Estate management, investment and the gentleman landlord in later medieval England

Historical Research

Volumn 73, Issue 181, 2000, Pages 124-141

  Youngs, Deborah ^a  

^a SWANSEA UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 1842812612     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2281.00099     Document Type: Article

References (111)

1. C. Dyer,'A small landowner in the 15th century', Midland Hist. , i (1971-2), no. 3, 1-14
2. and R. H. Britnell, 'Minor landlords in England and medieval agrarian capitalism', Past and Present, lxxxix (1980), 3-22.
3. See also A. Watkins, 'Landowners and their estates in the Forest of Arden in the 15th century', Agricultural Hist. Rev. , xlv (1997), 18-33.
4. C. Carpenter, Locality and Polity: a Study of Warwickshire Landed Society, 1401-99 (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 154-95;
5. C. C. Dyer, 'Were there any capitalists in 15th-century England?', in Enterprise and Individuals in 15th-century England, ed. J. Kermode (Stroud, 1991), p. 17;
6. Watkins, pp. 31-3.
7. For general information on Humphrey Newton there is J. P. Earwaker, East Cheshire (2 vols. , 1877-80), i. 118-27;
8. ii. 203-7;
9. and D. Marsh,'"I see by sizt of evidence": information gathering in late medieval Cheshire', in Courts, Counties and the Capital in the Later Middle Ages, ed. D. Dunn (Stroud, 1996), pp. 71-92.
10. Examples of his scribal activities can be found throughout his commonplace book and cartulary (see n. 5 below) and in several deeds such as British Library, Harley MS. 2077 fo. 43.
11. The commonplace book is Oxford, Bodleian Library (hereafter cited as Bodl. ) MS. Latin Misc. c. 66. A printed description, along with some transcriptions, can be found in Hist. MSS. Comm. , 2nd Rept. (1874), ii. 80-1. Humphrey also transcribed and annotated a series of deeds and genealogies which his son later copied into a cartulary, now Brit. Libr. , Additional MS. 421 34A.
12. Structurally the folios form a coherent unit: the bifolia 26a+46 envelop the bulk of the sheets, which include several further bifolia. The account booklet was at least begun as a separate entity because the fourth folio of the booklet, now fo. 28a, is referred to on fo. 31 av as fo. 4: 'as appers fol iiijto ante'.
13. BodL, MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 47V.
14. Household Accounts from Medieval England, ed. C. M. Woolgar (Records of Soc. and Econ. Hist. , new ser. , xvii, 1992), i. 56-8.
15. P. D. A. Harvey, Manorial Records (British Records Assoc, v, 1984), p. 3.
16. K. B. McFarlane, The Nobility oj Later Medieval England (Oxford, 1973), pp. 44, 51;
17. C. E. Moreton, The Townshends and their World: Gentry, Law, and Land in Norfolk, c. 1450-1551 (Oxford, 1992), p. 130;
18. Woolgar, i. 59-60.
19. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 24, 26a.
20. Britnell, 'Minor landlords', p. 14.
21. The criteria were laid down by E. A. Kosminsky in Stuthes in the Agrarian History of England in the 13th Century, ed. R. H. Hilton, trans. R. Kisch (Stuthes in Med. Hist. , viii, Oxford, 1956).
22. It was followed by Dyer, 'Small landowner', Britnell, 'Minor landlords', and idem, 'Production for the market on a small 14th-century estate', Econ. Hist. Rev. , 2nd ser. , xix (1966), 380-7. Following the work of Dyer, Britnell and others 500 acres may now appear too large for the later metheval period. But as no one has produced an alternative definition of the small estate, and as Newton is smaller than the majority of gentry landholdings examined by historians, this traditional terminology has been adopted here.
23. Public Record Office, CHES 3/67/4.
24. For the importance of the township in Cheshire see D. Sylvester, 'Rural settlement in Cheshire', Trans. Hist. Soc. Lancs. and Ches. (hereafer cited as T. H. S. L. C. ), ci (1949), 1034 at pp. 1-2, 10-11.
25. Details of the Newtons' disputed obligations to Butley are found in Brit. Libr. , Add. MS. 42134A and P. R. O. , STAC, 2/30/86.
26. Dyer, 'Small landowner';
27. and idem, 'The Pastons and their Norfolk', Agricultural Hist. Rev. , xxxvi (1988), 132-44;
28. Moreton, p. 143.
29. For a discussion on Newton's hired workers see D. Youngs, 'Servants and labourers on a late metheval demesne: the case of Newton, Cheshire, 1498-1520', Agricultural Hist. Rev. , xlvii (1999), 145-60.
