Illuminating the Chorus in the Shadows: Elizabethan and Jacobean Exeter 1550-1610 Vol 1 of 3 volumes. Submitted by Kate Osborne to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History March 2016. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature ……………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Abstract This thesis challenges the notion that little light can be shed on Exeter’s ‘middling’ and ‘poorer’ sorts in the period 1550-1610, defined as ‘the chorus’ by Wallace MacCaffrey in his book Exeter 1540-1640. It selects data from mid- to late- sixteenth and early seventeenth century urban archives, defines the strengths and weaknesses of that data and captures it in a digitised database. It uses this data to test which of the methodologies of prosopography, collective and individual biography, social network analysis and occupied topography are most appropriate for analysis of the city’s social structure and individuals’ lived experiences. It subsequently selects collective and individual biography for use with the randomly incomplete data set presented by the archives. Using the database to create group and individual biographies, it then introduces elementary quantitative analyses of the city’s social structure, starting by describing broadly the distinguishing characteristics of the leading actors and the chorus. Following on from this, it describes several groups who form part of the chorus, including the more civically active, alongside those with less data against their names. It investigates family and household dynamics and reveals how these are reflected through the occupation of baker. It continues by examining the post-mortem intentions of those who bequeathed goods and explores the lives of a selection of craftsmen, merchants, tailors and widows viewed through in-depth biographies created from the comparatively rich data associated with death. It also makes explicit that the lack of a particular document type compromises the degree of success in connecting the chorus to the cityscape using occupied topography methodologies. It reveals the challenges of recreating the notion of neighbourhood in the city’s west quarter around St Nicholas Priory, then the town house of the wealthy Hurst family. It concludes that it is possible to outline a new model, that of the ‘categorised, connected citizen’, which challenges the validity of MacCaffrey’s construct of a bi-partite society, one side of which is a murky unknown quantity about whom no ‘striking assertions’ can be made. This new model acknowledges the dynamism, individuality and interactivity of Exeter’s inhabitants, and contents that it is a better one for enabling historians to treat respectfully people they cannot yet fully understand. 2 Acknowledgements My thanks are due to all the following who have supported me in writing this thesis. Any errors are entirely mine: John Draisey, retired Devon County Archivist and his colleagues at the Devon Record Office and West Country Studies Library (now Devon Heritage Centre), Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist and Andrew Pye at Exeter City Council for enabling access to documents and answering questions, John Allan, Tony Collings and Richard Parker for helpful comments along the way, Dr John Booker for assistance with Latin transcriptions, Dr Todd Gray, Professor Bill Philpott and Professor Robert Higham for encouragement and opportunities to share work-in-progress, Sean Goddard and Mike Rouillard at the University of Exeter for enabling scanning of large scale maps and the Devon & Exeter Institute for loaning them, Peter Brears, Nicholas Molyneux and George Demidowicz for help with difficult transcription work and identifying mystery kitchen implements in inventories and the late Victor Chinnery and his wife Jan for introducing me to the world of Elizabethan interiors, former student Sue Reeve for her work listing property documentation and fellow student Paul Williams for sharing information on Exeter’s tailors and Professor Fabrizio Nevola for information about the ‘Hidden Florence’ project. My most grateful thanks go to my supervisors Professors Jonathan Barry and Jane Whittle without whom I would never have been able to fulfill my ambition to attempt a doctorate but in particular for their great patience and several years of encouragement, sound suggestions and generosity with personal book loans. Also to the staff of the Postgraduate Administration office, without whom this thesis would never have made it into the correct electronic format. Lastly my thanks go to my close friend Stephen Price, my parents Jane and Tony Osborne and my husband John Madin all of whom have informed my interest in history and material culture over many years and provided collective and unstinting love and encouragement. 