1999
DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.00127
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Searchers of the Dead: Authority, Marginality, and the Interpretation of Plague in England, 1574–1665

Abstract: Searchers of the dead, women pensioners hired to examine and codify diseased bodies, were significant figures in the management of early modern plague epidemics, but have remained seriously neglected by scholars. This essay reclaims the searchers by investigating archival material such as parish records, legal documents, and bills of mortality. Active members of their parishes, the searchers occupied a paradoxical relationship to authority: subjected to the dangers of plague because of their economic dependenc… Show more

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Cited by 47 publications
(5 citation statements)
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“…Searchers risked not only death but also social isolation for their contact with the sick and were also accused of witchcraft on occasion. While these impoverished widows were remunerated for their reports and had the theoretical possibility to refuse becoming a searcher, they stood to lose their alms if they actually did so, ensuring that they would not do so in practice (Munkhoff, 1999).…”
Section: Political Arithmetic and The Early Royal Society In Englandmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Searchers risked not only death but also social isolation for their contact with the sick and were also accused of witchcraft on occasion. While these impoverished widows were remunerated for their reports and had the theoretical possibility to refuse becoming a searcher, they stood to lose their alms if they actually did so, ensuring that they would not do so in practice (Munkhoff, 1999).…”
Section: Political Arithmetic and The Early Royal Society In Englandmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…31 These tasks bring parallels with findings from England and France where women became key examiners and codifiers of infected corpses and took in nonfamily members who were sick, for example, with dysentery. 32 Women also found themselves placed within public health institutions. For example, in Mons during the plague of 1515, the urban administration resolved on the 9 th of May to put a number of women into the hospital of St. Nicolas to treat the afflicted.…”
Section: Care Inside and Outside The Householdmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…these women continue to remain on the margins of history, despite the fact that the parish office of searcher endured until the 1830s. 34 Partly this is due to the very limited evidence of the searchers' labours. As with keeping, one can only 'see' the searcher when she was appointed to the office, or when the parish decided to pay (or more accurately, to record payment) for her services.…”
Section: Becoming 'Searchers' Of the Plaguementioning
confidence: 99%