Peasant Petitions : Social Relations and Economic Life on Landed Estates, 1600-1850

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 ‘Unimportant minorities’: the landholding peasantry of Britain and Ireland, c. 1600–1850....Pages 3-9 People above and below: ‘landlordism’, ‘estate studies’, and relationships between owners and workers of land....Pages 10-23 Methodologies: the practice and theory of petitions, and the choice of estates....Pages 24-31 Front Matter....Pages 33-35 Stewards and other estate officials....Pages 37-47 The estates and the petitions....Pages 48-56 Petitions and the rhythms of estate life....Pages 57-59 Empty spaces: the missing estate petitions of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Wales....Pages 60-72 Front Matter....Pages 73-75 Authenticity and authorship....Pages 77-86 Physical form....Pages 87-93 Address....Pages 94-96 Ending....Pages 97-103 Delivery and receipt....Pages 104-107 Front Matter....Pages 109-111 The north of Ireland, c. 1750–1850....Pages 113-145 North-West England, c. 1600–1800....Pages 146-170 The Highland margin of Scotland, c. 1770–1860....Pages 171-216 Front Matter....Pages 217-218 Poverty and self-help in north-west England and Wales....Pages 219-229 Petitioning for relief on Breadalbane: estate policy, family life, and strategies for care....Pages 230-248 Poverty and its relief in the north of Ireland: the place of the estate....Pages 249-254 Psychology and necessity: attachment to the land in parts of Scotland and Ireland....Pages 255-265 Front Matter....Pages 267-267 Paternalism and deference....Pages 269-274 Front Matter....Pages 267-267 Oppressions, freedoms, and their politico-legal context....Pages 275-286 The texture of rural society in parts of Britain and Ireland....Pages 287-297 Back Matter....Pages 298-313 This book examines the structures and texture of rural social relationships, using one type of document found in abundance over all the four component parts of Britain and Ireland: petitions from tenants to their landlords. The book offers unexpected angles on many aspects of society and economy on estates in the 17th and 18th centuries. This book examines the structures and texture of rural social relationships, using one type of document found in abundance over all the four component parts of Britain and Ireland: petitions from tenants to their landlords. Exploring the authorship, form, and style of more than 2,000 petitions as well as their content, and looking at variations in petitioning as a communication strategy, it uses requests for help to understand the diverse material and social lives of those who worked the land in an era of profound change. Ranging over the many practices of lordship and estate management, the book offers unexpected angles on many aspects of society and economy on estates in north-west England, the Highland margin of Scotland, the north of Ireland, and Wales. Broad in geographical and chronological scope, it integrates, compares, and contrasts the experience of the rural population in different parts of the British Isles. Primarily social and cultural in focus, it also extends understandings of local, regional, and national histories "This book examines the structures and texture of rural social relationships, using one type of document found in abundance over all the four component parts of Britain and Ireland: petitions from tenants to their landlords. Exploring the authorship, form, and style of more than 2,000 petitions as well as their content, and looking at variations in petitioning as a communication strategy, it uses requests for help to understand the diverse material and social lives of those who worked the land in an era of profound change. Ranging over the many practices of lordship and estate management, the book offers unexpected angles on many aspects of society and economy on estates in north-west England, the Highland margin of Scotland, the north of Ireland, and Wales. Broad in geographical and chronological scope, it integrates, compares, and contrasts the experience of the rural population in different parts of the British Isles. Primarily social and cultural in focus, it also extends understandings of local, regional, and national histories."-- Provided by publisher