Birth, Death, and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London

Explores domestic religion in early modern London between 1600-1780, examining the role of the home for both Christian and Jewish practices.

Emily Vine (Author)

9781009457231, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 July 2025

276 pages
23.4 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

Early modern London has long been recognised as a centre of religious diversity, yet the role of the home as the setting of religious practice for all faiths has been largely overlooked. In contrast, this study offers the first examination of domestic religion in London during a period of intense religious change, between the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the Gordon Riots of 1780. Emily Vine considers both Christian and Jewish practices, comparing the experiences of Catholics, Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, Huguenots, and conforming and nonconforming Protestants alike. Through its focus on the crowded metropolis as a place where households of different faiths coexisted, this study explores how religious communities operated beyond and in parallel to places of public worship. Vine demonstrates how families of different faiths experienced childbirth and death, arguing that homes became 'permeable' settings of communal religion at critical moments of the life cycle. By focusing on practices beyond the synagogue, meeting house, or church, this book demonstrates the vitality of collective devotion and kinship throughout the long eighteenth century.

Introduction
1. Domestic religion in seventeenth- and eighteenth- century London
2. Childbirth, religious practice, and domestic space
3. Religious practices following childbirth
4. Daily domestic devotion and preparation for death
5. Dying and deathbed practices
6. Domestic religion in the days after death
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]