FAMILIES AND THEIR PROPERTY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND A STUDY OF FOUR COMMUNITIES ON THE YORKSHIRE OUSE, 1660-1760 Michael David Riley Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of York, October 1990 Table of Contents List of Tables, Illustrations and Appendices 1 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 List of Abbreviations 6 INTRODUCTION 7 PART 1 PROPERTY OWNERSHIP CHAPTER I THE AGRARIAN ECONOMY 27 Agricultural Property and Patterns of Husbandry 32 Degrees of Farmers 49 CHAPTER 2 CRAFTS AND TRADES 66 Village and Market Town Crafts 70 River Trade 79 Shopkeepers 86 CHAPTER 3 PROPERTY AND LIFESTYLES 101 Houses 103 Decorative and Luxury Goods 112 ' Books 118 PART 2 PROPERTY DISTRIBUTION AND FAMILY ATTITUDES CHAPTER 4 KINSHIP 139 The Involvement of Kin in Testamentary Procedure 144 Bequests to Different Kin 147 Differences in the Recognition of Kin 157 CHAPTER 5 PROPERTY AND PARENTAL AUTHORITY 174 Sentiments 176 The Care of Young Children 181 The 'Putting Forth' of Children 189 CHAPTER 6 HUSBANDS AND WIVES 208 Sentiments 210 Providing for Widows Within the Law 213 The Widow's Inheritance of the Dwelling House 219 The Widow's Inheritance of Other Real Estate 228 The Widow as Executrix and Residuary Legatee 232 CONCLUSION 241 APPENDICES 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY 258 List of Tables. Illustrations and Appendices Tables 1:1 Status and Farming in the Inventories of the Four Communities 33 1:2 Proportion of Inventories Listing Different Livestock 36 1:3 Mean Size of Herd/Stud/Flock 36 1:4 Proportion of Inventories Listing Different Crops 42 1:5 Proportion of Inventories Listing Different Agricultural Implements 46 2:1 Number of Inventories Belonging to Tradesmen or Craftsmen in Different Communities 70 3:1 House-Size as Indicated by the 1674 Hearth Tax : Differences Between Parishes 105 3:2 House-Size as Indicated by the Inventories Differences Between Parishes and Over Time 107 3:3 Proportion of Inventories Listing Different Luxury Items 115 3:4 Proportion of Inventories Listing Luxury Items According to Social Status 117 3:5 Illiteracy Rates : Differences Between Parishes and Over Time 120 3:6 Bookownership in the Four Parishes According to Social Status 124 4:1 The Distribution of Bequests Beyond the Nuclear Family : Differences Between Parishes and Over Time 148 4:2 The Distribution of Bequests Beyond the Nuclear Family : Social Differences 159 1 4:3 The Distribution of Bequests Beyond the Nuclear Family : Life-Cycle and Sex Differences 164 6:1 Beneficiaries of the Dwelling House According to Family Situation 221 6:2 Beneficiaries of Unspecified or Additional Real Estate According to Family Situation 228 6:3 Executorship of Wills According to Family Situation 233 Illustrations Part of Thomas Jeffreys's Map of Yorkshire, 1775 28 Boats on the Ouse at Cawood, c.1700 81 Appendices Appendix 1 Percentage of Male Decedents Leaving Inventories by Parish and Decade 255 Appendix 2 Percentage of Male Decedents Leaving Wills by Parish and Decade 256 2 Acknowledgements My interest in the social history of early modern England was aroused and sustained by Keith Wrightson and I am grateful for his inspired teaching. During the writing of this thesis I have incurred many intellectual debts, but I owe a special thanks to my supervisor, Jim Sharpe, for his patience and encouragement. During the early stages of research he suggested many useful lines of enquiry and has made careful and constructive comments on the text. A number of people have been willing to share their understanding of early modern English society and have passed on valuable references. In particular, I should like to acknowledge the help of Paul Collins, Barbara Hutton, Jennifer Kaner, Bill Sheils, John Smail, Lorna Weatherill, Chris Webb and Donald Woodward. The staff of the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research and the J. B. Morrell Library, University of York, were always efficient and ready to respond to my enquiries. I am also grateful to my mother, Dylis Riley, who typed earlier drafts of chapters and to Jeanette Parkinson who word-processed the final copy. Finally, I must acknowledge the constant support of my wife, Ruth Garside, who has done more than her fair share of teaching and nappy- changing in order that this thesis may be finished. 