Court Lady and Country Wife: Two Noble Sisters in Seventeenth-Century England ? By Lita-Rose Betcherman (original) (raw)
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Jack P. Greene’s book titled Evaluating Empire and Confronting Colonialism in Eighteenth-Century Britain is an analysis of the distresses over the British Empire that was addressed by critiques of the time. The author depicts how metropolitan discussion on the British Empire changed towards acknowledging opposing views of the Empire and colonialism. In the beginning of the book the author makes it clear to the reader that his use of the world “colonialism” is outdated. Green is aware that this term holds contemporary meanings, which include many customs of brutalities against the Native American’s by the British Empire; in fact historically this did not fit in Eighteenth-Century definitions.
Enterprise and Society, 2020
Women of fortune tells the story of three generations of merchant, gentry, and noble families, linked by marriage in the period 1570 to 1732. The author is particularly interested in the role of the women in these families. As heiresses and later the wives-and also sometimes widows-of baronets, peers, and farmers, they were able to exercise their own property rights and financial assets, as well as cultural and intellectual interests. This rich tapestry of characters includes Anne Finch, Viscountess Conway, who wrote a philosophical treatisein Latin-and corresponded with Leibniz; Lady Salisbury who spent £11,000 on a Grand Tour; and Grace Bennet who bequeathed almost £50,000 of assets invested in loans and shares to her nephew, the sixth Earl of Salisbury. The families concerned are the descendants of two younger sons of parish gentry: Thomas Bennet and Gilbert Morewood, who came to London as gentlemen apprentices of London livery companies. They and their heirs lived through turbulent times, which included the Civil War and the Republic, but were able to benefit from a wide and expanding range of different activities from which to make money, including international trade, Crown finance, banking, real estate, and investment. They used some of these funds to invest in marriage portions to finance upward social mobility through their daughters' marriages to the elite. The book is divided into four sections entitled 'Money', 'Marriage', 'Murder', and 'Metropolis', although these themes are intertwined in every chapter. As an example, the 'Murder' section relates to the death of Grace Bennet, widow of the grandson of Thomas Bennet who had inherited substantial assets from his father, grandfather, and aunt. As a wealthy widow, Grace lived alone as a recluse, spending a fraction of her £4,000 a year income. She was disliked by her neighbours for refusing to pay her poor rates, for refusing to pay tithes to the local minister, and for firing her steward. Rumour had it that she hoarded her wealth in the old-fashioned way, in gold. The local butcher was unable to resist breaking her neck and stealing the gold. He was hanged for her murder soon after. Each story of each individual in the book highlights the links between land, commerce, and finance. It shows how, over the period, attitudes changed from investing in gold as a symbol, to using idle funds to lend out at high rates of interest unsecured or on mortgage or, later in the period, in South Sea annuities and shares in the East India Company and the Bank of England. Money was also used to fund international trade and real estate investment and speculation. The role of heiresses in these overlapping stories is key to the success of these families. The author argues they have wrongly been assigned to footnotes in the larger story of the rise and fall of aristocratic families. This book shows how important the marriage portions were-with a significant number of arranged marriages-in planning a successful future. But it concentrates on how these women, when married or widowed, managed their own lives, planned their children's future, and took great care to use their wills to pass wealth on as they saw fit. The author, through the numerous case studies, argues that by the end of the seventeenth century, elite women's positions had improved, including the freedom to
2007
British naval impressment and slavery were two major social issues in the British Empire in the long-eighteenth century. Scholars have explored each issue separately, however little has been done comparing both at length. Secondary sources, political theorem, and laws, frame the role of naval impressment and slavery in the eighteenth century British Empire. The two court cases, Rex versus Tubbs and Rex versus Knowles, exemplify each issue in the governmental realm of the eighteenth century. As such, naval impressment and slavery became major imperial issues throughout the eighteenth century, and although social reformer challenged the problems associated with the growth of each institution, the necessity to the empire blocked any far-reaching changes.
