Table Of ContentAn Ungovernable People
An
Ungovernable People
The English and their law in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries
Edited by
John Brewer and John Styles
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Published in the USA by
Rutgers University Press
Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number 79-67826
ISBN 0-8135-0891-6
First published 1980
© John Brewer and John Styles 1980 *
All rights reserved
Published in Great Britain by
Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain
1
Contents
List ofillustrations 7
Preface 9
Introduction
1
1 Two concepts of order: justices, constables andjurymen
in seventeenth-century England 21
Keith Wrightson, University ofSt Andrews
2 Grain riots and popular attitudes to the law: Maldon
and the crisis of 1629 47
John Walter, University ofEssex
3 'A set of ungovernable people': the Kingswood colliers in
the eighteenth century 85
Robert W. Malcolmson, Queen's University, Canada
4 The Wilkites and the law, 1763-74: a study ofradical
notions ofgovernance 128
John Brewer, Yale University
5 *Our traitorous money makers': the Yorkshire coiners
and the law, 1760-83 172
John Styles, University ofBath
6 The King's Bench prison in the later eighteenth century:
law, authority and order in a London debtors' prison 250
Joanna Innes, Girton College, Cambridge
Appendices 299
Notes andreferences 311
Index 389
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2013
in
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Illustrations
Plates (between pages 176 and 177)
A group of *good fellows' at the alehouse (British Library)
Presentment ofthejury for the hundreds ofHinckford and Witham,
Essex, October 1644
'Midas; or the Surry Justice* {Oxford Magazine, 1768)
W
'Mr Alderman s in his Magisterial Character' {Oxford
Magazine, 1770)
The area between the Turvin valley and the town of Halifax, from
Thomas Jeffrey's map of Yorkshire, 1775 (The Syndics of
Cambridge University Library)
A pair ofdies for strikingcounterfeitmoidores(CalderdaleMuseums
Service)
The front parade ofthe King's Bench prison in the early nineteenth
century
King's Bench prisoners tossing a bailiff in a blanket
Maps and charts
Kingswood and its region in the mid eighteenth century 88
Mint output ofgold and silver coin, 1720-84 174
The Lancashire-West Riding border 189
The *upper hand country' 202-3
Justices ofthe peace acting in the West Riding, 1765-70 206
The collection ofdebts an instrument in the hands ofthe
:
creditor 252
The collection of debts opportunities for the debtor 258-9
:
Annual commitments to the King's Bench prison, 1760-1800 262
A nineteenth-century plan of the King's Bench prison 264
Preface
An Ungovernable People was conceived during 1976 as ajoint enter-
prise by a group of historians who, Robert Malcolmson apart, had
all been based at the University ofCambridge. In so far as the subse-
quent dispersal of the contributors across four countries has per-
mitted, the undertaking has remained a collaborative one. Although
John Brewer and John Styles have shared responsibihty for the
editorial chores, each contributor has benefited from the advice and
criticism ofall his or her colleagues.
The contributors would like collectively to thank the staffs ofthe
Public Record Office and the British Library, for their assistance,
and Claire L'Enfant of Hutchinson, for her enthusiasm, her en-
couragement and her patience in the face ofrepeated delays.
KeithWrightson would liketo thankthe staffs oftheEssexRecord
Office, the Lancashire Record Officeandthe Greater London Record
Office, for their assistance, the SSRC Cambridge Group for the
History of Population and Social Structure, for permission to quote
materialfromtheirhteracyfile,andtheVicarofBurnham-on-Crouch,
for permission to use the parish register ofBurnham.
John Walter would like to thank all those who have helped him in
the preparation of his chapter and, in particular, Professor D. C.
Coleman and Keith Wrightson. He owes a special debtto the staffof
the Essex County Record Office, particularly Nancy Briggs and
Arthur Searle. He would also like to acknowledge with thanks the
financial support he received while undertaking the research for his
chapter as the holder ofthe Eileen Power Memorial Studentship.
Robert Malcolmson would like to thank several people who
assisted him in the preparation ofhis essay, notably DorothyVinter,
who generously lent him some ofher research notes on Kingswood,
John Beattie, Edward Thompson, and John Walsh. He is especially
gratefultoJohn BrewerandJohn Stylesfortheirthorough, construc-
tive and penetrating comments on an earlier draft ofhis chapter. He
10 Preface
isindebtedtothe Canada Council, forfinancial assistance, and tothe
staifofthe Bristol Reference Library, for their efficient help with the
sources relevant to his research. The map of Kingswood (page 88)
was drawn by Roger Wheate.
John Brewer thanks John Styles, Joanna Innes, Susan Hewitt,
John Morrill, David Lieberman. Part of the workforthisessay was
financed by the Social Science Research Council.
John Styles would like to thank the other contributors and, in
particular, his fellow editor, for their help and patience while he was
ill; Alan Betteridge, the Calderdale Metropolitan District Archivist,
for his unfailing interest and assistance; Bill Connor, Leslie Gold-
thorpe and Estelle Saunders, for various kindnesses and Earl Fitz-
;
william, the Trustees ofthe Wentworth Woodhouse Estates Co. and
the Sheffield CityLibraryfortheir kindpermission to quotefromthe
papers of the Second Marquis of Rockingham in Sheffield City
Library. He would also like to acknowledgewiththanks thefinancial
support he received during the preparation of his chapter as the
holderofResearchFellowships attheInstituteofHistorical Research
and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Joanna Innes would like to thank Janet Roper, for suggesting the
use of the diagrams in the text; John Brewer and John Styles, for
their comments and the staff of the Guildhall Library. She would
;
also like to acknowledge with thanks the financial support she
received during the preparation of her chapter from the Social
Science ResearchCouncil and astheholder ofa Gamble Studentship
atNewnham College, Cambridge.
A note on dates
Old style dates are reported as given in the primary sources, except
that the year is always taken to begin on 1 January.
