Contrasting Communities: English Villages in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Revised ed., 8/21/2008
EAN 9780521297486, ISBN10: 0521297486
Paperback, 404 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
This book is a detailed history of the economic, educational and religious life of three contrasting communities, Chippenham, Orwell and Willingham in Cambridgeshire from 1525 to 1700. The three villages had very difference economic settings, in which the pattern of landholding changed over this period and the general and particular reasons for the changes that took place. The study also covers the educational opportunities open to the villagers, and examines religious affairs, the effect on peasant communities of the Reformation and the disturbance in the devotional life of the ordinary villager, which often culminated in dissent and disruption under the Commonwealth. Dr Spufford has penetrated into the social life of the English village at all levels, and with fascinating detail has created a whole social universe around her villagers or a 'picture in the round' view. The book will be invaluable to economic, social, and ecclesiastical historians of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as historians of Britain generally, and those with a special interest in Cambridgeshire.
List of maps and graphs
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. People, Families and Land
1. The peopling of a county
2. The problem
the disappearance of the small landowner
3. The reality
the small landholder on the chalk
Chippenham
4. The reality
the small landholder on the clay
Orwell
5. The reality
the small landholder in the fens
Willingham
Part II. The Schooling of the Peasantry
6. A general view of schools and schoolmasters
7. The elementary ability to write
Willingham and Orwell
8. The importance of reading in the village community
Part III. Parishioners and their Religion
9. Dissent before and after the commonwealth
10. A general view of the laity in the diocese of Ely
11. Fragmentation and the growth of sects
12. The possible determinants of dissent
13. The reality of religion for the villager
Conclusion
Appendices
Index of contemporary names
General index.