In the middle ages and the early modern period, orphan chambers were important urban institutions in a number of European regions. They ensured that orphans, the majority of whom lived with family or friends, received the inheritance that was rightfully theirs. Contrary to the much better known orphanages, orphan chambers did not deliver physical care but legal and financial care. Orphan chambers appointed guardians, oversaw their financial management, and kept inheritances safe. In some places, orphan chambers also developed financial services such as managing inheritances and funds to generate a return on money. This dissertation studies the rise, development, and decline of Holland orphan chambers and the demographic and economic factors that can explain this pattern. New perspectives are added. Orphan chambers as a welfare arrangement in a broader range of welfare arrangements in the early modern period. Orphan chambers as a financial institution and the importance of the orphan chamber to the urban financial market. Orphan chambers as an early modern government institution. By examining cases from Holland and the case of the orphan chamber of Batavia, I am able to create a comparative perspective that offers insight into the functioning and the learning capacity of the orphan chamber as an early modern bureaucracy. In Chapter two, In Loco Parentis: Holland’s orphan chambers in a European context, I show that orphan chambers, and similar institutions under different names, were a common occurrence in many European regions. They developed in a time of urban growth, when cities saw the necessity for an arrangement for middle class children who lost one or both parents at a young age and who inherited from their parents: orphan chambers. In Chapter three, Orphan chamber loans, I study the financial function of the orphan chamber, more specifically the orphan chamber loan and its development. Orphan chamber loans were designed as safe, long-term investments, based on standard conditions. It was a relatively ...