The Early Modern Commons

Migrant Histories

Recent Posts

Rudolph Ackermann, I am an Immigrant

9 October 2017

Originally posted on the ‘I am an Immigrant‘ Poster Campaign website, hosted by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). My Story: We must thank a German...

True crime: why the Irish counterfeiting wave of the late 18th century was a myth

19 May 2017

Satirical Bank Note (1820), highlighting how easy it was to be hanged for spending fake money, despite how prevalent it was. George Cruikshank and William Hone.The claim that immigrants...

Were the Irish in 19th century London more criminal, or just easier to catch?

19 February 2017

Adapted from a section of: Rudolph Ackermann, ‘The Pillory’, Microcosm of London, 1807.The early nineteenth-century Irish in London are often remembered as poor, semi-criminal...

A Network of Vagrant Gaols

20 January 2017

Once declared a vagrant by a magistrate, the person would be taken into custody and would begin their journey back ‘home’. Home in this context meant the parish where they...