3 Abstract This thesis contains an analysis of property ownership and family attitudes as reflected in the probate inventories and wills of four Yorkshire parishes (Cawood, Riccall, Selby and Wistow) during the period 1660-1760. Probate records are a well-known source to early modern historians, but there have been relatively few attempts to use this evidence to explore the variation in property ownership between market town and village, or the relationship between property distribution at death and family attitudes. In the first part of the dissertation the agricultural, trading and domestic property belonging to different families is studied to show how people earned a living and to reveal something of their lifestyles and cultural horizons. In the second part the intentions of testators are examined in order to measure attitudes towards distant relatives, children and wives. The central thesis of my work is that the material and mental environment of property-owners in these four parishes was essentially 'modern' by the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The types and amounts of property owned by some families reveals a highly- developed local economy containing commercially-oriented farmers and tradesmen. At the same time, their houses, furnishings and books suggest a lifestyle of increasing sOphistication. It is argued, however, that significant differences in property ownership can be found between neighbouring market towns and villages. Each community had a distinctive economy and the lifestyles of their inhabitants varied accordingly. 4 Most of the work on family attitudes in early modern England has concentrated on the analysis of diary evidence, and wills have been mainly used to assess the economic and social effects of different inheritance practices. This thesis shows that the decisions which testators made concerning the distribution of their property at death, and the language which they used to express their choices, can reveal a great deal about the family attitudes of ordinary people. A major contention is that many of the 'modern' attitudes found in seventeenth - and eighteenth-century diaries - limited kinship recognition, companionate marriages, caring parents - can also be found in wills. However, the point in the life-cycle which testators had reached and differences in social status had a marked effect on family attitudes. 5 List of Abbreviations B.I.H.R. Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York P.R.O. Public Record Office Y.A.J. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal V.C.H. Victoria History of the Counties of England INTRODUCTION The Vale of York bisects the county of Yorkshire from north to south. It is sixty miles long and about thirty miles wide in most places. The Vale is bordered on the east by the North Yorkshire Moors, the Howardian Hills and the Yorkshire Wolds; on the west lie the Dales and, further south, the manufacturing district of the old West Riding. Though linen-weaving was established in some areas, the Vale's economy during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was dominated by agriculture. A range of soil types produced a mixed husbandry, but the fertile clay lowlands were particularly suitable for pasture and many farmers concentrated on raising cattle for their milk, meat and hides.' Writing of the Vale of York at the end of the eighteenth century, William Marshall stated: "... if we estimate the Vale of York by the number of its rivers and the richness of its marginal banks it would perhaps be difficult in any county to equal it." 2 The greatest of these rivers, the Ouse, was a crucial trade route in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sea-going vessels could navigate the river as far as York, from where smaller craft could sail further north to the foothills of the Pennines.' York was the most important port on the river and the major provincial capital. The city had declined during the century up to 1560 as the textile industry had shifted to the West Riding, but by the second half of the seventeenth century it had recovered its former position as the second town of England with a population of about 12,000. 4 More typical of early modern communities, however, were the nineteen market towns and hundreds of villages scattered throughout the Vale. s Four of these settlements, contiguous parishes located to the south of York and adjoining the Ouse, are the focus of this thesis. 7 Fifteen miles south of York lay the market town and inland port of Selby. With a population of just over a thousand in 1672, 6 Selby was the largest settlement on the Ouse between York and the Humber estuary. Its prosperity in the middle ages had depended largely on the wealth of its abbey, but after the dissolution in 1539 the community was thrown back on its position as a market town and an important route centre.' Selby's ferry service across the river meant that the town continued to be a convenient halting point for travellers between London and the north, and in 1686 it was estimated that the town's inns contained fifty-eight guest-beds and had stabling for eighty-nine houses.' Cawood, another Ouse port lying five miles north of Selby was a smaller settlement of about 690 people. During the medieval period Cawood's most striking feature had been the castle which served as the country residence of the Archbishop of York, but after the demolition of the castle in 1646, the town's position on the Ouse ensured its continuance as a trading centre.' Between these two towns lay the village of Wistow.