ABSTRACT
Intriguingly, the ‘harlott’ referred to in this entry vanishes from the records and we are never to find out what became of her. The ‘hore of Havergate’ was living in a house in the parish of St Marten at Bale in Norwich, England in 1570. At that time, the authorities in Norwich were alarmed at the growing number of poor people in the town and ordered a census of the poor to be taken. The 1570 Norwich Census of the Poor (referred to hereafter as ‘the census’ for convenience) enumerated 2,348 people in 790 households.2 Following the census, the Mayor’s Orders for the Poore is full of rhetoric criticizing the behaviour of the poor: ‘And an other mischefe was that when ther bellies were filled, theie fell to lust and concupisence, and mosts shamefullie abused ther bodies and brought forth basterdes in such quantitie as it passed.’3 From this statement, one would expect that the census would list a large number of pregnant single women and women with illegitimate children, but the reality is quite different.
