Beyond post-revisionism? the civil war allegiances of the miners of the derbyshire ‘peak country’

Historical Journal

Volumn 40, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 23-40

  Wood, Andy ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 82555174215     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X96006991     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. See R. Cust and A. Hughes, ‘Introduction: after revisionism’ in R. Cust and A. Hughes (eds.), Conflict in early Stuart England: studies in religion and politics 1603–1642 (London, 1989), passim, esp. pp. 4–5, 17, 22–3, 26–9, 33–8.
2. For Ann Hughes' work on popular allegiances, see especially her ‘Local history and the origins of the civil war’, in Cust and Hughes (eds.), Conflict in early Stuart England.
3. See also A. Hughes, The causes of the English civil war (London, 1991), esp. chs. 2 and 3.
4. A. Hughes, Politics, society and civil war in Warwickshire, 1620–1660 (Cambridge, 1987), esp. chs. 1 and 4.
5. David Underdown's most important work on the subject is his Revel, riot and rebellion: popular politics and culture in England, 1603–1660 (Oxford, 1987).
6. The second edition of Brian Manning's The English people and the English revolution (1976; 2nd edn, London, 1991) contains an important introduction which deals extensively with his reading of the post-1976 literature on popular allegiance.
7. Underdown, Revel, riot and rebellion, pp. 40–41.
8. Hughes, Politics, society and civil war, pp. 5–6
9. Underdown, Revel, riot and rebellion, p. 18.
10. Hughes, ‘Local history’, p. 230.
11. Hughes, ‘Local history’, p. 242. This assumption bears a close relationship to the older argument advanced by Christopher Hill and Joan Thirsk that it was in such dark corners of the land, inhabited by poor but independent-minded smallholders and industrial workers, that a rebellious antinomianism was to be found.
12. See C. Hill, The world turned upside down: radical ideas during the English revolution (London, 1972), chs. 3 and 5
13. J. Thirsk, ‘Seventeenth-century agriculture and social change’ in J. Thirsk (ed.), The rural economy of England. Collected essays (London, 1984).
14. Thus Underdown recognizes that the downland areas of the west country were ‘subject to rapid population turnover and increasing social stress’ while Hughes notes in passing that the more ‘deferential’ agricultural labourers of the south of Warwickshire had taken part in the Midland Revolt of 1607: Underdown, Revel, riot and rebellion, p. 17
15. Hughes, Politics, society and civil war, p. 2.
16. The classic local study of the rapid social changes overtaking arable England is K. Wrightson and D. Levine, Poverty and piety in an English village: Terling, 1525–1700 (New York, 1979).
17. Hughes, ‘Local history’, pp. 246, 243.
18. For a similar connection, see Manning, English people, p. 131.
19. Manning, English people, p. 37.
20. For other examples, see for instance D. Hirst, Authority and conflict: England 1603–1658 (London, 1986), p. 229
21. Hughes, ‘Local history’, p. 242.
22. Hughes, ‘Local history’, p. 242.
23. J. R. Dias, ‘Politics and administration in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, 1590–1640’, Ph.D. thesis (Oxford, 1973)
24. idem, ‘Lead, society and politics in Derbyshire before the civil war’, Midland History, VI (1981).
25. Neither Hughes nor Manning have made any use of the other work on civil war Derbyshire, namely A. Fletcher,‘Petitioning and the outbreak of civil war in Derbyshire’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, XCIII (1973)
26. L. N. Beats, ‘Politics and government in Derbyshire, 1640–60’, Ph.D. thesis (Sheffield, 1979)
27. R. Clark, ‘Anglicanism, recusancy and dissent in Derbyshire, 1603–1730’, Ph.D. thesis (Oxford, 1979). Although none of these works deal specifically with popular allegiances during the civil war, all produce significantly different findings from those of Dias on broader issues of high politics and religion in the county before and during the wars.
28. Hughes, Politics, society and civil war, p. 151.
29. Manning, English people, pp. 36–37.
30. Hughes, ‘Local history’, p. 243.
31. Hughes, Politics, society and civil war, p. 151
32. see also Hughes, Causes, pp. 144–145.
33. The best discussion of the technological and organizational changes sweeping the industry in the late sixteenth century is to be found in D. Kiernan, The Derbyshire lead industry in the sixteenth century, Derbyshire Record Society, XIV (Chesterfield, 1989).
34. Dias's account of the lead tithe and Dovegang disputes is largely accurate: see ‘Lead, society and politics’, pp. 46–53.
35. For developments in the seventeenth century as a whole, see A. Wood, ‘Industrial development, social change and popular politics in the mining area of north west Derbyshire, c. 1600–1700’, Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 1994.
36. The basis and nature of the conflicts in the mining area is summarized in A. Wood, ‘Social conflict and change in the mining communities of north-west Derbyshire, c. 1600–1700’, International Review of Social History, XXXVIII (1993).
37. Hughes, Causes, pp. 70–71.
38. Hughes, Causes, p. 76
39. idem, ‘Local history’, p. 237
40. Dias, ‘Lead, society and politics’, p. 46.
41. Wood, ‘Industrial development, social change and popular politics’, pp. 207–218.
42. Dias, ‘Lead, society and politics’ p. 45
43. idem, ‘Politics and administration’, p. 454.