3 Table of contents Page Abbreviations ………………………………………………………………..………. 12 Volume One Chapter 1: Introduction ……………………………………………………….….. 13 Rationale ………………………………………………………...……….….. 13 Exeter’s Elizabethan Chorus: the starting point …………...…………..… 14 Academic context: the language of ‘sorts’ ……………………..…….…… 16 Academic context: urban association ……………………..………………. 19 Academic context: history from below ……………………..…………...… 20 Methodologies: an introduction ……………...………………...…………... 24 Methodologies: occupied topography …...………………...………...….… 27 Study database …………………………………………………..……….… 33 Study aims ……………………….……………………………………..….… 34 Chapter 2: Research process, sources, data and methodologies…………………………………………………………….……..… 36 Study framework ………………………….………………………………… 38 Time span …………………………………………………………………… 38 Target population …………………………………………………………… 36 Geographical limits ………………………….……………………………… 39 Sources included in the study ……………………………………………… 40 The sources …………………………………………………………………. 42 Overall impact of sources on study outcomes …………………………… 41 Sources yet to be included ………………………………………………… 59 Sources lacking in Exeter ……………………………………………..…… 62 Literacy ………………………………………………….…………………… 63 Structuring the database around data types ………………..…………… 63 Analysing database content ………………………………………….…… 65 Complete and extension groups ………………………………………...… 68 Subsidiary database ……………...………………………………………… 68 Identification and individuation ……………………………………..……… 69 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 73 Chapter 3: Citywide Analysis : elementary statistics, broad urban context and defining the chorus ……………………………………………..….……….………74 Age at freedom ……………………………………………..………..….….…74 Average lifespan ……………………………...……………………..….….…76 Personal wealth …………………………………….………………..…..……77 Occupational wealth ……………………………………….………..….……78 Parish population types …………………………………………….….…… 79 Parish wealth ………………………………………….……………..….……81 Parish distribution of poverty ……………………………………….….……83 Parish occupational activity …………………………………………....……84 Parish pictures ………………………..……………………………..….….…87 Individual situations …………………………………..……………..….……89 Defining ‘the chorus’ ……………………….………………………..….……89 Leading actors …………………………………………...…………..….……91 Upper chorus ………………………………………….……………..….……92 Middle chorus ………………………………………………………..….……94 4 Lower chorus ………………………………...……………………..….…… 95 Conclusion ………………………………...………………………..….….… 97 Chapter 4: Group analysis: civically active men ……..………….……..…… 99 Jury service ………………………………………………………..…...…… 99 Churchwardens …………………………………...………………..….……104 Surety providers ……………………………………..……………..….……110 Inventory appraisers ……………………….……………………..….…… 112 John Hooker’s gift ………………………………….……………..….…… 114 Mustered men …………………………………………….………..….……115 Signatories to the Bond of Association ………………………………..…118 Ship money contributors and non-contributors …………….…..….…… 118 Poor-relief contributors and recipients ……………….…………..….……122 Civic duty …………………………………………….……………..….……124 Conclusion …………………………………...……………………..….……128 Chapter 5: A wider selection of chorus groups ……………………….…… 129 Experiences of sexual offending ………………………………………….129 Experiences of strangers and plague …………………………………… 142 Experiences of being an alien ………………….………………………… 147 Experiences of incapacity ……………………………………………..…..154 Conclusion ………………………………...………………………..….……163 Chapter 6: Family formation and working households …………………… 164 Urban families …………………………………………….………..….……164 Family reconstitution ……………………….……………………..….…… 165 Freedom and marriage …………………………………….……..….…… 166 Marriage and baptism: age at marriage ……………………………….…167 Marriage and baptism: seasonality ……………………………………….169 Marriage and baptism: pregnant brides and illegitimacy ……………… 170 Marriage and baptism: parenthood ……………………………………….171 Second marriages and widowhood ……………………………………….173 Lottery households ……………………………………………...………….179 Godparents or gossips …………………………………………………….180 Apprentices ………………………………………………………………….184 The baking trade …………………………………………………...……….188 Numbers and distribution ……………………..…………...………190 Civic status and attributes ………………………………...………193 Wealth …………………………………………..…………...…….…194 Interconnectivity …………………………………..………...………196 Bi-employment ……………………………………………...…….…197 Business of baking …………………………….…………...……… 198 Appearance and personal lives ………………………….….……. 202 Conclusion ……………………………………………...…………...….……203 Chapter 7: Chorus wills and inventories …………………..…………………