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Manners, Norms and Transgressions in the History of English: Literary and linguistic approaches
Edited by Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 312] 2020
► pp. 183–212

Variations from letter-writing manuals

Humble petitions signed by women in Late Modern London

 | Universidad Complutense de Madrid
The present study analyses two sets of 25 petitions each. They were signed by different women who possibly belonged to lower social ranks, and they were addressed to the governors of the Foundling Hospital and the Bank of England. These were most probably men who occupied high positions in society. The study focuses on the comparison between the information present in the manuals and the petitions selected for this study. The petitioners had different needs and their circumstances also varied. This is reflected in the results, which show differences, and also similarities, between the two sets of petitions. Furthermore, most display some features found in the manuals, but not all of them follow the rules or recommendations faithfully. The writers, who cannot always be identified and may not have been the same as the signees, seem to have been aware of the existence of letter-writing manuals, but they may not have had first-hand contact with them.
Keywords: Late Modern English, letter-writing, instruction manuals, petitions, Foundling Hospital, Bank of England
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Letter-writing and petitions in eighteenth-century England
  • 3.Letter-writing manuals in Late Modern England
    • 3.1The instructions in these manuals
    • 3.2Features of the petitions in the manuals
  • 4.The present study
    • 4.1The data
    • 4.2The manuals
  • 5.Method
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Group 1: Petitions that include a superscription and/or an opening formula
    • 6.2Group 2: Petitions that do not include a superscription and/or an opening formula
  • 7.A comparison between Group 1 and Group 2
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 11 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.312.09nur
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Calvo Cortés, Nuria
2024. Filled-in petition forms and hand-drafted petitions to the Foundling Hospital. In Unlocking the History of English [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 364], ► pp. 198 ff. DOI logo
Gardner, Anne-Christine
2023. English Pauper Letters in the Eighteenth Century and Beyond. Linguistica 63:1-2 ► pp. 301 ff. DOI logo

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