30. For the expense and time taken up in the compiling of rentals see C. Dyer, Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society: the Estates of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540 (Cambridge, 1980), p. 164.
31. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 24 and Brit. Libr. , Add. MS. 421 34a fo. 9. There are problems with matching Humphrey's own summations to those calculated by myself; Humphrey's are slightly higher. Either he miscalculated (his sums are not always accurate elsewhere), or he was making mental adjustments that left no record on the folio. Humphrey's calculations are the ones used.
32. Eleven half-year rentals were recorded for Newton 1499-1504 (Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 29, 32, 35, 37v, 38V, 41a, 42v, 43, 47).
33. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 28, 47.
34. P. R. O. , STAC 2/6/204-208.
35. Manchester, John Rylands University Library (hereafter J. R. U. L. ), Tatton MSS. 130, 131, 408.
36. C. Dyer, 'The consumer and the market in the later middle ages', Econ. Hist. Rev. , 2nd ser. , xlii (1989), 305-27 at p. 322.
37. For Cheshire agriculture see H. J. Hewitt, Mediaeval Cheshire (Manchester, 1929)
38. and Agrarian History of England and Wales (hereafter cited as A. H. E. W. ), iv, ed. J. Thirsk (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 80-9.
39. Dyer, 'Small landowner', p. 6 and Watkins, p. 23.
40. L. R. Poos, A Rural Society after the Black Death: Essex, 1350-1525 (Cambridge, 1991), p. 214.
41. Bodl. , MS, Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 31 av.
42. For 'thrave' see the English Dialect Dictionary, vi, ed. J. Wright (1905), pp. 104-5. The thrave was usually equal to 24 sheaves of corn, but the size of the sheaf in metheval Cheshire is unknown. In later periods a sheaf tended to be 10 inches in diameter at the bands for barley and 12 inches for wheat The relation of the thrave to a bushel or acre varied geographically. As such it could be used simply to mean 'an amount'.
43. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 36r, 42r.
44. D. H. Owen, 'Wales and the Marches', in A. H. E. W. , iii, ed. E. Miller (Cambridge, 1991), p. 239.
45. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 47.
46. In the 1490s the average price for a cow was 7. 48s and oxen 12. 96s (A. H. E. W. ), iii. 457).
47. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 28v
48. C. F. Richmond, John Hopton (Cambridge, 1981), p. 99.
49. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 25V, 36V, 38V, 42V.
50. For average prices in England of 1. 86s see A. H. E. W. , iii. 457.
51. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 26a, 27a, 29V, 30V, 38V.
52. For the importance of Chapel-en-le-Frith see R. Millard and A. Robinson, The Peak District (1975).
53. Bodl,, MS, Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 26av, 34c, 36, 42.
54. C. Carpenter, 'The 15th-century gentry and their estates', in Gentry and Lesser Nobility in Late Metheval Europe, ed. M. Jones (Gloucester, 1986), pp. 36-60;
55. E. Acheson, A Gentry Community: Leicestershire in the 15th Century, C. 1422-C. 1485 (Cambridge, 1992), p. 75;
56. J. Hatcher, 'The great slump of the mid-15 th century', in Progress and Problems in Metheval England: Essays in Honour of Edward Miller, ed. R. Britnell and J. Hatcher (Cambridge, 1996), p. 257.
57. R. H. Hilton, 'Rent and capital formation in feudal society', 2nd International Conference of Economic History (2 vols. , Paris, 1965) ii. 213;
58. Watkins, p. 27
59. See also C. Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England c. 1200-1520 (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 79-80.
60. Carpenter, Locality and Polity, pp. 153-4.
61. See Hatcher.
62. P. R. O. , CHES 3/67/5 and SC6 Hen. VIII/297, m. 6.
63. J. R. U. L. , Bromley Davenport Collection, 'Newton by Mottram', 3/100/6;
64. Brit, Libr. , Add. MS. 421 34A;
65. P. R. O. , STAC 2/30/86.
66. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 27av.
67. J. Langdon, 'Water-mills and windmills in the West Midlands, 1086-1500', Econ. Hist. Rev. , 2nd ser. , xliv (1991), 424-44, at p. 436.
68. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 31av. Standard contractions have been expanded, and punctuation added. The angled brackets denote interlineations.
