'An angry and malicious mind'? Narratives of slander at the church courts of York, c.1660-c.1760

History Workshop Journal

Volumn 56, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 59-77

  Bound, Fay ^a  

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EID: 34548159179     PISSN: 13633554     EISSN: 14774569     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hwj/56.1.59     Document Type: Article

References (134)

1. Responses and counter-allegations in Trans C/P 1701/4 Elizabeth Steele c. Margaret Raine, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research (hereafter BIHR).
2. See for instance William V. Harris, Restraining Rage: the Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity, London, 2001;
3. Anger's Past: the Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. Barbara H. Rosenwein, Cornell University Press, 1998;
4. Kenneth A. Lockridge, On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage: the Commonplace Books of William Byrd and Thomas Jefferson and the Gendering of Power in the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1992.
5. A recent and important example is An Emotional History of the United States, ed. Peter N. Stearns and Jan Lewis, London, 1998.
6. See Laura Gowing, Domestic Dangers: Women, Words and Sex in Early Modern London, Oxford, 1996, Introduction and chap. 1.
7. Martin Ingram, Church Courts, Sex and Marriage in England, 1570-1640, Cambridge, 1987, p. 292.
8. James Sharpe, Defamation and Sexual Slander in Early Modern Europe: the Church Courts at York, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, 1980, p. 26.
9. Dave Peacock, 'Morals, Rituals and Gender: Aspects of Social Relations in the Diocese of Norwich, 1660-1703', D. Phil., York 1996, p. 81.
10. Ingram, Church Courts, p. 314.
11. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process: the History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization, transl. Edmund Jephcott, 2 vols Oxford, 1978, 1982.
12. An obvious example of historical thinking influenced by Elias is Pieter Spierenburg, The Broken Spell: a Cultural and Anthropological History of Pre-Industrial Europe, London, 1991.
13. For a broader critique see Fay Bound, 'Emotion in Early Modern England, 1660-1760: Performativity and Practice at the Church Courts of York', D. Phil., York 2000, chap. 1.
14. Elizabeth Foyster, 'Boys will be Boys? Manhood and Aggression, 1660-1800', in English Masculinities 1660-1800, ed. Tim Hitchcock and Michèle Cohen, London, 1999, pp. 151-66.
15. For a wider discussion see Fay Bound, Emotions in History, c. 1660-c. 1820, Palgrave, forthcoming.
16. Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce: England, 1530-1987, Oxford, 1990, p. 14.
17. See Gowing, Domestic Dangers, pp. 54-6
18. and Peacock, 'Morals, Rituals and Gender', p. 65.
19. See also Miranda Chaytor's discussion of assize records in 'Husband (ry): Narratives of Rape in the Seventeenth Century', Gender and History 7, 1995, pp. 378-408, esp. p. 382.
20. For an effective critique of Chaytor's claims, see Garthine Walker, 'Rereading Rape and Sexual Violence in Early Modern England', Gender and History 10, 1998, pp. 1-26.
21. See Carol Z. Stearns and Peter N. Stearns, 'Emotionology: Clarifying the History of Emotions and Emotional Standards', American Historical Review 90, 1985, pp. 813-36.
22. See for instance Margaret Lock, 'Cultivating the Body: Anthropology and Epistemologies of Bodily Practice and Knowledge', Annual Review of Anthropology 22, 1993, pp. 133-201.
23. See Fay Bound, 'Writing the Self? Love and the Letter in England, 1660-1760', in Literature and History 11:1, 2002, pp. 1-19.
