An Ungovernable People: The English and their Law in the 17th and 18th Centuries PDF
Preview An Ungovernable People: The English and their Law in the 17th and 18th Centuries
An Ungovernable People An Ungovernable People The English and their law in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Edited by John Brewer and John Styles Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, New Jersey Published in the USA by Rutgers University Press Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number 79-67826 ISBN 0-8135-0891-6 First published 1980 © John Brewer and John Styles 1980 * All rights reserved Published in Great Britain by Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd Printed in Great Britain 1 Contents List ofillustrations 7 Preface 9 Introduction 1 1 Two concepts of order: justices, constables andjurymen in seventeenth-century England 21 Keith Wrightson, University ofSt Andrews 2 Grain riots and popular attitudes to the law: Maldon and the crisis of 1629 47 John Walter, University ofEssex 3 'A set of ungovernable people': the Kingswood colliers in the eighteenth century 85 Robert W. Malcolmson, Queen's University, Canada 4 The Wilkites and the law, 1763-74: a study ofradical notions ofgovernance 128 John Brewer, Yale University 5 *Our traitorous money makers': the Yorkshire coiners and the law, 1760-83 172 John Styles, University ofBath 6 The King's Bench prison in the later eighteenth century: law, authority and order in a London debtors' prison 250 Joanna Innes, Girton College, Cambridge Appendices 299 Notes andreferences 311 Index 389 Digitized by the Internet Archive 2013 in http://archive.org/details/ungovernablepeopOObrew Illustrations Plates (between pages 176 and 177) A group of *good fellows' at the alehouse (British Library) Presentment ofthejury for the hundreds ofHinckford and Witham, Essex, October 1644 'Midas; or the Surry Justice* {Oxford Magazine, 1768) W 'Mr Alderman s in his Magisterial Character' {Oxford Magazine, 1770) The area between the Turvin valley and the town of Halifax, from Thomas Jeffrey's map of Yorkshire, 1775 (The Syndics of Cambridge University Library) A pair ofdies for strikingcounterfeitmoidores(CalderdaleMuseums Service) The front parade ofthe King's Bench prison in the early nineteenth century King's Bench prisoners tossing a bailiff in a blanket Maps and charts Kingswood and its region in the mid eighteenth century 88 Mint output ofgold and silver coin, 1720-84 174 The Lancashire-West Riding border 189 The *upper hand country' 202-3 Justices ofthe peace acting in the West Riding, 1765-70 206 The collection ofdebts an instrument in the hands ofthe : creditor 252 The collection of debts opportunities for the debtor 258-9 : Annual commitments to the King's Bench prison, 1760-1800 262 A nineteenth-century plan of the King's Bench prison 264 Preface An Ungovernable People was conceived during 1976 as ajoint enter- prise by a group of historians who, Robert Malcolmson apart, had all been based at the University ofCambridge. In so far as the subse- quent dispersal of the contributors across four countries has per- mitted, the undertaking has remained a collaborative one. Although John Brewer and John Styles have shared responsibihty for the editorial chores, each contributor has benefited from the advice and criticism ofall his or her colleagues. The contributors would like collectively to thank the staffs ofthe Public Record Office and the British Library, for their assistance, and Claire L'Enfant of Hutchinson, for her enthusiasm, her en- couragement and her patience in the face ofrepeated delays. KeithWrightson would liketo thankthe staffs oftheEssexRecord Office, the Lancashire Record Officeandthe Greater London Record Office, for their assistance, the SSRC Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, for permission to quote materialfromtheirhteracyfile,andtheVicarofBurnham-on-Crouch, for permission to use the parish register ofBurnham. John Walter would like to thank all those who have helped him in the preparation of his chapter and, in particular, Professor D. C. Coleman and Keith Wrightson. He owes a special debtto the staffof the Essex County Record Office, particularly Nancy Briggs and Arthur Searle. He would also like to acknowledge with thanks the financial support he received while undertaking the research for his chapter as the holder ofthe Eileen Power Memorial Studentship. Robert Malcolmson would like to thank several people who assisted him in the preparation ofhis essay, notably DorothyVinter, who generously lent him some ofher research notes on Kingswood, John Beattie, Edward Thompson, and John Walsh. He is especially gratefultoJohn BrewerandJohn Stylesfortheirthorough, construc- tive and penetrating comments on an earlier draft ofhis chapter. He 10 Preface isindebtedtothe Canada Council, forfinancial assistance, and tothe staifofthe Bristol Reference Library, for their efficient help with the sources relevant to his research. The map of Kingswood (page 88) was drawn by Roger Wheate. John Brewer thanks John Styles, Joanna Innes, Susan Hewitt, John Morrill, David Lieberman. Part of the workforthisessay was financed by the Social Science Research Council. John Styles would like to thank the other contributors and, in particular, his fellow editor, for their help and patience while he was ill; Alan Betteridge, the Calderdale Metropolitan District Archivist, for his unfailing interest and assistance; Bill Connor, Leslie Gold- thorpe and Estelle Saunders, for various kindnesses and Earl Fitz- ; william, the Trustees ofthe Wentworth Woodhouse Estates Co. and the Sheffield CityLibraryfortheir kindpermission to quotefromthe papers of the Second Marquis of Rockingham in Sheffield City Library. He would also like to acknowledgewiththanks thefinancial support he received during the preparation of his chapter as the holderofResearchFellowships attheInstituteofHistorical Research and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Joanna Innes would like to thank Janet Roper, for suggesting the use of the diagrams in the text; John Brewer and John Styles, for their comments and the staff of the Guildhall Library. She would ; also like to acknowledge with thanks the financial support she received during the preparation of her chapter from the Social Science ResearchCouncil and astheholder ofa Gamble Studentship atNewnham College, Cambridge. A note on dates Old style dates are reported as given in the primary sources, except that the year is always taken to begin on 1 January.
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