69. R. A. Holt, The Mills of Metheval England (Oxford, 1988), p. 164;
70. Dyer, Lords and Peasants, p. 173, although Langdon, p. 242 is sceptical of the recovery.
71. Bodl. , MS, Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 27av; Holt, p. 97;
72. Langdon, pp. 437, 439.
73. Compare with the amount of corn expected to be eaten in a knight's household (The Household of Edward IV, ed. A. R. Myers (Manchester, 1959), pp. 108-9).
74. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 3 lav.
75. Hewitt, p. 21.
76. For improvements on neighbouring estates see The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years 1535-43, ed. L. T. Smith (1907-10), part VII, p. 5.
77. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 32V, 39a. 'Stepmoder'- stepmother - was the name given to cold, blue clay. As marl was a blue, clayey soil it was fairly easy to mix the two. 'Fey' refers to the unwanted dirt and grime that clung to the marl.
78. Brit. Libr. , Add. MS. 421 34 fo. 9.
79. Bodl. , MS, Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 37, 60v.
80. Metheval Fish, Fisheries and Fishponds, ed. M. Aston (British Archaeological Reports, British ser. , clxxxii, 1988), especially the chapter by C. Dyer.
81. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 26av, 34c, 37V.
82. Acheson, p. 62.
83. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 30.
84. Holt, pp. 158, 169;
85. Langdon, p. 436.
86. A. R. Bridbury, Economic Growth: England in the Later Middle Ages (1962), p. 46;
87. J. R. Lander, Conflict and Stability in 15th-Century England (1969), p. 36;
88. A R. Bridbury, Metheval English Clothmaking (1982).
89. B. E. Coates, The origin and distribution of markets and fairs in metheval Derbyshire', Derb. Archaeol. Jour. , lxxxv (1965), 92-111;
90. N. Lowe, The Lancashire Textile Industry in the 16th Century (Chetham 3rd ser. , xx, 1972);
91. K. P. Wilson, 'The port of Chester in the 15th century', T. H. S. L. C. , cxvii (1965), 1-15;
92. J. Kermode, 'The trade of late metheval Cheshire, 1500-50', in Progress and Problems, pp. 286-307.
93. Cheshire's cloth industry has received little attention from historians, with most work on the 15th-century cloth trade focusing on the larger and well-known centres such as the south west. See for instance A. H. E. W. , iii, where fulling mills are only considered in depth for Devon and Cornwall; and the comments in Kermode, Trade of Cheshire', p. 287.
94. R. Cunliffe Shaw, 'Two 15th-century kinsmen: John Shaw of Dukinfield, mercer, and William Shaw of Heath Charnock, surgeon', T. H. S. L. C. , cx (1958), 15-30, at p. 16
95. and M. J. Bennett, 'Sources and problems in the study of social mobility: Cheshire in the later middle ages', T. H. S. L. C. , cxxviii (1979). 59-95, at pp. 81-2.
96. P. R. O. , CHES 3/62/4;
97. Earwaker, ii. 335.
98. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fos. 27av, 30.
99. Compare with the examples in Dyer, 'Consumer', P. 323.
100. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 45.
101. The 'old reckoning' is for kersey (a coarse, woollen cloth), and for ware cloth (or 'common cloth', see the Oxford English Dictionary, s. v. cloth), here sold at I 1/2 d a yard. Pole collected 13 1/2 d for the workmanship. The second item is for russet cloth, usually that containing a proportion of russet threads, which was to buy and sell at 16 1/2 d. The new reckoning lists pieces of cloth of various lengths, again to buy and sell; 'ob' refers to 1/2 d.
102. Brit. Libr. , Add. MS. 421 34A fo. 3.
103. J. R. U. L. , Tatton MSS. 130, 131 and 408.
104. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 3 5.
105. For additional payments see the table labelled 'avauntages' on fo. 29V.
106. The first payment was at midsummer so that marlers could afford to pay their rent.
107. M. K. Mcintosh, Autonomy and Community: the Royal Manor of Havering, 1200-1500 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 166-70.
108. See, for example, Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 43V;
109. Youngs, pp. 154-6.
110. Bodl. , MS. Latin Misc. c. 66 fo. 47V, 59av.
111. The paucity of work on Cheshire's economy, or at least the inability to integrate it into a wider study of England's economic development, is clear in the A. H. E. W. , iii. Here Cheshire is included within Wales and its north-eastern regions are particularly under represented.