Land, Kinship and Life-Cycle (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time, Series Number 1)

These essays in Land, Kinship and Life-Cycle present detailed case studies from English rural communities over the period 1250-1850, these essays reveal that much land was transferred between living persons who were related neither by blood nor by marriage and that kin were often not the only members of work groups or assistance networks in the countryside. Although the focus is on the strata of English society below the landed aristocracy and the urban merchant elites, the preoccupation with those holding land whether under freehold or customary or copyhold tenure is tempered by essays that investigate the economic problems in the lifecycles of the property less or those unable through, for example, illness or age to work and manage their property. Some Issues Concerning Families And Their Property In Rural England 1250-1800/ Richard M. Smith -- Population Pressure, Inheritance And The Land Market In A Fourteenth-century Peasant Community/ Bruce M. S. Campbell -- Families And Their Land In An Area Of Partible Inheritance: Redgrave, Suffolk 1260-1320/ Richard M. Smith -- Population Changes And The Transfer Of Customary Land On A Cambridgeshire Manor In The Fourteenth Century/ Jack Ravensdale -- Industrial Employment And The Rural Land Market 1380-1520/ Ian Blanchard -- Changes In The Size Of Peasant Holdings In Some West Midland Villages 1400-1540 / Christopher Dyer -- The Erosion Of The Family-land Bond In The Late Fourteenth And Fifteenth Centuries: A Methodological Note/ Zvi Razi -- Changes In The Link Between Families And Land In The West Midlands In The Fourteenth And Fifteenth Centuries/ Christopher Dyer -- Kinship In An English Village: Terling, Essex 1550-1700/ Keith Wrightson -- The Myth Of The Peasantry: Family And Economy In A Northern Parish/ Alan Macfarlane -- Poverty, Poor Relief And The Life-cycle: Some Evidence From Seventeenth-century Norfolk/ Tim Wales -- The Receipt Of Poor Relief And Family Situation: Aldenham, Hertfordshire 1630-90/ W. Newman Brown -- Widows In Pre-industrial Society: An Essay Upon Their Economic Functions/ B. A. Holderness -- Real Property, Marriage And Children: The Evidence From Four Pre-industrial Communities/ Richard Wall -- The Nineteenth-century Peasantry Of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire/ Dennis R. Mills Edited By Richard M. Smith. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 519-535. This collection of essays on land transfer presents detailed case studies from English rural communities over the period 1250-1850. The focus is on the strata of English society below the landed aristocracy and the urban merchant elites. These essays present case studies from English rural communities over the period 1250-1850, revealing that much land was transferred between living persons related neither by blood nor marriage