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Durham E-Theses Social networks. families and neighbourhoods: brancepeth parish in the seventeenth century Hamilton, Dorothy Elizabeth How to cite: Hamilton, Dorothy Elizabeth (2000) Social networks. families and neighbourhoods: brancepeth parish in the seventeenth century, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4335/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 D. E. Hamilton, Social Networks. Families and Neighbourhoods: Brancepeth Parish in the Seventeenth Century. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Durham, 2000. CONDITIONS FOR CONSULTING THIS THESIS Anyone who consults this thesis must personally sign and date the consultation record in this volume, prior to consultation, to state that they agree to abide by the following terms and conditions: 1. The copyright of this thesis belongs to the author. 2. No quotation or information derived from this thesis may be published in any form (including on the internet or in other electronic format) without the written permission of the author. 3. No quotation or information derived from this thesis may be used in unpublished essays, dissertations or theses unless the source of the information or quotation is fully acknowledged with a bibliographic reference to the thesis. 4. The thesis must not be loaned to another person, or left unattended in the library. 5. The thesis is closed until November 2005. Social Networks. Families and Neighbourhoods: Brancepeth Parish in the Seventeenth Century by Dorothy Elizabeth Hamilton Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph. D. University of Durham submitted in the Department of Anthropology May 2000 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any form, including Electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 19 m 2001 Contents Abstract 1 List of Tables 2 List of Figures 4 Acknowledgements 9 Declaration and Copyright 11 Abbreviations used 12 Chapter 1 Introducing the Study 13 1.1 Introduction 13 1.2 Godparents in the parish of Brancepeth, 17 1629-1638 1.3 The community study and its contribution to 25 historical debate 1.4 Kinship in local communities 31 1.5 Neighbourliness 41 1.6 The size and scale of social communities 51 1.7 Sources, methods and investigations 55 Chapter 2 Brancepeth Parish in the Seventeenth Century 69 2.1 The context 69 2.2 The landscape 70 2.3 The Neville legacy'in Brancepeth 87 2.4 Religious beliefs in Brancepeth 105 2.5 The population history of Brancepeth in the 116 late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 2.6 Brancepeth and the surrounding parishes 132 2.7 Living and working in Brancepeth 137 2.8 Continuity or change? 152 Chapter 3 Families. Wealth and Status in Brancepeth 155 3.1 Reconstructing the historical community of 155 Brancepeth 3.2 The Family Reconstitution of Brancepeth 155 3.3 Record linkage in Brancepeth 168 3.4 Linking wills and inventories 171 3.5 Brancepeth families and Brancepeth land 179 3.6 Examining poverty levels in Brancepeth - 199 linking the Hearth Tax to the Family Reconstitution 3.7 The social hierarchy 207 3.8 Family wealth and family life-cycle 219 3.9 The value of family reconstitution combined 220 with record linkage in Brancepeth Chapter 4 Social Networks 223 4.1 Introduction 223 4.2 Methodology: social network analysis 227 4.3 Honest neighbours? 243 4.4 Will witnesses 260 4.5 Lenders of money 282 4.6 Kinship in Brancepeth 305 4.7 The size and scale of the local community 339 Chapter 5 Conclusions and Discussion 344 5.1 The contribution of this study 344 5.2 The scale and structure of local communities 344 in Brancepeth 5.3 Wealth, religion and social subgroups 347 5.4 Kinship 350 5.5 Neighbourly relationships 354 5.6 Brancepeth: a traditional community in a 357 modernising world 5.7 A parish study 360 5.8 Some directions for further research 363 Appendix 368 Sources 378 Bibliography 385 1 D. E. Hamilton, 'Social Networks, Families and Neighbourhoods: Brancepeth Parish in the Seventeenth Century' Abstract Brancepeth parish is situated in County Durham in the north of England. In the seventeenth century the parish contained seven townships. This study questions the idea of the parish as a single social community by examining social networks between families living within the different townships of the parish. The study is based on a Family Reconstitution which was undertaken in order to reconstruct