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The education and training of gentry sons in early modern England*

2011; Routledge; Volume: 36; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03071022.2010.542905

1470-1200

Patrick Wallis, Cliff Webb,

Historical Economic and Social Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes *Acknowledgements: while writing this article, we received valuable suggestions from Adrian Ailes, Rosie Blau, Amy Erickson, Jacob Field, Mark Jenner, Chris Minns, Judith Spickley, and the editor. Florence Grant provided invaluable research assistance. 1J. Thirsk, ‘Younger sons in the 17th century’, History, liv (1969), 358–77. 2R. H. Tawney, ‘The rise of the gentry, 1558–1640’, Economic History Review, xi (1941), 3; L. Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558–1641 (Oxford, 1965), 39; L. Pollock, ‘Younger sons in Tudor and Stuart England’, History Today, xxxix (1989), 24–5. 3C. Carpenter, Locality and Polity (Cambridge, 1992), 214–20; J. T. Cliffe, The Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969), 83–4; A. Everitt, The Community of Kent and the Great Rebellion, 1640–60 (Leicester, 1966), 47. 4R. Grassby, The Business Community of Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1995), 143. 5The best summary is in C. Brooks, ‘Apprenticeship, social mobility and the middling sort, 1550–1800’ in J. Barry and C. Brooks (eds), The Middling Sort of People: Culture, Society and Politics in England, 1550–1800 (Basingstoke, 1994), 78–81. 6I. K. Ben-Amos, Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern England (New Haven, 1994), 63–7, quotation 66. See also R. Grassby, Kinship and Capitalism (New York, 2000), 362–6. 7For example, V. Larminie, Wealth, Kinship and Culture (Woodbridge, 1995), 51–66; A. Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin (London, 1970), 117–25; A. W. Purdue, Merchants and Gentry in North-East England, 1650–1830 (Sunderland, 1999), 37; M. James, Family, Lineage and Civil Society (Oxford, 1974), 177; P. Laslett, ‘The gentry of Kent in 1640’, Cambridge Historical Journal, ix (1948), 153, 161–2. 8Cliffe, op. cit.; V. Morgan, ‘Cambridge University and “The country” 1540–1640’ in L. Stone (ed.), The University in Society (London, 1975), i, 183–245; T. Barnes, Somerset 1625–1640 (London, 1961); P. Jenkins, The Making of a Ruling Class (Cambridge, 1983). 9Grassby, Business Community, op. cit.; W. Prest, The Inns of Court under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts, 1590–1640 (London, 1972); Brooks, op. cit. 10Attempts to define the gentry continue to provoke debate: see F. Heal and C. Holmes, The Gentry in England and Wales, 1500–1700 (Basingstoke, 1994), 6–19; M. Dawson, Gentility and the Comic Theatre of Late Stuart London (Cambridge, 2005), 7–13. 11A. Erickson, Women and Property in Early Modern England (London, 1993), 86–9. 12F. Blaydes (ed.), A Visitation of Bedfordshire Annis 1556, 1582 and 1634, Harleian Society, vol. 19 (London, 1884); W. Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Surrey Made and Taken in the Years 1530 by Thomas Benolte; 1573 by Robert Cooke; and 1623 by Samuel Thompson, Harleian Society, vol. 43 (London, 1899); S. Armytage (ed.), The Visitation of Surrey, 1662–8, Harleian Society, vol. 60 (London, 1910); G. Squibb (ed.), The Visitation of Somerset and the City of Bristol 1672, Harleian Society, new series, vol. 11 (London, 1992); F. Foster (ed.), Pedigrees Recorded at the Heralds' Visitations of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland … in 1615 and … in 1666 (Carlisle, 1891). 13A. Wagner, The Records and Collections of the College of Arms (London, 1952), 55–63; A. Wagner, Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1956), 2–6; A. Ailes, ‘Elias Ashmole's “Heraldic Visitacion” of Berkshire 1665–66’ (D.Phil, Oxford, 2008); Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 28. 14A larger pool of sixteen surnames is common to both visitations. Austins of Shalford; Buckles of Banstead; Coldhams of Compton; Duncombes of Shalford; Evelyns of Wooton; Haywards of Tandridge; Holmans of Blechingley; Mulcasters of Charlwood; and the Rawlins of Woking. 15Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 13. There are county studies for two of our counties: Barnes, Somerset, op. cit.; D. Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War and Interregnum (Newton Abbot, 1973); C. B. Phillips, ‘The Gentry of Cumberland and Westmorland, 1600–1665’ (Ph.D., Lancaster, 1973). 16Where available, visitations were checked against the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) (hereafter ODNB). All were accurate. We also checked birth order against birth year for 382 pairs of siblings for whom we had information about both. In all but five pairings, birth order fitted with birth year. It should be noted that the independence of both tests is dubious, as the ODNB utilized the visitations, while birth order and year were inevitably involved in the linkage process. 17Squibb, op. cit., v. 18 ibid., xv. 19Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 28–9, 34–5. 20 ODNB, s.v. ‘Onslow’. 21 ODNB, s.v. ‘Abbot, George’, ‘Abbot, Robert’, ‘Abbot, Maurice’. 22Ailes, op. cit., 224–65, quotation 189. 23R. O'Day, Education and Society 1500–1800 (London, 1982); Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 263–4. 24Prest, op. cit.; D. Lemmings, Gentlemen and Barristers (Oxford, 1990), 8–17. 25J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 8 vols (Oxford, 1888–91); J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, 10 vols (Cambridge, 1922). 26J. Foster, The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521–1889 (London, 1889); Lincoln's Inn, The Records of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn: Admissions 1420–1893 (London, 1896); W. Cooke, Students Admitted to the Inner Temple 1547–1660 (London, 1878); H. Sturgess, Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (London, 1949). 27C. Brooks, Pettyfoggers and Vipers of the Commonwealth (Cambridge, 1986), 158–64. The register for one of the inns has been published, but lacks father's name with which to make links: C. Brooks, The Admissions Registers of Barnard's Inn 1620–1869, Selden Society, supplementary series, vol. 12, (London, 1995), 20–1. 28The apprenticeship lists for sixty companies are now published: C. Webb, London Apprentice Series (London, 1996–present), available online at: http://www.englishorigins.com/. In addition we searched for Stationers Company apprentices in M. Turner, The London Book Trades – A Biographical Resource (London, 2007), available online at: http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/dspace/handle/10065/224. The remaining fifteen companies with surviving records were consulted in manuscript at the Guildhall Library (GL) or at the Company Hall. Where records are held by the company, no MS reference is normally available: Bakers' Company (GL, MS 5184/1–3); Barbers' Company (GL, MS 5266/1); Carpenters' Company (GL, MS 21742/1); Clothworkers' Company (Clothworkers' Hall); Coopers' Company (GL, MS 5606/1); Cordwainers' Company (GL, MS 7351/1–2; 7357/1–2); Drapers' Company (Drapers' Hall); Goldsmiths' Company (Goldsmiths' Hall); Haberdashers' Company (GL, MS 15860/1–7); Joiners' Company (GL, MS 8041/1; 8052/1–3); Leathersellers' Company (Leathersellers' Hall); Mercers' Company (Mercers' Hall); Merchant Taylors' Company (GL, MS 34038/1–19); Salters' Company (Salters' Hall); Weavers' Company (GL, MS 4657B; 4660). 29N. Rodger, The Wooden World (London, 1986). 30Squibb, op. cit., 7, 27. 31 ODNB, s.v. ‘Webb, John (1611–72)’. 32It should be noted that the proportion of sons from each visitation sample entering each destination (except the Inns of Court) are significantly different when tested using Pearsons Chi-square test of independence. The difference would not appear to be historically significant, however. The differences between the periods and samples are discussed in more detail below. 33L. Stone and J. C. F. Stone, An open elite? England 1540–1880 (Oxford, 1984), 234. See also J. Lane, Apprenticeship in England, 1600–1914 (London, 1996), 13, 63; O. Dunlop and R. Denman, English Apprenticeship and Child Labour (London, 1912), 141. 34In the 1690s, 7 per cent of Bristol apprentices claimed to be sons of gentry: Bristol Record Office, 04353 (2). 35The Companies that numbered among the Great Twelve were the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Merchant Taylors, Skinners, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners and Clothworkers. 36 ODNB, s.v. ‘Abbot, Sir Maurice’. 37Brooks, ‘Apprenticeship’, op. cit.; Cliffe, op. cit., 84–5. 38Stone and Stone, op. cit., 234. 