Family Identity and Romney Marshlands in Early Modem Kent
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Romney Marsh. Coastal and L,andscupe Change thrwgh the .-lges fed. A Long, S Hipkin and H. Clarke), OUSA Monog~~zpIz56. 2002, 15 7-1 72 1 1. "To fasten itt upon his successors, heirs and owners of that howse ...so longe as the world standeth": Family Identity and Romney Marshlands in Early Modem Kent Mark Merry and Catherine Richardson This paper investigates the dynamic between land and family identity, and is concerned to connect the ,sjwzbolic and ideological constrz~ctionsof bolh to lr/ndholding practices. The paper shows tlzcct, for .some fhmilies nt least, holding and z~,,ingpar.cel.sof land in the Level was a tungible nrzd explicitl~1exploited means of constructing familial identi~y,for. the purpose qf' maintaining and promoting their social status, and cementing the local and regional networks which located them among their peers. These parcels were pccssed on benveen generations using a ,form of 'te,stamentary n7etonymy' which facilitated the transmission qf a .fanzily identity consisting of the llzoral nornls and social practices comniensurate with social t tat us. The value of nzarshland on the Level iway have nlerrnt this land in particular wc2.s seen as more closely synonvnlous with status lhan other ho1dirlg.s. Introduction they discuss issues of lineage and land in their wills3 The This paper investigates the dynamic between land and paper will show that, for some fanlilies at least, holding family identity, and is concerned to connect the symbolic and using parcels of land in the Level was a tangible and and ideological constructions of both to landholding explicitly exploited means of constructing familial identity. practices. In 1977 Peter Clark identified the 16th century for the purpose of maintaining and promoting their social as a period in which a nexus of issues including the status, and cementing the local and regional networks "growing prosperity" of the gentry and their "increasing which located them among their peers. administrative experience" led to an "enhanced political The Level of the Romney Marsh has been seen as a awareness, social self-confidence, articulateness and class distinctive place: its peculiarities of geography, adminis- consciousness to match their rising political and economic tration and self interests distinguished it from the rest of aspirations".' This paper offers an example of the nature Kent.4 Part of the reason for this lies in the sheer value of and significance of such issues within and between the the marshland in the Level: pasture was at a premium generations of the Scotts of Scotts Hall and the Hales' of throughout the period, making marshland holdings valu- Tenterden. Examination ofthese branches oftwo promin- able assets and the land market extremely fluid. Frequent ent Kentish families, who were significantly active in the changes of ownership and occupation with the resulting possession and use of land in the Level of the Romney focus on land use required close management, and the Marsh in the late 16th and 17th centuries. makes it possible Level consequently developed a virtually urban adminis- to situate the generation of family identity within their trati~n.~ connections to local and regional society. The subject is The Scott and Hales families have been chosen for a approached through an examination of both the economic number of reasons. Firstly, they are significant land owning activities of those families, and the language in which families of Kentish elite, about which much is known 158 Mark Men?) and Catherine Richardson throughout the period. Both fall into the category of 23,500 acres in the Level of the Romney Marsh from the 'substantial niarshland owner' identified by Stephen 1580s." They indicate that two trends were developing Hipkin as being resident on the fringes of the Le~el.~ across the Level. Firstly, they show that owner occupation Secondly, although not resident on the Level, they were of holdings had steadily diminished by the end of the particularly involved in its politics and economies. The century.I6 Owning and occupying marshland holdings minute books of the corporation make it clear that both increasingly became entirely separate pastimes, as a families were at the heart of the politicised offices of its response to the rapidly changing national economic peculiar administration. In the 1640s, for instance, sir conditions that prevailed in the early part of the 17th Robert Scott is succeeded in the office of deputy surveyor century.17 by Edward Hales first knight and baronet, while the office The second trend is associated with the crisis in the of surveyor was held by sir Edward Scott (Robert's wool industry in the early 17th century. The depression brother) until his death in 1645, then occupied by his seems to have had the dual effects of coalescing owners eldest son Edward e~quire.