The County of Middlesex enclosed the City of London and Westminster to the north, east, and west. The parishes in that county, or "out-parishes" because they were outside the City walls, witnessed the greatest population growth of all parts of the metropolis during the eighteenth century. What had been semi-rural areas in 1700 had become densely populated urban districts by 1800, and they raised problems of governance and social control that existing institutions were ill-equipped to deal with.

Governance

The County of Middlesex had a governing body, its justices of the peace, who met in quarter sessions at Hicks Hall in Clerkenwell. Unlike the City of London, which had a highly developed system of elected officials and special law courts, the County of Middlesex had the standard English system for governing a county: unpaid magistrates, mostly gentry, and parish constables and vestries. This system, which had served counties in the countryside, became inadequate for governing what had become a series of large urban parishes.

The largest Middlesex parishes (St Giles in the Fields, St Andrew Holborn, St Marylebone, St Pancras) had populations comparable to those of English provincial cities, yet were under the control of vestries with little power or authority. The result was a varied landscape of provision, with some parishes succeeding in their governance, while others were unable to cope with the rapid growth of their populations or the scale of urban problems.

Middlesex and Harris's List

The Middlesex entries in Harris's List are spread across a range of quite distinct areas. Bloomsbury, the most prominent Middlesex ward in the data set, was a transitional zone between the West End on the one hand and the less gentrified areas to the north and east on the other. The streets around Bloomsbury Square and Great Russell Street were home to those of middling status, and the area was close to the Inns of Court, which was convenient for legal professionals.

Whitechapel, the second most represented Middlesex ward, offered a different environment. This large and densely populated parish, located east of the City, was home to immigrants, sailors, and the poor. The Whitechapel entries in Harris's List likely represent another level of the sex industry, one that was cheaper, less literary, and served a different clientele.

The explosive population growth of the Middlesex parishes is reflected in the numbers. The population of St. Pancras expanded from 242 in the 1740s to over 31,000 by 1801—a hundredfold increase. A similar rate of explosive growth is seen in the population of St. Marylebone. These growing parishes attracted the same rural migrants who are the protagonists of the biographical sketches in Harris's List, young women who came to the city in search of work and found themselves in an enormous and alien place.

Key Parishes with Population Growth