39This is based on ballpark estimates as follows. An average of Rickman's estimates of county populations for 1630 and 1670 give a figure of 426,000 for the combined population of these four counties. Wrigley suggests that 18.71 per cent of the population were between 15 and 24 years in 1661. Hence, 0.935 per cent (= (18.71/24)/2) of the population, or approximately 4000 people, were 17-year-old males (the average age of apprenticeship) (E. A. Wrigley, R. S. Davies, J. E. Oppen and R. S. Schofield, English Population History from Family Reconstitution, 1580–1837(Cambridge, 1997), 615). Stone's estimate that the elite formed 2 per cent of the population would imply that there were around 80 gentry sons a year (4000 x 0.02) entering education or training (Stone, Crisis, op. cit., 31). Obviously, differential fertility, gender balance and age-specific mortality would all affect these estimates. 40Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 11–13. King estimated 2.8 per cent of the population were gentlemen or higher in 1688: G. King, Two Tracts, ed. G. Barnett (Baltimore, 1936). 41G. Clark and G. Hamilton, ‘Survival of the richest: the Malthusian mechanism in pre-industrial England’, Journal of Economic History, lxvi (2006), 707–36. The reproductive rates of the two wealthiest groups suggest that the next generation of gentry would be 1.68 times larger than their parents (Table 9, 732). 42Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 261–70; L. Stone, ‘The size and composition of the Oxford student body 1580–1909’ in L. Stone (ed.), The University in Society (London, 1975), 24–8; J. McConica, ‘Scholars and commoners in Renaissance Oxford’ in Stone (ed.), University in Society, op. cit., 159–81. 43R. O'Day, The English Clergy (Leicester, 1979), 3–5 and The Professions in Early Modern England, 1450–1800 (Harlow, 2000), 191; T. Webster, Godly Clergy in Early Stuart England (Cambridge, 1997), 15–35. 44Cliffe, op. cit., 73–4; Morgan, op. cit., 236, 238. 45H. Lloyd, The Gentry of South-west Wales, 1540–1640 (Cardiff, 1968), 194–5. 46Stone, ‘Size and composition’, op. cit., 35–6; Cliffe, op. cit., 74. 47Cliffe, op. cit., 73–4; Barnes, op. cit.; Jenkins, op. cit., 226. 48 ODNB, s.v. ‘Harrington, John’. 49O'Day, English Clergy, op. cit., 127–8; C. Cross, ‘The incomes of the provincial urban clergy, 1520–1645’ in R. O'Day and F. Heal (eds), Princes and Paupers in the English Church, 1500–1800 (Leicester, 1981), 65–89; Stone and Stone, op. cit., 229–30. 50Stone, ‘Size and composition’, op. cit., 27, 37. Stone's samples neglect 1640–59 and include only one year between 1662 and 1710: ibid., 93. 51Stone's figures are 15.8 in 1600, 16.4 in 140 and 17.4 in 1660 for esquires and above: ibid., 30. 52Cf. ibid., 30; Stone does find a rise. 53See C. Minns, P. Wallis and C. Webb, ‘Leaving home and entering service: the age of apprenticeship in early modern London’, Continuity and Change xxv, (2010), 377–404. 54Cliffe, op. cit., 74; Stone and Stone, op. cit., 231–3. Families had favoured the eldest sons in legal training since the fifteenth century at least: see Carpenter, op. cit., 216. 55Morgan, op. cit., 239. 56Grassby, Business Community, op. cit., 159. 57J. Child, Brief Observations Concerning Trade, and Interest of Money (London, 1668), 3. 58Surrey JPs are listed in Armytage, op. cit.; the Bedfordshire gentry list is British Library, Lansdowne MS, 887, printed in Blaydes, op. cit. 59An excellent discussion of gentry identities, from the perspective of those below, is given in H. French, The Middle Sort of People in Provincial England, 1600–1750 (Oxford, 2007), 20–1, 204–10. 60Thirsk, op. cit.; H. Habakkuk, Marriage, Debt, and the Estates System, English Landownership 1650–1950 (Oxford, 1994), 4; Cooper, op. cit., 227–39; Stone and Stone, op. cit., 74; R. Trumbach, The Rise of the Egalitarian Family (New York, 1978), 71. See also S. Staves, Resentment or resignation? Dividing the spoils among daughters and younger sons in J. Brewer and S. Staves (eds) Early modern conceptions of property (London, 1995), 194–218. 61Cooper, op. cit., 216–17: Staves, op. cit., 195; E. P. Thompson points to similar hierarchies among yeomen in his ‘The grid of inheritance: a comment’ in J. Goody, J. Thirsk and E. P. Thompson (eds), Family and Inheritance (Cambridge, 1976), 343–5. 62Ben-Amos, op. cit., 65–7; Heal and Holmes, op. cit., 255–8.