4 - Who Lost and Who Looked
from Part II - Seeking Return
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2026
Summary
Chapter 4 examines who wrote and read the ‘lost’ and ‘runaway’ notices advertised in eighteenth-century newspapers. It finds that individuals from a range of social groups read and wrote such notices and were expected to understand how the system worked. The chapter also shows how certain professions were expected to be careful readers of these notices and to act if they recognised the possessions described in them. Notices often sought out Hackney coachmen, pawnbrokers, dog sellers and dealers and kidnappers. Here we learn more about how individuals fulfilling these roles acted and how they shaped the ‘lost’ and ‘runaway’ notices system.
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- Keeping HoldA Cultural and Social History of Possession in Eighteenth-Century Britain, pp. 126 - 148Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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