24. Interrogatories in CPH 4264 (1691) John Kay c. William Beever, BIHR.
25. Libel in CPI 80 (1704) Office pp. John Thomson c. William Clarkson, BIHR.
26. Testimony of Robert Wilson in CPI 680 (1722) William Redhead c. Thomas Hopper, BIHR.
27. Testimony of Elizabeth Taile in CPH 2805 (1666) Peter Collins c. Matthew Walker of Methley, BIHR.
28. Testimony of Thomas Barstow in CPI 886 (1729) Edmund Barker Esq. c. Martha Laycon, BIHR. See also testimony of Thomas Stocks, a thirty-year-old joiner of Otley, who deposed that 'he heard Mrs Laycon speaking in an angry and passionate manner to him the said Mr Barker'.
29. Libel in CPI 2784 (1710) Maria Brewing c. Anne Glover, BIHR.
30. Testimony of Thomas Castle in CPI 2784 Brewing c. Glover.
31. See for instance CPI 50 (1700) Joseph Swinden c. William Popplewell, BIHR;
32. Trans C/P 1701/4 Steele c. Raine;
33. CPI 790 (1724) Office pp. Robert Proctor c. Thomas Usherwood, BIHR.
34. See for instance Trans C/P 1701/4 Steele c. Raine.
35. Sharpe, Defamation, p. 8.
36. Ingram, Church Courts, p. 292
37. and Keith Wrightson, English Society, 1580-1680, London, 1990, pp. 53-4.
38. Justice Vaisey, The Canon Law of the Church of England: being the Report of the Archbishop's Commission on Canon Law, London, 1947, p. 51.
39. This clause was established by the Constitution of Oxford (1222). For a discussion, see R. H. Helmholz, 'Canonical Defamation in Medieval England', American Journal of Legal History 15, 1971, pp. 255-68, esp. p. 257.
40. On the later period, see Vaisey, Canon Law, p. 51.
41. John Godolphin, Repertorium Canonicum; or, an Abridgement of the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm, London, 1678, p. 515.
42. J. T. Law, Forms of Ecclesiastical Law, or the Mode of Conducting Suits in the Consistory Courts, 2nd edn, London, 1831, p. 47.
43. See also John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani, London, 1726, p. 212.
44. Henry Conset, The Practice of the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Courts, 2nd edn, London, 1700, p. 335.
45. Helmholz, 'Canonical Defamation', p. 257.
46. Sir Thomas Ridley, View of the Ecclesiastical Law, London, 1675, p. 343.
47. Ridley, View, p. 344.
48. For an introduction to criminal law see J. H. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History 3rd edn, London, 1994, pp. 600-3.
49. Counter-allegations of Margaret Raine in Trans C/P 1701/4 Steele c. Raine.
50. Conset, Practice, p. 335.
51. Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Minde, London, 1601, pp. 13-14.
52. See the discussion in L. J. Rather, 'Old and New Views of the Emotions and Bodily Changes: Wright and Harvey Versus Descartes, James and Cannon', Clio Medica 1, 1965, pp. 1-25, p. 4.
53. Albrecht von Haller, First Lines of Physiology, 2 vols, vol. 1, 1786, reprint, ed. Lester S. King, New York, 1966, p. 9.
54. See for example Thomas Burroughs, A Soveraign Remedy for all Kindes of Grief or, an Approved Way for the Quieting of the Soul in the Greatest Afflictions. Opened and Applied in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mr John Langham, London, 1657;
55. E. Reynolds, A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man, 1670, facsimile reprint Gainesville, 1971;
56. William Ayloffe, The Government of the Passions, According to the Rules of Reason and Religion, London, 1700;
57. Anon., The Philosophy of the Passions; Demonstrating their Nature, Properties, Effects, use and Abuse, 2 vols, London, 1772.
58. See Christian Thomasius, A New Discovery of a Well-Grounded and for the Community Most Necessary Science of the Knowledge of the Secrets of the Heart of Other Men from Daily Conversation, Even Against their Will, Halle, 1692.