Imperial Relations: Histories of family in the British Empire
In early 1860, Mary Moody gave birth to a daughter, Susan, at the Royal Engineers camp in New Westminster, British Columbia, where her husband was stationed as detachment commander, chief commissioner of lands and works and lieutenant governor of the colony. Writing to her Newcastle family, she longed for the emotional and practical support that her sister Emily could have offered in person in the immediate post-partum period, concluding that -[o]ne really needs relations in a Colony.‖ While rooted in her own concerns and experiences in New Westminster, Moody's sentiment resonates more widely: family connections were often critical to securing a new immigrant's position in an unfamiliar context, and more generally to navigating colonial configurations of power, identity and everyday life for men, women and children across the British imperial world. 1 Indeed, as a rich and growing scholarship suggests, family and empire were entangled in a wide range of ways. Familial connections could be vital elements in networks of political patronage and power, while the family also worked as a site of economic strategy and capital accumulation; colonial employment and enterprise, for example, often supported the flagging fortunes of metropolitan relatives. Ideas about marriage, gender, sexuality, childrearing and domesticity both shaped and were shaped by configurations of imperial power and identity, while family communication also helped to produce personal forms of colonial knowledge for those who remained in the metropole. In these ways, the British Empire became a -family affair‖ or an Notes
Journal of British Studies, 2015
Ireland and Frisia. In an attempt to provide a more complete overview of participants, he also considers motivations behind migration, arguing that there may have been numerous influences that encouraged migrants to travel to England. A second major component of the study focuses on the Great Army's use of client kings during the campaigning and early settlement period. McLeod considers this to have been influenced by the Scandinavian exposure to the concept while operating on the Continent and in England. McLeod presents a compelling argument, outlining the economic and strategic advantages that would have been provided by the use of client kings, such as being able to control conquered territories without the need for direct military involvement. However, it must also be recognized that some aspects of these developments might simply relate to the necessity placed on the Great Army while on campaign to ensure security in previously conquered territories. As such, the army's actions may not reflect a culturally influenced strategy as much as a situation-specific adaptation to circumstances encountered in the field. McLeod goes on to discuss the concept of acculturation and its effects on interactions between the Anglo Saxons and Scandinavian settlers. He notes, quite rightly, that acculturation was likely a two-way process, with settlers not only adapting to Anglo-Saxon culture but also acting in innovative ways. This may be reflected, for example, in the production of Anglo-Saxon coinage styles in areas such as East Anglia and the creation of territorial buffer zones in Northumbria. Given the ephemerality of the available evidence, McLeod's discussion and interpretation is nuanced and balanced. Some concepts, such as the possibility that eastern Mercia was divided into a "greater" East Anglia and Scandinavian Northumbria, are thought provoking and deserve greater consideration within the context of the longer-term Scandinavian settlement. The final theme considered is the Scandinavian acculturation to Christianity. Like other aspects of insular and European culture, it is argued that the trappings of Christianity were adopted in order to legitimize elites and ease the transition to Scandinavian rule. It is also suggested that a familiarity with Christianity gained while operating on the Continent prior to arriving in England, as well as exposure during the campaigning period, would have contributed to this. While acknowledging that acculturation does not correlate to the adoption of Christian beliefs, McLeod may occasionally overstate the significance of suggested evidence for the Scandinavian adoption of Christian practices-for example when discussing some of the burials associated with the Great Army at Repton (Derbyshire). Nonetheless, the acculturation to Christianity represents one aspect of the Great Army's campaigns and the Scandinavian settlement that certainly warrants further discussion. McLeod's arguments provide a solid foundation upon which future debates might develop. In sum, this publication provides a comprehensive, nuanced, and balanced consideration of the archaeological and historical evidence relating to the early Scandinavian settlements of England. The utilization of migration theory is novel and demonstrably provides a useful avenue through which other aspects of the Viking diaspora might be investigated. McLeod's conclusions are undoubtedly significant and are likely to drive further consideration and debate for some time. This book therefore represents an important addition to the bibliography of any archaeologist or historian who wishes to investigate the Viking diaspora, the Great Army, and the Scandinavian settlement of England.
A Sink of All Filthiness": Gender, Family, and Identity in the British Atlantic, 1688-1763
The Historian, 2006
In the early months of 1732, Colonel Christian Lilly received a remarkable letter on behalf of the Widow Owen of Berwick asking him to investigate the recent death of one "Doctor Owen" in Jamaica. Doctor Owen, a surgeon, had departed for the island with his regiment many years past, and had left behind a wife and daughter in Berwick to whom he sent remittances for fourteen years after his departure. However, he then abruptly ceased his correspondence, and the Widow Owen had reason to believe her husband had abandoned her and married another, before dying with considerable wealth in Jamaica. She hoped that Lilly, a chief engineer in Jamaica, would be able to discover what had happened to her husband, and that he might be able to collect some support for herself and her daughter. Lilly agreed to look into the tangled web, but replied a year later with disappointing news. He had spoken several times with the "present Widow Owen" in Jamaica, who insisted that her late husband was not the man concerned in the inquiry. Her husband had come some thirty-seven years ago to the island with a wife who died at Port Royal, and he had married another at Liguanea who likewise died, before he finally found matrimonial bliss with his present widow. The Widow Owen of Jamaica claimed that there had been another Doctor Owen on the island, but Lilly had "hitherto not been able to trace out any such other person of that name, which makes things still appear very dubious." Nevertheless, Lilly cautioned, the Widow Owen of Jamaica was a woman of "considerable interest" on the island, with land boasting upward of sixty slaves, as well as numerous powerful and "opulent" relations, "so that any body that shall offer to go to law with her, will meet with enough of that, and find but very little of equity,