Maynooth Library

Maynooth Library 00353924 L, o - % NUI MAYNOOTH 0 Mm * i ' *>J f t =*-#■•** «M < h m*« Land and people in Wicklow, 1660-1840. Vol. 1 of 2 by BRIAN FRANCIS GURRIN in two volumes THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF PhD DEPARTMENT OF MODERN HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: Professor R. V. Comerford Supervisor of research: Professor Raymond Gillespie September 2006 Table of contents Volume 1 List of figures.................................................................................................................... iv List of tables..................................................................................................................... xii Acknowledgements........................................................................................................xvii Abbreviations................................................................................................................xviii Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Wicklow: unique landscapes and a unique history....................................................1 The structure of the thesis............................................................................................ 9 The principal population sources............................................................................... 13 Pre-census time........................................................................................................ 13 Statutory censuses....................................................................................................18 Reference values......................................................................................................26 Estimating populations from census-substitute source material....................... 28 Historiography.........................................................................................................32 References, introduction.............................................................................................36 Part 1 - Wicklow: its land, and its people........................................................................43 Chapter 1 - The evolution of human landscapes in Wicklow before the nineteenth century............................................................................................................ 44 The evolution of Wicklow’s human geography......................................................45 Urbanisation, and industrial development................................................................78 Rural Wicklow..............................................................................................................86 Conclusion.................................................................................................................... 90 References, chapter 1.................................................................................................. 93 Chapter 2 - The population history of County Wicklow, 1660 - 1845.................. 101 Wicklow’s pre-Famine population, the evidence from the statutory censuses. 101 The 1813-5 and 1821 censuses............................................................................101 The 1831 and 1841 censuses............................................................................... 113 The accuracy of the pre-Famines censuses........................................................124 Pre-census Wicklow ..................................................................................................128 The late-eighteenth century..................................................................................128 The mid-eighteenth century..................................................................................134 The early-eighteenth century............................................................................... 144 The post-Restoration seventeenth century.........................................................149 The broad view of Wicklow’s post-restoration demography...............................152 References, chapter 2 ................................................................................................ 156 Chapter 3 - The specifics of population change in the localities.............................162 The uses of parish registers to the demographic historian................................... 163 A model for population change in pre-industrial Wicklow..............................168 The wheat from the chaff - determining the quality of registration............... 179 Translating church events into vital events........................................................222 The mid-1760s: determining the actual mortality and fertility rates..................228 The Protestant rate................................................................................................ 228 A local crisis?........................................................................................................236 The Catholic rate................................................................................................... 239 Residual escape - from baptisms and burials to births and deaths..................... 241 Population trends.......................................................................................................245 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 260 References, chapter 3 ................................................................................................ 262 Part 2 - Wicklow’s economy and society.......................................................................269 Chapter 4 - The rhythms of regional life....................................................................271 Agriculture, seasonality and money fluctuations................................................. 271 Structured economies as a political weapon......................................................... 274 The early development of trade and exchange in Wicklow.................................277 The operation and development of the market in the nineteenth century..........280 The operation of the market before the nineteenth century.................................298 The fair - patents, and the development of rural economies.............................. 302 Early eighteenth century developments................................................................. 307 The first reliable view - the late-1730s...................................................................318 A declining economy during the 1740s................................................................. 322 Mid-century, and Nevill’s survey............................................................................328 The late-eighteenth century......................................................................................336 Population distributions - the contrasting demographics underlying fairs and markets in the nineteenth century............................................................................344 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 351 References, chapter 4 ................................................................................................ 352 Chapter 5 - The building blocks of communities: family development, economic cycles, and the primacy of ‘choice’ ...........................................................358 Introduction................................................................................................................ 359 Family formation, and the quality of the marriage records..................................360 Temporal spheres, denominational timings and yearly rhythms.........................366 Seasonal patterns - baptisms............................................................................... 371 Seasonal patterns - burials.................................................................................. 403 Seasonal patterns - marriages..............................................................................417 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 436 References, chapter 5 ................................................................................................ 438 Volume 2 Table of contents, volume 2 .................................................................................................iv List of figures, volume 2 .................................................................................................. iv List of tables, volume 2......................................................................................................v Chapter 6 - Social relationships, shared morals and structural hierarchies................1 Marriage and family formation....................................................................................1 Fluctuating marriage age, and stagnating population levels....................................8 Sexuality, the public consciousness and popular conventions...............................10 Gender balances and imperfect unions.....................................................................24 ‘Mixed’ marriages.......................................................................................................36 Inside the eighteenth-century household, a view on south-Wicklow...................39

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