59. See also René Descartes, Les Passions de l'Âme, 1649 in The Philosophical Works, transl. E. S. Haldane and G. R. T. Rodd, Cambridge, 1911;
60. Charles le Brun, A Method to Learn the Design of the Passions, transl. J. Williams, 1734, ed. A. T. McKenzie, facsimile reprint los Angeles, 1980. On the conventions of painting more generally
61. see Alan T. McKenzie, 'The Countenance You Show Me: Reading the Passions in the Eighteenth Century', The Georgia Review 30, 1978, pp. 758-73
62. and Brewster Rogerson, 'The Art of Painting the Passions', Journal of the History of Ideas 14, 1953, pp. 68-94.
63. See also J. T., Pictures of Passions, Fancies and Affections: Poetically Deciphered in a Variety of Characters, London, 1641.
64. Conset, Practice, p. 335.
65. On the relationship between 'feeling' and external displays: Bound, 'Emotion in Early Modern England', chap. 5.
66. See for instance Diane O'Hara, 'The Language of Tokens and the Making of Marriage', Rural History 3, 1993, pp. 1-40;
67. Peter Rushton, 'The Testament of Gifts: Marriage Tokens and Disputed Contracts in North-East England, 1560-1630', Folk Life 24, 1985-6, pp. 25-31;
68. Lorna Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain, 1660-1760, London, 1988, chaps 1-3.
69. Libel in CPI 892 (1730) Sarah Falconer c. William Thomas, BIHR.
70. Testimony of Maria Dawson in CPI 892 Falconer c. Thomas.
71. Testimony of Anna Pearse in CPI 892 Falconer c. Thomas.
72. Testimony of William Sellars in CPI 80 (1704) Office pp. John Thompson c. William Clarkson, BIHR.
73. Testimony of Thomas Smeaton in CPI 1362 (1756) Elizabeth Calvert c. John Ward, BIHR.
74. Testimony of Juliana Gibson in CPI 1362 Calvert c. Ward.
75. Libel in CPI 868 (1727) Office pp. John Kilner c. Mary Micklethwaite, BIHR.
76. Testimony of Margaret Batty in CPI 868 Kilner c. Micklethwaite.
77. Testimony of Elizabeth Leedall in CPH 2976 (1670) Elizabeth Clayton c. Catherine Mangey, BIHR.
78. Libel in CPH 2976 Clayton c. Mangey.
79. On this theme, see Gowing, Domestic Dangers, chap. 6
80. and Fay Bound, 'Oeconomy of Violence? Marital Conflict in Early Modern England', M. A. York, 1996, chap. 2
81. and 'An "Uncivil" Culture: Marital Violence and Domestic Politics in York, c.1660-c.1760', in Eighteenth-Century York: Culture, Space and Society, ed. Jane Rendall and Mark Hallett, Borthwick Institute publications, forthcoming.
82. Testimony of Margaret Mason in CPI 587 (1719) Office pp. John Dalton c. Anne Allen, BIHR.
83. Testimony of Anna Bell in CPI 1389 Bell c. Pindar.
84. Libel in CPI 568 (1705) Office pp. Charles Lister c. William Walker, BIHR.
85. Libel in CPI 20 (1703) Hugh Jowett c. Susannah Clayton, BIHR.
86. James Burgh, The Art of Speaking, Containing... Rules for Expressing Properly the Principal Passions and Humours, 2nd edn, London, 1768, p. 12.
87. Anon., A Help to Elocution and Eloquence, London, 1770, p. 25.
88. Samuel Foote, A Treatise on the Passions... as they Regard the Stage, London, 1747, p. 1.
89. Daniel Burgess, Hastiness unto Anger Described and Disgraced, London, 1698, pp. 33-4.
90. For example Gowing, Domestic Dangers, p. 33.
91. Bound, 'Emotion in Early Modern England', p. 219.
92. Bound, 'Emotion in Early Modern England', p. 219
93. See in particular Gowing, Domestic Dangers, chap. 1.
94. See Gowing, Domestic Dangers, chaps 1 and 7;
95. Peacock, 'Morals, Rituals and Gender', chap. 5.
96. See for example CPH 2778 (1668) Sarah Mitchell c. Elizabeth Antrobus, BIHR;
97. CPI 1356 (1754) Elizabeth Porter c. Thomas Caley, BIHR; CPI 892 Falconer c. Thomas.
98. A good example is provided by the dispute between Elizabeth Raine and Margaret Steele that introduces this article. See Trans C/P 1701/4 Steele c. Raine.