44. Clark, ‘Anglicanism, recusancy and dissent’, p. 124.
45. Clark, ‘Anglicanism, recusancy and dissent’, pp. 124, 129, 138.
46. For the minutes of the Wirksworth classis, see J. C. Cox, ‘The minute book of the Wirksworth classis, 1651–8’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, 11 (1880).
47. Dias, ‘Politics and administration’, pp. 449–450.
48. Wood, ‘Industrial development, social change and popular politics’, pp. 147–151.
49. Dias, ‘Lead, society and politics’, pp. 52–53
50. Dias, ‘Politics and administration’, p. 473
51. See Dias, ‘Lead society and politics’, p. 40 for her overestimate of the size of the free mining area.
52. For a more accurate picture of the jurisdictional complexities of lead mining law, see Kiernan, Leadindustry, pp. 4–5.
53. Dias claims that 20,000 people were employed by the lead industry in 1641, of whom 2,000 were free miners, and the rest waged labourers: ‘Lead, society and politics’, p. 53.
54. see Wood, ‘Social conflict’, pp. 52–55.
55. Fletcher, ‘Petitioning and the outbreak of the civil war’, pp. 38–39.
56. Although various copies of the relevant documents are held in both the British Library and the House of Lords Record Office, these have been little used by historians. For an exception, see J. Lee Malcolm, Caesar's due: loyalty and King Charles, 1642–1646 (London, 1983), p. 42.
57. On Bushell, see J. W. Gough, The superlative prodigal: a life of Thomas Bushell (Bristol, 1932); Gough makes no reference to Bushell's activities in Derbyshire, either in 1642 or in 1649.
58. B.L. Harl MS 6833, fos. 58–59
59. S. Glover, A history and gazeteer of the county of Derby (2 vols., 1829), 1, appx. p. 76.
60. Manning, English people, p. 37.
61. B.L. Add. MS 64908, fos. 128, 130–1, 134
62. Journal of the house of lords 1647–8, p. 335
63. For the nature of the social alliances formed in defence of the miners' rights in the years before 1642, see Wood, ‘Industrial development, social change and popular politics’, chapter 5.
64. B.L. Add. MS 6677, fo. 48. The vicar to whom this was directed, John Rowlandson of Bakewell, was unlikely to have acquiesced to the instruction. Two months later he was erroneously reported to have been murdered by royalist troops while supposedly defending his parish church.
65. He was well known as a godly preacher, and as a persecutor of catholicism: see England's Memorable Accidents, 24–31 October 1642, B.L. E. 240 (49)
66. Bagshawe, De spiritualibus pecci (1702), p. 7
67. B.L. Harl. MS 6833, fo. 68.
68. England's Memorable Accidents, 19–26 Sep. 1642 B.L. E. 240 (12).
69. For this lack of enthusiasm, see for example England's Memorable Accidents, 3–10 October 1642 B.L. E. 240 (37).
70. Dias, ‘Lead, society and politics’, p. 53.
71. Dias, ‘Lead, society and politics’, p. 57
72. B.L. Harl. MS 6833, fo. 68.
73. S. C. Newton, ‘The gentry of Derbyshire in the seventeenth century’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, LXXXVI (1966), 11.
74. B.L. Add. MS 6682, fos. 80–85.
75. For a copy of Debankes' pamphlet, see B.L. Add. MS 6682, fos. 65–75.
76. Glover, History…of Derby, 1, appx. p. 62
77. Glover, History…of Derby, 1, appx. p. 75
78. Theeves, theeves, or a relation of John Gell's proceedings in Derbyshire, B.L. E. 100 (13).
79. Perfect Occurences, 31 May-7 June 1644, B.L. E. 252 (40)
80. Perfect Occurences, 7–14 June 1644, B.L. E. 252 (43)
81. England' s Memorable Accidents, 24–31 October 1642, B.L. E. 240 (19)
82. B.L. Add. MS 6677, fo. 49.
83. England's Memorable Accidents, 31 October-7 November 1642 B.L. E. 242 (6)
84. for a similarly unflattering description of the social basis of popular royalism at this time, see C.E.L., The ‘saints and sinners’ of Ashover (Leicester, 1924), p. 55.
85. Glover, History…of Derby, 1, appx., p. 66.
86. For the historic hostility of the miners to the Eyres of Hassop, see Wood, ‘Industrial development, social change and popular politics’, pp. 171–173, 254, 276.
87. J. T. Brighton, Royalists and roundheads in Derbyshire (Bakewell, no date), p. 71
88. B.L. Add MS 6681, fos. 178–181
89. Journal of the house of lords 1647–8, pp. 335, 442, 595
90. House of lords R.O. Main Papers 16 Aug. 1648.
91. Brighton, Royalists and roundheads, p. 72
92. Brighton, Royalists and roundheads, pp. 16, 47.
93. B.L. Add MS 6677, fo. 51.
94. B.L. Add MS 6677, fo. 50
95. for similar comments see A Modest Narrative, Aug. 25-Sep. I 1649
96. reprinted as ‘Letter from Derbyshire concerning lead-mining’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, LVII (1936).
97. There is not space here to discuss the involvement of the High Peak miners with the Levellers in the summer and autumn of 1649. For a full discussion, see Wood, ‘Industrial development, social change and popular politics’, pp. 239–55, 279–81.
98. In his eagerness to fit the Derbyshire evidence into his schema, Manning misses this point. He draws attention to the miners' earlier conflicts with the Cavendishes and Leekes, powerful noble families who in 1642 were to side with the crown, while making no mention of their much stronger hostility to the parliamentarian Sir John Gell: Manning, English people, p. 43.
99. Donald Pennington has suggested that in other parts of England the royalist forces may well have been more likely to plunder than those of the parliament: ‘The war and the people’ in J. S. Morrill (ed.), Reactions to the English civil war, 1642–1649 (London, 1982), pp. 120–121.