~ and occupiers in the Level into distinct groups and altering Thirdly, at the county level, the records show members the structure of occupation across the Level in the 17th of the two families acting as justices or on various century.'' The larger tenant farmers rose to dominance con~missionsthroughout the peri~d.~Tliomas Scott esquire during the course of this century, accumulating growing attained the position of Sheriff, while Edward Hales knight numbers of separate holdings into increasingly large and first baronet served in numerous capacities (see concerns.I9 Analysis of the scot book material indicates below). Members of these families were involved at every that this rise of the larger tenant farmer was principally at level of the administration of justice in Kent.9 the expense of the middle ranked farmers, although the Finally, the marriages of both families were crucial to humblest of farmers also lost holding^.^' There was a clear their immersion into the economics and politics of the trend whereby those who could afford to do so increasingly Level.'' Their family trees (see Figs. 11.1 and 11.2) show turned to exploiting their marshland for their rent yield marriages into well established Kentish families. who were rather than employing them as pasture for their own herds. prominent not only in gentry society but also in the land These two broad trends, both of which can be seen to market in the Level. A series of marriages in the second have been well underway by the early 1650s, resulted in decade of the 17th century between the Scotts and the a fluid land market, which was characterised by high levels Honywoods linked the senior Scott heir with a family of extremely short term leasing of often very small parcels heavily involved in direct farming in the Level throughout of marshland, often (although this is notoriously difficult the century." The Hales family was also married into the to elucidate) with a degree of very small scale sub- Honywood family early in the period (see Fig. 1 1 .2),12and tenan~ies.~'Indeed the activity in the land market seems into other families involved in the owning and farming of most energetic in relation to the smaller holdings in the the marshland in the Level.I3 Level, and it appears that, from the early 1 7th century, the Part of the purpose of this paper is to complement more substantial owners strove to accumulate large recent work done on the structures of land ownership, piecemeal farms in order to exploit their rent value.22 occupation and use in the Level.I4 The broad trends depicted by this work are extremely illuminating, particu- larly with regard to the obscure question of land use, while ,Ycot Book Evidence .for the Scott and Hales the material that it draws upon lends itself to various Fam il ies statistical analyses. This paper takes the findings of these As mentioned, the scot books cannot be used to examine quantitative studies, and elucidates them with deeds, systematically land ownership in the Level until the 1650s, probate materials, and court materials. The activities of but in our period they do indicate the Scott and Hales the Scott and Hales families can be considered as a families holding substantial marshland. In 1587 the Scott response to the developing economic conditions on the family owned (or had recently owned) over 500 acres Marsh, while at the same time indicating how these broad mostly in Orlestone, while the Hales family were listed as economic contexts could shape the strategies adopted for owning 176 acres in Ivy~hurch.~~Clearly this does not social promotion by particular families. reflect anywhere near the complete holdings of either family, particularly as we know from the common expend- itors accounts that both families were holding ancient The Extent of the Marshland Holdings of manors of the Level in the 1580s."' In the early years of the 17th century both families were still substantial owners: the Scott and Hales Families the Scotts owning 582 acres and the Hales family owning 429 acre^.^‘ However, in terms of their occupation of Local Taxation Materials holdings in the Level, both families were clearly heavily The wall scots levied for the upkeep of the Dymchurch involved in the market.26 In both families, individual wall provide (with varying comprehensiveness) details of owners also occupied the lands that were owned, which is owners and tenants of marshland holdings totalling some quite typical of the general pattern at the end of the 16th Edward Hales = Margaret of Tenterden esquire daughter of John d.1586 Honywood of Seen d. 1583 John Hales = MaV - Mary William Hales = Elizabeth Jane Hales = sir Thomas Elizabeth Hales = William of Tenterden esquire daughter of Rob& E~~~$l~~~iaughter of stephen of Tenterden daughter of Paul d. by 1582 Honywood of Austen of Ford of d.1600 Horne, bishop of d.1585 d.1582 Johnson of Elmstead Tenterden (no heirs) Winchester Tenterden (father's heir) ~ordwich Martha = Edward Hales = Deborah William Hales = Margaret Mary Hales = S.