The Merchant Community of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1660-1750
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Durham E-Theses The Merchant Community of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1660-1750 ROBINSON, LAWRENCE How to cite: ROBINSON, LAWRENCE (2019) The Merchant Community of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1660-1750, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13021/ 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 The Merchant Community of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1660-1750 Lawrence Robert Robinson Abstract ~ This thesis examines how the social and cultural experience of becoming and being a merchant in early modern Newcastle upon Tyne contributed towards the formation of a merchant community in the town during the period 1660-1750. Chapters are arranged to broadly reflect stages in the lifecycle, beginning with apprenticeship, followed by housing, the acquisition of material goods and political participation. Chapter One offers an introduction to the topics covered and cites the thesis in the historiography as well as discussing the main primary sources used throughout. Chapter Two shows how apprenticeship brought youths to Newcastle and argues that this training provided the first critical stage of assimilation into the merchant community, teaching them the nature of urban life together with the mercantile culture of work. Chapter Three continues the apprenticeship theme with an in-depth look at the ways in which enrolments to the Newcastle Merchant Adventurers changed between 1600 and 1750, in terms of overall numbers and with respect to the social background of recruits and their pattern of migration (briefly extending the thesis chronology to highlight important long-term change). Chapter Four is concerned with merchant housing and uses the 1665 Hearth Tax to create a detailed picture of how merchant properties compared in size and location to the town as a whole. The use of domestic space is also considered and connected to the bourgeois values of sociability, respectability and dignity. Chapter Five continues this topic with a look at material culture. Urban life was associational in nature and this chapter will argue that material culture had a key role in developing a broader urban bourgeois culture between towns and regions. Chapter Six examines the political participation of Newcastle merchants and shows the extent of the control they held over the town corporation and considers the implications this had for social relations between the merchant community and the rest of the town population. Chapter Seven concludes the thesis and stresses the need to re-evaluate the role provincial merchants had in the development of society and culture across the early modern period. i The Merchant Community of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1660-1750 Lawrence Robert Robinson Department of History Submitted to Durham University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Statement of copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. ii Contents Abbreviations, Conventions & Acknowledgments v List of Tables, Figures, Maps and Images vi Chapter One Introduction 1 1.1 Aims of the thesis 1 1.2 Historiography 9 1.3 Thesis chronology: Newcastle and the merchant community 1660-1750 13 1.3.1 Demographic change, rising real wages and the ‘consumer revolution’ 14 1.3.2 Urbanisation and the ‘urban renaissance’ 17 1.3.3 The expansion of trade in Newcastle 18 1.3.4 Merchants and politics: the ‘inner ring’ 22 1.4 Sources 26 Chapter Two Becoming a Merchant: Apprenticeship and the Merchant Community 31 2.1 Introduction 31 2.2 The road to apprenticeship 34 2.3 Assimilation into the merchant community 41 2.4 The experience of Ralph Jackson 46 2.5 Assimilation into the Company of Merchant Adventurers 54 2.6 Continuing the lifecycle: community bonds after apprenticeship 59 2.7 Conclusion 62 Chapter Three Apprenticeship and the Merchant Adventurers: Enrolments 1600-1750 64 3.1 Introduction 64 3.2 Enrolments to the Newcastle Merchant Adventurers 1600-1750 67 3.3 The social origins of apprentice Merchant Adventurers 72 3.4 The cultural impact of the gentleman merchant 77 3.5 Changing patterns of recruitment: the decline of long-distance migration 82 3.6 Conclusion 87 Chapter Four Merchant Housing 88 4.1 Introduction 88 4.2 Becoming a householder in early modern England 89 4.3 Architectural evidence: the houses of Alderman