Transforming English Rural Society: the Verneys and the Claydons, 1600–1820 John Broad Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-82933-5 - Transforming English Rural Society: The Verneys and the Claydons, 1600–1820 John Broad Frontmatter More information

Transforming English Rural Society

Between 1540 and 1920 the English elite transformed the countryside and landscape by building up landed estates which were concentrated around their country houses. John Broad’s study of the Verney family of Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire demonstrates two sides of that process. Charting the family’s rise to wealth impelled by a strong dynastic imperative, Broad shows how the Verneys sought out heiress marriages to expand wealth and income. In parallel, he shows how the family managed its estates to maximise income and transformed three local village communities, creating a pattern of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ villages familiar to nineteenth-century commentators. Based on the formidable Verney family archive with its abundant correspondence, this book also examines the world of farmers, labouring families and the poor, as well as strategies for estate expansion and social enhancement. It will appeal to anyone interested in the English countryside as a dynamic force in social and economic history.

john broad is Principal Lecturer in History at the London Metropolitan University.

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-82933-5 - Transforming English Rural Society: The Verneys and the Claydons, 1600–1820 John Broad Frontmatter More information

Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time 40

Series Editors

richard smith Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

jan de vries University of California at Berkeley

paul johnson London School of Economics and Political Science

keith wrightson Yale University

Recent work in social, economic, and demographic history has revealed much that was previously obscure about societal stability and change in the past. It has also suggested that crossing the conventional boundaries between these branches of history can be very rewarding. This series exempliﬁes the value of interdisciplinary work of this kind, and includes books on topics such as family, kinship, and neighbourhood; welfare provision and social control; work and leisure; migration; urban growth; and legal structures and procedures, as well as more familiar matters. It demonstrates that, for example, anthropology and economics have become as close intellectual neighbours to history as have political philosophy or biography.

For a full list of titles in the series, please see end of book.

Transforming English Rural Society The Verneys and the Claydons, 1600–1820

John Broad London Metropolitan University

University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521829335 © John Broad, 2004 Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2004 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Broad John, 1945– Transforming English rural society : the Verneys and the Claydons, 1600–1820 / John Broad. p. cm. – (Cambridge studies in population, economy, and society in past time ; 40) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0 521 82933 x 1. Verney family. 2. Administration of estates – England – Buckinghamshire – History. 3. Great Britain – History – George III, 1760–1820 – Biography. 4. Great Britain – History – Stuarts, 1603–1714 – Biography. 5. Great Britain – History – 18th century – Biography. 6. Gentry – England – Buckinghamshire – History. 7. Buckinghamshire (England) – Social conditions. 8. Buckinghamshire (England) – Rural conditions. 9. Buckinghamshire (England) – Biography. 10. Buckinghamshire (England) – History. I. Title. II. Series. da377.2.v5b75 2004 942.5´9 – dc22 2003055822 isbn 978-0-521-82933-5 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-04198-0 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

List of ﬁgures page ix List of tables x Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Note on editorial practice xiv List of abbreviations xv

1 Introduction 1

Part I Re-establishing a gentry family 1600–1657 13 2 A gentry family in county and court society 1603–1642 15 3 The Civil War and Interregnum 1642–1657 27 4 The creation of an enclosed estate 1600–1657 48

Part II The shaping of family and village 1657–1740 81 5 Land, business, and dynastic advance 1657–1736 83 6 The making of a modern landed estate 112 7 Power in the community – the making of an estate village 1660–1740 149

Part III The great estate and estate communities c. 1700–1820 197 8 The rise and fall of Verney fortunes in the eighteenth century 1740–1820 199

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viii Contents

9 Transforming the Claydons in the eighteenth century 228 10 Conclusion 264

Appendix A: Sir Ralph Verney’s confessional letter of 1650 275 Appendix B: The genealogy of the Verney family 277 Bibliography 280 Index 290

List of ﬁgures

Figure 1 The Verney estates c. 1642 page 24 Figure 2 Middle Claydon and its enclosures 1600–57 51 Figure 3 Middle Claydon rents and arrears 1679–94 145 Figure 4a–c Baptisms, marriages and burials in the three Claydon parishes (nine-year moving average) 151 Figure 5 Poor rate expenditure in Middle Claydon 1674–1730 191 Figure 6 Verney and Grenville estates in north Buckinghamshire c. 1770 202 Figure 7a East Claydon poor rate expenditure 1718–91 256 7b Middle Claydon poor rate expenditure 1730–93 257 Figure 8 Landownership concentration in north Buckinghamshire c. 1798 273

