Crime, Gender and Social Order in Early Modern England

Walker, Garthine

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511496110

Cited by 199 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 149 publications

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“…Women were also thought to be less reliable witnesses: Steven Shapin's paradigm of early modern credibility has argued that only men could provide reliable information and testimony (Shapin, , pp. 87–91), and according to Garthine Walker, the credibility of witnesses was connected to their social status, with the testimony of men of property receiving the most weight (Walker, , p. 128). While the legal system as a whole did not disqualify women as such, they suffered its negative consequences nonetheless, and individual jurisdictions could and indeed did have specific restraints with regards to women in place.…”

Section: Women and The Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early modern women in the English courts of law

Fikkers

2018

Literature Compass

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The recent publication of The Oxford handbook of English law and literature, 1500–1700 (2017) has put the field of early modern law and literature firmly on the map. Despite the growing attention to the importance of these intersecting fields in early modern England, however, working with legal records is still a daunting task for many literary scholars. The early modern legal system with its various, sometimes competing jurisdictions and numerous law courts presents, to many scholars, a difficulty to navigate maze. Particularly for those working on early modern women's literature, and women's studies more generally, this is unfortunate: The legal archives offer a wealth of records in manuscript form pertaining to the lives and narratives of early modern women from all ranks of society, including the poor and the illiterate. This article aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the early modern law courts and their records, outlining the way the law restrained women as well as the possibilities it offered them, alongside the ways women were able to navigate these restrictions and opportunities. In doing so, this article provides tools for scholars working with early modern legal records for the first time.

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Section: Women and The Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early modern women in the English courts of law

Fikkers

2018

Literature Compass

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“…73 However, for many women there would have been little practical difference because the smock was a garment rarely changed and always worn next to the skin-to be seen in a smock was akin to being naked. 74 Nevertheless, Protestant settlers were unambiguous in describing the experience as one during which they were "most barbarously and inhumanely" treated. 75 The humiliation and danger of being forced out-of-doors during winter without most or any clothing, and without food or money, was a key element in the way settlers made sense of their experiences: only barbarians in their view would resort to such tactics.…”

Section: Stripping As Sexual Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

‘The Rebels Turkish Tyranny’: Understanding Sexual Violence in Ireland during the 1640s

Hall

Malcolm

2010

Gender & History

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This article analyses gendered violence both in the testimonies of English Protestant settlers displaced during the 1641 Irish rebellion and in the pamphlets written shortly afterwards. It argues that, given the settlers’ anxiety to highlight their vulnerability and innocence in the face of perceived native Irish barbarism, sexual violence with its suggestions of possible female acquiescence or complicity had an insecure place in their testimonies. Yet contemporary pamphlet writers described the rape of Protestant women as widespread and indiscriminate, using such narratives to question the masculinity of Catholic Irish men. By investigating personal testimonies of the sexual violence suffered by women, as well as the subsequent use of such information in narratives sensationalising the ordeal of Protestants in Ireland in 1641, the complex meanings attached to sexual violence during the mid‐seventeenth century can be better appreciated.

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“…If their quarrel was like those of so many others, the reputation of one or both men was at stake. This opens the door to the vast and growing literature on how honor and reputation were defined and defended (recent examples include Muldrew 1998;Ingram 2000;Shoemaker 2000Shoemaker , 2001and Walker 2003). There is no reason to believe that the things that provoked Portsmouth's residents and transients were any different from the things that provoked people elsewhere in eighteenth-century England.…”

Section: Data and Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Time-Series Analysis of War and Levels of Interpersonal Violence in an English Military Town, 1700-1781

Warner¹,

Gmel²,

Graham³

et al. 2007

Social Science History

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More than 7,000 assaults were reported to the magistrates of Portsmouth, England, between 1700 and 1781. Time-series analyses were run to see (1) what effects, if any, war had on levels of aggression and (2) whether overall levels of aggression decreased over time. Aggression was measured in two ways: (1) the extent to which assailants ganged up on adversaries and (2) levels of violence in individual confrontations (whether a weapon was used, and if so, what type; whether assailants refrained from using a weapon; and whether they stopped short of physical violence and instead merely insulted or threatened their enemies). Neither measure showed a significant variation over time. The participation of women in brawls decreased, but the aggressiveness of those who continued to brawl actually increased. Complaints about insults and threats declined, while complaints of a more serious nature showed a modest increase, reflecting, among other things, the emergence of new definitions of actionable behavior.For nearly a generation the eighteenth century has been identified as a turning point in the history of interpersonal violence, as the century when Europeans began to master their tempers. Outbursts, whether measured by homicides, physical assaults, or the mere threat of violence, are supposed to have declined during this time, reflecting new values and new standards of conduct. Self-control is supposed to have become a virtue and a social marker, a change helped along by a narrowing of the ways personal honor was defined and could be challenged (Ingram 2000: 160; Shoemaker 2004: 71-74).

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Crime, Gender and Social Order in Early Modern England

Cited by 199 publications

References 149 publications

Early modern women in the English courts of law

Early modern women in the English courts of law

‘The Rebels Turkish Tyranny’: Understanding Sexual Violence in Ireland during the 1640s

A Time-Series Analysis of War and Levels of Interpersonal Violence in an English Military Town, 1700-1781

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