99. Testimony of Richard Parkinson in CPI 866 (1727) Joan Forrest c. Elizabeth Harrison, BIHR.
100. Libel in CPI 1110 (1736) Mary Smith c. Anne Cottam, BIHR.
101. Richard Allestree, The Ladies' Calling, 3rd edn, London, 1675, pp. 44-5.
102. Allestree, Ladies' Calling, pp. 47-8.
103. Allestree, Ladies' Calling, p. 48.
104. Bound, ' An "Uncivil" Culture'.
105. Allestree, Ladies' Calling, p. 48.
106. See for instance Daniel Defoe's Roxana: the Fortunate Mistress, 1724, ed. J. Mullan, Oxford, 1996, which contains a mistress who 'scolded... like a mad woman', as well as various other references to women's tongues, pp. 20, 130;
107. and Mary Davys, The Accomplished Rake, London, 1727, p. 191.
108. See responses in CPI 18 (1703) Office pp. Thomas Jefferey c. Thomas Smith, BIHR.
109. Responses of defendant in CPI 18 (1703) Jefferey c. Smith.
110. Libel in CPH 4350 (1694) Elizabeth Wharton c. Simon Weelby, BIHR.
111. Testimony of Laurence King in CPH 4350 Wharton c. Weelby.
112. See Gowing, Domestic Dangers, pp. 96-7.
113. Responses in CPH 4350 Wharton c. Weelby.
114. Responses in CPI 85 (1704) Robert Allen c. George Lotherington, BIHR.
115. Testimony of Christopher Ellis in CPI 85 Allen c. Lotherington.
116. Responses in CPI 200 (1711) Martha Mortimer c. John Parkin, BIHR.
117. Responses in CPI 971 (1730) Elizabeth Horsley c. Thomas Lotherington, BIHR.
118. Libel in Trans C/P 1731/2 (1732) Anne Taylor c. Richard Webster, BIHR.
119. Responses in Trans C/P 1731/2 (1731) Taylor c. Webster.
120. Responses in Trans C/P 1731/2 Taylor c. Webster.
121. Ingram, Church Courts, p. 292.
122. Baker, Introduction to English Law, pp. 600-3.
123. See Geneviève Bührer-Thierry, ' "Just Anger" or "Vengeful Anger"? the Punishment of Blinding in the Early Medieval West', in Anger's Past, ed. Rosenwein, p. 75.
124. See also Lester K. Little, 'Anger in Monastic Curses', in Anger's Past, ed. Rosenwein, p. 9.
125. The latter position would of course become crucial to the principles of eighteenthcentury moral philosophy. See Burgess, Hastiness unto Anger, p. A3;
126. John Downame, A Treatise of Anger: Wherein is Shewed the Lawfull, Laudable, and Necessary use of Just and Holy Anger, London, 1609, Introduction.
127. See the discussion in Bound, 'Emotion in Early Modern England', chap. 1, and Bound, Emotions in History.
128. See also K. M. Grange, 'Doctor Johnson and the Passions', D. Phil, University of California, 1960, chap. 2.
129. Foyster, 'Boys will be Boys?' p. 159.
130. Foyster, 'Boys will be Boys?' p. 152.
131. Wright, Passions of the Minde, p. 8.
132. See also L. Blackburne, The Unreasonableness of Anger: a Sermon Preached before the Queen, at Whitehall, London, 1694, preface.
133. This is similarly Gowing's interpretation of many slanders coming before the London courts. See Domestic Dangers, p. 124.
134. Ridley, View, p. 340.