List of tables

4.1 Middle Claydon leases 1570–1669 page 52 6.1 Changing distribution of Middle Claydon farm sizes from rentals 139 6.2 Middle Claydon farm acreage by farm-size group using constant 2,000-acre farm area 140 6.3 Estimates of Middle Claydon rental less woods and park 1642–1791 141 6.4 Knowl Hill rents 1636–1722 142 6.5 Tenant turnover at Middle Claydon 1679–1694 143 6.6 Late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century tenant turnover in Middle Claydon 143 7.1 Origins of parties to Middle Claydon marriages 1600–1800 158 7.2 Age at ﬁrst marriage of Middle Claydon inhabitants by period 1601–1800 163 9.1 Farmers and cottagers on the Verney estates c. 1810 231 9.2 Wealth in the Restoration Claydons from the Hearth Tax returns c. 1662/71 250 9.3 Percentage of houses in parish by number of hearths 250 9.4 Population estimates for the Claydon parishes 1603–1811 252

Preface

The author of any book so long in the making has received help, advice, and encouragement from many people. My interest in early modern rural society was inspired by Sir John Habakkuk’s and Joan Thirsk’s undergraduate lectures and Cliff Davies’s tutorial teaching. When St Edmund Hall Oxford elected me to the Gilbert Verney Senior Studentship, George Ramsay and Neville Williams supervised me with a combination of judicious promptings and enthusiastic sug- gestions that helped shape a doctoral thesis on Sir Ralph Verney. Joan Thirsk chaired a postgraduate seminar that was lively and thought-provoking, and helped initiate me into the intricacies and pleasures of English rural history. The decision to expand my work in time and scope was made possible by the generous help and support of three generations of the Verney family at Claydon House: Sir Harry Verney, Sir Ralph and Lady Verney, and Sir Edmund Verney gave me full access to the papers, help with accommodation to stop me freez- ing in the paper room and to enable me to search the eighteenth century papers systematically, and their own insights into the family history. The archivists at Buckinghamshire County Record office (now the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies) and their staff provided help and advice on a wide range of subjects. Joan Thirsk and John Beckett many years ago provided stimulating comments on an earlier draft, making me re-think my approach during a spell of adminis- trative duties that further delayed completion of the manuscript. I have received help and advice from so many colleagues over the years that it would be im- possible to acknowledge them all, but Malcolm Airs, Penelope Corfield, Hugh Hanley, Steve Hindle, Tim Hitchcock, Richard Hoyle, Frank Melton, Roland Quinault, Richard Smith, Rachel Weil, and Susan Whyman have read and dis- cussed various aspects to my great benefit. The Huntington Library and Scouladi Foundation made it possible for me to look at the Stowe papers in California in 1982, while the Leverhulme Foundation and the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University) provided me with the necessary time and space to bring it all to completion in 1999–2000. Students and colleagues at the University of North London were full of ideas and insights in ways they can never have anticipated or imagined. John Gibbs’s help with maps in difficult circumstances has been much appreciated. My family has lived with the Verney

xii Preface

project for so many years that they must wonder what my life and theirs will be like without it. My parents always gave me their fullest support and I feel partic- ularly sad that my mother died knowing that it was complete, but before it could appear. Angela, David, and Ben have heard and read so much of the Verneys. David and Ben both helped with aspects of the graphs, and Angela’s eagle eye has rescued me from many logical inconsistencies and textual infelicities. The responsibility for its ﬁnal form remains ﬁrmly mine.

Acknowledgements

All Verney papers and letters cited in this book remain the property of the Claydon House Trust in which copyright lies. Earlier versions of some aspects of this book have previously been published in Agricultural History Review, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Continuity and Change, Economic History Review, Historical Journal, Past and Present, and Records of Buckinghamshire.

xiii

Note on editorial practice

The spelling and punctuation in so many of the Verney letters is so unfamiliar that I have taken the liberty of modernising it in the interests of clarity and readability. Quotations from printed sources have been transferred verbatim. Before 1752 the year began on 25 March, and dates between 1 January and 24 March have been put in the form 1656/7 in the footnotes. When the Verneys were abroad, dates were further complicated by differences in calendar, for example 31 Jan./10 Feb. 1646/7.

xiv

Abbreviations

BCRO Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury, formerly Buckinghamshire County Record Office BL British Library Bodl. Bodleian Library, Oxford CJ House of Commons Journal ClH Claydon House papers CRO County Record Office or archives service HLRO House of Lords Record Office Huntington H. E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California LJ House of Lords Journal PP Parliamentary Papers PRO Public Record Office (since April 2003, National Archives) R Reel of Verney letters microfilm

In order to prevent confusion between different members of the Verney family the following designations have been used, even when they were not the title of the person at the time. They are followed by the abbreviation used in the footnotes.

Sir Edmund Verney (d. 1642) sev Sir Ralph Verney (d. 1696) srv Edmund Verney (d. 1690) ev Sir John Verney, ﬁrst Viscount Fermanagh Sir John Verney sjv Ralph Verney, second Viscount Fermanagh ﬁrst earl rv Ralph Verney, second Earl Verney second earl rvjr Mary Blacknall (wife of Sir Ralph Verney) mv

The following abbreviations for frequent correspondents are used in the footnotes:

William Denton wd Sir Roger Burgoyne srb William Roades wr

xvi List of abbreviations

Hugh Holmes hh William Coleman wc Charles Chaloner cc Edward Butterﬁeld eb William Butterﬁeld (father and son) wb