkamer, inv. no. 127). Generating Generosity Financing poor relief through charitable collections in Dutch towns, c. 1600-1800 Vrijgevigheid genereren. De financiering van armenzorg door middel van collectes in Nederlandse steden, c. 1600-1800 (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het college van promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 13 juni 2014 des middags te 2.30 uur door Nelie Magdalene Teeuwen geboren op 10 juli 1985 te Bergambacht Promotoren: Prof.dr. A.F. Heerma van Voss Prof.dr. M.H.D. van Leeuwen Copromotor: Dr. E.J.V. van Nederveen Meerkerk Dit proefschrift werd mede mogelijk gemaakt door financiële steun van de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). Acknowledgements Knowingly or unknowingly, many people helped me to write this PhD thesis. To start with, I would like to thank my supervisors, Lex Heerma van Voss, Marco van Leeuwen and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, for their advice, encouragement, and support. I was in the lucky situation that we regularly met with the four of us, and that all three of them thoroughly commented on draft versions of chapters and papers. Lex was always able to make complex situations comprehensible, and Marco’s expertise and wit were also of great value. To Elise, who acted as my daily supervisor, I could turn for advice on the most diverse issues. She, moreover, shared parts of her data with me. Furthermore, without her encouragement that I should try to obtain a PhD position, I would perhaps never have tried at all. My research was part of the larger project ‘Giving in the Golden Age’ (GIGA), which was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and hosted by the International Institute of Social History (IISH). Utrecht University provided additional financial means for my sub-project. Being part of the GIGA- project was a valuable experience, not only because it gave me the opportunity to learn a lot from working together with more experienced researchers, but also because of our joint conference visits and project dinners. I very much enjoyed working with Henk Looijesteijn, a postdoc researcher for the GIGA-project, whom I worked alongside at the IISH. His expertise on early modern charity is impressive. In fact, the term ‘walking encyclopaedia’ fits him well, as he seems to know everything about everything, and I have frequently made use of his knowledge. The IISH provided me with a nice office, my own desk, a new computer, and more than enough space to store my books, which has become somewhat of a luxury within the Dutch academic world. My research, moreover, benefited from the expertise available at the institute, and several colleagues commented on papers and presentations, for which I am most grateful. In this respect, I am especially indebted to Jan Lucassen, Karin Hofmeester, Pim de Zwart, Reinoud Bosch, and Ulbe Bosma. Also because of the warm and friendly working environment and social activities, it 5 was a pleasure to be part of the Research Department. Furthermore, it was great to be able to share the PhD experience with Pim, and I very much enjoyed his company, support and jokes. Over the past year, I was (unofficially) part of another research team as well, namely the department of Economic and Social History at Utrecht University. Not only was I welcome to attend seminars, and allowed to use the flex office spaces in the attic, but they also invited me to dinners and outings, and even offered me the possibility to gain teaching experience. For all this, I am most grateful to Bas van Bavel, Jan Luiten van Zanden and Maarten Prak. The large group of PhD students and postdocs working at this department was the other main attraction of working part- time in Utrecht, and Auke Rijpma, Daniel Curtis, Felix Meier zu Selhausen, Katalin Buzási, Lotte van der Vleuten, Miguel Laborda Péman, Mikołaj Malinowski, Pim de Zwart, Ruben Schalk, Sandra de Pleijt, Sarah Carmichael, and Selin Dilli all made doing a PhD an unforgettable experience. Special thanks to Sarah for introducing me to these great group of people, as well as for offering major support in the final stages of my research. The PhD training program of the N.W. Posthumus Institute provided me with the opportunity to present early versions of papers and chapters, and helped me to develop my research plans. I, moreover, benefited from comments from the audiences of the ESH lunch seminar of Utrecht University (March 2012), the Datini Conference in Prato (April 2012), the European Social Science History Conference in Glasgow (April 2012), the World Economic History Congress in Stellenbosch (July 2012), and the N.W. Posthumus Conference in Eindhoven (April 2013). I, furthermore, owe a great debt of gratitude to David van der Linden, Jelle Bosma, Jo Spaans, Joris van Eijnatten, and Peter van Rooden, to whom I could turn with my questions on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sermons. Els Stronks was so kind to share her knowledge on early modern literature on the topic of poverty and charity with me. I also wish to thank the staff of the municipal and regional archives in Delft, Utrecht, Zwolle, and ’s-Hertogenbosch (and then especially the former archivist Aart Vos), as well as the librarians of the IISH. In addition, I am most grateful to Adriejan van Veen, Auke Rijpma, and Benjamin Guilbert who commented on parts of my thesis, and to Daniel Curtis, Pim de Zwart and Sarah Carmichael for proofreading the manuscript. My family and friends helped me by showing interest in my research, and by providing me with some welcome distraction every once in a while. I especially would like to thank my parents, Klaas and Lenie Teeuwen, as well as my friends Anna Sparreboom, Christie Miedema, Ditte van Dulmen Krumpelman, Erik Hagen, Katie Minderhoud, and Marit den Ouden for their support. The last person I need to thank 6 is Adriejan van Veen, with whom I, over the last year and a half, simultaneously tried to finish a dissertation. Due to this remarkable situation, he always understood my stress and worries, and never complained about the many weekends I spent in the library (and was, in fact, often sitting close by, working on his thesis as well). In spite of his own deadlines, he read parts of my thesis when I was stuck, and gave me extremely valuable advice. Without his help, this thesis would not be what it has become. May 2014 7 8 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Poor relief in the Dutch Republic ........................................................................................... 15 1.2 Research questions ...................................................................................................................... 19 1.3 Choices and boundaries ............................................................................................................. 23 1.4 Methodology and source material ......................................................................................... 27 1.5 Outline of the thesis ..................................................................................................................... 28 2. Organizing poor relief ...................................................................................................................... 31 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 31 2.2 Reforming medieval social care .............................................................................................. 32 2.2.1 Poor relief in the Middle Ages ............................................................................................ 32 2.2.2 Changing circumstances and ideas .................................................................................. 33 2.2.3 Different outcomes of the reorganization process .................................................... 36 2.3 Poor relief in a Golden Age ....................................................................................................... 41 2.4 The system under pressure ...................................................................................................... 47 2.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 51 3. Financing outdoor poor relief ...................................................................................................... 53 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 53 3.2 Income ............................................................................................................................................... 54 3.2.1 Collections and alms boxes ................................................................................................. 56 3.2.2 Testamentary bequests and inter vivos gifts ............................................................... 61 3.2.3 Income from