the life-cycles of family groups who lived in the farms and villages of Brancepeth parish in the seventeenth century. Wills, inventories, land records, the Hearth Tax and a church seating plan have been used to assess the kinds of families represented by the Family Reconstitution in Brancepeth. The scale and structure of social interactions between families have been investigated using Ucinet social network analysis software. The networks analysed were based on witnessing wills, appraising inventories, loans of money made on trust, kinship and surnames. The results clearly point to the existence of a number of social communities within the parish population, the importance of neighbours, and the presence of kin within the neighbourhood. The findings of this study are discussed in the context of the economic structure of the parish, the influence of recusancy, and the history and culture of the population. The study concludes that Brancepeth parish in the seventeenth century had many of the features of a traditional medieval society, in an early modern world. List of Tables Table 1.1 Female godchildren who shared the same first name as their godmothers and/or mothers Table 1.2 Male children who shared the same first name as their godfathers and/or fathers Table 2.1 Number of hearths per household based on combined 1665 and 1666 Hearth Tax assessment (including households exempt from taxation) Table 3.1 The balances of 185 probate inventories surviving from Brancepeth, 1600-1699, compared to Highley probate inventories, 1666-1740 Table 3.2 The values of the Brancepeth leaseholds, 1607 Table 3.3 The size of all the Brancepeth leaseholds compared with those which could be matched to the Family Reconstitution, 1607 Table 3.4 Chargeable and exempt households shown on the 1665 Hearth Tax with additional households from the 1666 Hearth Tax Table 3.5 Estimated or actual ages of householders who were exempt from paying the Hearth Tax, based on the combined 1665 and 1666 Hearth Tax, (householders who could be traced to the Family Reconstitution) Table 4.1 Links between the families of appraisers and the families of the deceased Table 4.2 Links between the families of testators and the families of will witnesses Table 4.3 Links from the families of lenders to the families of borrowers Table 4.4 Related households in the parish: Brancepeth compared to Terling Table 4.5 First-order kinship links between households-conjugal family units. Brancepeth compared to Terling Table 4. 6 The density of kinship networks (first order links): Brancepeth compared to Terling Table 4 7 Kinship links (all links): Brancepeth compared to Terling Table 4 8 Kinship in Brancepeth township Table 4 9 Kinship in Brandon and Byshottles township Table 4 10 Kinship in Crook and Billy Row township Table 4 11 Kinship in Helmington Row township Table 4 12 Kinship in Stockley township Table 4 13 Kinship in Tudhoe township Table 4 14 Kinship in Willington township Table 4 15 Kinship links within and between townships: Family Reconstitution links only Table 4 16 Kinship links within and between townships: first order links only Table 4 17 Matching surnames within and between townships Table 4 19 Homophily between families from the same townships, as shown by within-group means List of Figures Figure 1.1 The location of Brancepeth parish Figure 1.2 Brancepeth's relative size and position amongst the parishes of County Durham Figure 1.3 Godparents from other parishes in County Durham, 1629-1638 Figure 2.1 The township boundaries, villages and main houses of Brancepeth parish in the seventeenth-century Figure 2.2 The rivers, streams and upland areas of Brancepeth parish Figure 2.3 Eye views between places within Brancepeth parish Figure 2.4 Brancepeth baptisms, marriages and burials, 1600-1699 Figure 2.5 Brancepeth baptisms, marriages and burials, 1600-1699 (9 year moving average) Figure 2.6 Brancepeth baptisms, marriages and burials, 1600-1699 (9 year moving average corrected for missing years and obvious under-recording) Figure 2.7 Marriage partners from other parishes in County Durham Figure 2.8 Distribution of households by township based on the combined 1665 and 1666 Hearth Tax assessments Figure 2.9 Distribution of surviving seventeenth century inventories by township Figure 3.1 An FRF produced by the computer method of Family Reconstitution Figure 3.2 The

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