The Politics of the Parish in Early Modern England

Wrightson, Keith

doi:10.1007/978-1-349-24834-6_2

Cited by 102 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…By doing so, the leading laity of the parish created a role for themselves in the matrix of authority which allowed them some control in the implementation of change. 120 The efforts of the conservative parishioners in York to limit the impact of reform should not be seen as a failure because they became Protestants. The ecclesiastical administrative machine may have been flawed, but the parish was directly under its gaze.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Reception of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in Three Yorkshire Parishes, 1559–72

Bullett

2011

Northern History

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IN 1571 THE THREE YORKSHIRE PARISHES of Masham, Sheffield, and St Martin's, Coney Street, York, dismantled their rood lofts in accordance with Elizabethan religious legislation. In Masham there were violent confrontations over the symbolic burning of the rood loft, in Sheffield the wood from the loft was sold in lots, while in York the rood was carefully dismantled and the space repaired. 1 These very different scenes reflected the experience of reform in each parish and the divergent religious directions that were beginning to take shape. Reform had been sudden in Masham and a recusant group was forming outside parochial control. Sheffield and York had experienced a more gradual reform, but were developing Puritan and ceremonial styles of Protestantism respectively. The factors which led to these different paths are the subject of this essay. Prior practices, the pace and sequence of events and how authority was realised locally, all impacted upon the way this stage of the Elizabethan Reformation was brought about.Although the title uses the term 'reception', this is not meant to imply that authority always moved down through a fixed hierarchy, hitting a floor at parish level, below which the people were recipients rather than shapers. A political historian, Michael Braddick, considers that power was contested, so that outcomes were more the result of negotiation and relationships than absolute, 'top-down' control. 2 The

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Reception of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in Three Yorkshire Parishes, 1559–72

Bullett

2011

Northern History

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“…Settlement at the margins of a forest economy was not, therefore, a survival strategy legitimately played out in the context of widely recognised ethical rules, but a survival tactic which ingeniously exploited the 'unstopped cracks in the wainscoting of power'. 40 Early seventeenth-century population growth, especially through immigration, undoubtedly contributed to these difficulties. Squatting and the illegal erection of cottages were, as in other forest areas, notorious in Geddington Chase.…”

Section: Common Rightmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Not by bread only’?

Hindle¹

2018

The Poor in England 1700–1850

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“…30 The office of overseer of the poor was the most prestigious and in each parish the involvement of the yeomanry and lesser gentry was pronounced. 30 The office of overseer of the poor was the most prestigious and in each parish the involvement of the yeomanry and lesser gentry was pronounced.…”

Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…50 Although only thirty-seven per cent of officeholders held office on three or more occasions, they accounted for a total of sixty-eight per cent of all offices in these parishes. 50 Although only thirty-seven per cent of officeholders held office on three or more occasions, they accounted for a total of sixty-eight per cent of all offices in these parishes.…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradition and Exclusion: Parochial Officeholding in Early Modern England, A Case Study from North Norfolk, 1580–1640

Pitman

2004

Rural History

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This article suggests that there has been a tendency to understate the degree to which officeholding during the early modern period was embedded within the community, moulded by local influences and fulfilling a range of different functions in the parish. An over-emphasis upon national processes of social and cultural change has resulted in a failure to appreciate the complexity of the politics of officeholding. There has been only limited recognition of both the presence of constraints upon the actions of parochial elites and the mechanisms through which particular groups established and maintained control over parochial institutions. A detailed analysis of officeholding within seven parishes lying on the north Norfolk coast stresses the extent to which 'parochial traditions' determined the way in which things were done. It is argued that the effective linkage of officeholding to these shared understandings and to ideals of participation and inclusion created a powerful rhetoric through which the exclusion of a large minority of the populace and uneven distributions of officeholding were justified.

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The Politics of the Parish in Early Modern England

Cited by 102 publications

References 39 publications

The Reception of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in Three Yorkshire Parishes, 1559–72

The Reception of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in Three Yorkshire Parishes, 1559–72

‘Not by bread only’?

Tradition and Exclusion: Parochial Officeholding in Early Modern England, A Case Study from North Norfolk, 1580–1640

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