Fenwick and Bessie Surtees 92 4.4 Location of merchant housing in Newcastle 99 4.5 Merchant housing: evidence from the 1665 Hearth Tax 108 4.6 Size of Newcastle merchant properties 115 4.7 Room function and the use of domestic space 118 4.8 Conclusion 130 iii Chapter Five Material Culture and the Merchant Household 132 5.1 Introduction 132 5.2 Probate inventories and domestic wealth 138 5.3 Living standards 143 5.4 Acquiring household goods 151 5.5 The kitchen 153 5.6 Dignity, sociability and the household 158 5.7 Print culture 166 5.8 Conclusion 172 Chapter Six Merchants and Politics 174 6.1 Introduction 174 6.2 Merchants and local politics: the Newcastle oligarchy 178 6.3 Defending the merchant monopoly 182 6.4 Defending the rights of Newcastle: merchant MPs 187 6.5 The role of merchant charity in social relations 199 6.6 The Newcastle corporation, merchant guilds and the provision of charity 210 6.7 Conclusion 214 Chapter Seven Conclusion 217 Appendix One Transcript of the inventory of Jonathan Roddam’s library, 1712 230 Appendix Two Newcastle MPs 1660-1750 234 Bibliography 236 iv Abbreviations, Conventions & Acknowledgements Abbreviations AA Archaeologia Aeliana BI Borthwick Institute, University of York BL British Library CSPD Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series CSPCS, A&WI Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America & West Indies DUL, DPR Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections Durham Probate Records EcHR Economic History Review EHR English Historical Review NC Newcastle Courant ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition OED Oxford English Dictionary, online edition P&P Past & Present TA Teesside Archives, Middlesbrough TNA The National Archives, Kew T&WA Tyne & Wear Archives, Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne Conventions All dates are given as old style but have been adjusted so the year begins on 1 January. Acknowledgments Firstly I would like to express my gratitude to the ESRC for awarding me a 1+3 studentship. Having a bursary that covered my entire time at Durham as a postgraduate was a luxury I never overlooked. Staff working in the archives of Durham University, Teeside, Tyne & Wear and at the Borthwick Institute all proved most helpful in locating various documents relating to Newcastle merchants. Having enthusiastic archivists to offer assistance can save untold hours of searching and in this respect I feel myself to have been particularly fortunate. I would like to thank the Economic & Social History Reading Group at Durham for their helpful suggestions on early draft chapters and Barbara Crosbie for allowing me access to her unpublished PhD thesis. Barbara also offered some much appreciated advice as one of my reviewers and for the same reason I would like to extend my thanks to Richard Huzzey, Andy Wood, Sare Aricanli and Alex Barber. Above all I am grateful to my supervisors, Adrian Green and Julie Marfany. Their expertise, guidance and encouragement has benefitted the thesis in countless ways and made the experience of researching and writing at Durham University a very rewarding one. As my primary supervisor, Adrian has lived with this project more than anyone, yet over the course of its completion his enthusiasm and good humour remained undimmed. Adrian was my first point of contact at Durham and during my four years as a postgraduate has been a continued source of help; to him I give special thanks. v List of Tables, Figures, Maps and Images Tables 3.1 Social statuses of the fathers of merchant apprentices in Bristol and Newcastle in the years 1600-90 76 3.2 Migration pattern of apprentice Newcastle Merchant Adventurers 1600-1749 83 3.3 Apprentices with fathers listed as Newcastle residents, 1600-1749 83 3.4 County origins of 1,315 apprentices enrolled to the Newcastle Merchant Adventurers 1600-1749 85 4.1 Newcastle in the 1665 Hearth Tax 109 4.2 Average number of hearths in Newcastle, Norwich, Bristol, York and Exeter households 111 4.3 Average number of hearths houses taxed on in each Newcastle ward, 1665 114 4.4 Number of domestic rooms in Newcastle merchant houses 116 5.1 Merchant households in each domestic wealth group 140 5.2 Merchant ownership of household furniture 144 5.3 Merchant ownership of Linen 162 6.1 Merchant Adventurers and Hostmen serving as mayors, sheriffs and aldermen, 1660-1760 180 6.2 Average Age of Newcastle MPs when first appointment to various offices, 1660-1750 192 6.3 Proportion of Newcastle